Wild Rovered

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Having arrived a week earlier than expected, I suddenly had a whole extra week to play with. Ciara and Shane were heading to Arequipa and I decided to tag along and I'm so glad I did. It's such a beautiful city. It's the second largest city in Peru and it's got such an incredible setting amongst the Volcanic Andean mountains. The scenery is breathtaking, my photos don't do it justice. The locals call it the white city or the city of eternal spring. I ended up spending a whole week there. It was a great place to get to know and just have some down time.

I took a day trip to Colca Canyon, got see loads of condors and visit a hot springs. Spent a day wandering round the city. Had dinner and drinks on the terrace overlooking the main plaza de Armas. One day we went to Santa Catalina Convent, a city within the city. It was founded in the 15th century. Typically daughters from rich families were sent there to serve as nuns, never to return to their families and homes again. Every nun had there own quarter which was completely unique and very well equipped. It's a gorgeous place and back in the day it was a real privilege for them to live there, they were totally protected from the outside world which at the time was probably pretty bleak.

Another afternoon we decided to go white water rafting. I absolutely love rafting and my experiences so far have been awesome. Unfortunately this wasn't quite the same. The equipment was really warn out and completely the wrong size. It was so unprofessional. I had to wear a wet suit with a whole in the bum, totally defeating the point of wearing it. Our rafting instructor was terrible, he could barely control the raft. I actually think we could have done a better a job without him. He was soooo stressed all the time, it took all the fun out of it for us and we spent most of the time getting stuck or walking along the rapids. So much for white water rafting!! It really was absolutely terrible, not enough to put us off but I couldn't wait for it to end. It was such a shame, we were so looking forward to it.

On the plus side, we were staying at the Wild Rover and after a full week there it became very much home. The hostel is really nice, it's only been open eight months and it's constantly being developed. I'd love to go back and see it once it's finished. Being an Irish Hostel the nights were filled with Beer pong, ABC (Anything But Clothes) parties, 80's power hour, card games and dancing on the bar. I spent days many days nursing yet more hangovers and my bill at the end of my stay was pretty impressive. But as the Irish say “We're here for a good time and not a long time”.

Next stop seeing my girls......

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