Arequipa

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Hello!

so i think that last time we wrote, we had just arrived back from the Inca Trail, which you will be plased to know that we have now fully recovered from! it was great to be back in Cusco and not feel ill! we met some really nice couples on the trail who were staying in our hostel (yes, south America seems like a realtionship test for most travellers!!) and so we had a really good night out with them, finished off with, yes, you guessed it, another menu del dia that was dirt cheap!

In our last day in Cusco, we decided to head up to ´sexy woman´ruins with Stuart and Isobel, one of said nice couples! we were totally unprepared and half way up the heavens opened, doh! when we go to the top, there was a ticket office which was trying to rip us off. dimayed, we started the trek back down the hill. on our way down though, we bumped into a random who had a property near the site so he smuggled us in for a quarter of the price and gave us a little guided tour too, class! when we returned down to Cusco town the sun had started to shine so a successful day!!

that night, we met up with some friends for a drink before heading out to try and find the cevichy restaurant that had been reccommended to us.(this is a traditional peruvian fish dish that we are still yet to try). the taxi driver was laughing and so it soon became apparent that the restaurant was not only on a dirt track quite far out of town but it was also closed!! doh!! the taxi driver reccommended another chinese (there seems to be a lot of that in Peru!) so with out understanding any of the menu, we manged to order sweet and sour chicken and a chicken and veg dish, classc brits!

the next day, we had a pretty painless overnight journey to Arequipa on San Marin buses (about a third a price of the others but seemed just the same...we are learning!) We got the overnight bus here tp Arequipa and arrived at 6 am and checked in to a hotle with a TV and carpet for 4 pounds a night but it turns out that there was a burst pipe in that part of town so consequently we went on a trek to find somewhere else, after having a sleep of course! we realised that the happening part of town was the north so we headed up there to a place reccommended by the rough guide. it is twice the price of the old place but we thought we would treat ourselves with a place with a swimming pool, hammock. large garden and a working shower, yippee!! it will be our one treat before moving on to puno and then bolivia.

today we have been to a museum to see the ice maiden, juanita! she is an incan lady who was sacrificed at 12 years old at the top of a mountain. her body was perfectly preserved in the ice and she is now 500 years old and has hair and nails and everything, spooky!! from there we had another fab menu del dia of some arequipan potato and chicken roll, then some kind of white fish witrh lentils and then a single profiterole type thing...with a drink all for one pound twenty, class!! we then went to the monesrty which has only been open to the public since the seventies. apparently the nuns are next door and don´t get to see the public at all. it was massive, like a town in a town. Amy is currently downloading pictures of the last few days so you will have to check out image station soon!

we have also booked a trip to the colca cannyon for saturday night so i´m sure that is what the next installment will be about.....

until next time!!

Laura
x

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