Peruvian surprise

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- FOOD: Real coffee at breakfast with real cream - the luxury. Chicken nuggets (wasn't expecting them). A posh meal in celebration for Jo and Hannah's 30th Birthdays - ripe avocado filled with chopped ham and potato, a typical Arequipan dish of stuffed pepper with cheese, egg and potato and a proper coffee to finish it all off. Plus a big glass of wine of course.

- AREA: Easy border crossing (once you fight off the taxi drivers), smooth roads in Peru surprisingly enough, 'luxury' hotel room to myself.
FANTASTIC city (close second to Sucre for me). "Ciudad Blanca" mark II. Cool plaza, lots of nice cafes/bars etc, a thousand religious buildings for me to exhaust my obsession with, Juanita mummy.
The peaceful San Lazaro area with magnificent views of the city and El Misti volcano which looms over it all.

- PEOPLE: Nice local Chilean woman, mucho Gringos going to Peru, strict luggage checkers, school kids in the cutest uniforms, manic car drivers and people dashing around (so not used to this).

- WEATHER: What seems to be typical Andean weather - hot in the day but lots of blankets needed at night.


Thur 9th: Such a good sleep - sod shared rooms, I like this life of luxury. Lots more gringoes had appeared at breakfast and a nice couple gave me info about places to stay in Peru which are old colonial houses, have character and I can continue to have my own room for fairly cheap.
They told me how to get to Peru so instead of spending the day at the beaches (it's too windy anyway), I made my way straight to the border to arrive in Arequipa while it's still daylight.

I'd been warned about the colectivo's where the taxi drivers grab you as soon as you arrive (I now have an idea about what it's like to get mobbed if you're famous). I tried my best to avoid it but before I knew it I was shoved into a taxi with 4 other older local women. We tried to chat but I was too tired to concentrate on Spanish. One of them still gave me her email address but god knows why. Might come in handy if I happen to pass through Arica on my way back though.
As they were older, I really wanted to ask them about the Pinochet era but decided my Spanish isn't good enough to enter a political debate!

After more detailed border bag checks, the taxi man shushed me to a ticket company to get to Arequipa. The office was packed with gringoes who had all had the same ushering experience that I'd had!
We decided that none of us had been ripped off (unless we all had been).

The bus had to stop 3 times for bag checks - mad - but the bus was luxury which I wasn't expecting in Peru. Smooth roads, DVDs (although only in Spanish) but the most irritating, loud Latino americana pop tunes played 3 times over with equally irritating videos to match. There was even a loo and food on the bus!

I was very surprised at how big Arequipa is and how grand and sophisticated the buildings are. The place was manic though with people rushing everywhere and taxi drivers on speed.

The hostel the couple recommended is SO nice - expensive at 7 whole pounds but so worth it. Now I have decided to splash out on the Galapagos I seem to think I'm rolling in it and will probably get a shock when I run out of money in September. Oh well.

The plaza is gorgeous and the city has loads of shops and bars (I had pizza whilst listening to the Smiths in one - cool) and the place is just buzzing. I like it lots - possibly as much as Sucre?


Fri 10th: Wow, I had REAL coffee at breakfast with CREAM - none of this Nescafe crap here. Proper fruit juice too.
I spent the day wandering around 'La Ciudad Blanca' Mark 2 (after Sucre). Unlike Sucre that gets its name from the white washed buildings, Arequipa gets its name as a lot of the buildings are made from white sillar stone - quite stunning.

The Plaza de Armas (all Peruvian cities have one) is huge and is the home to a million pigeons. The plaza is surrounded with the huge cathedral and La Compañia church - which has the most detailed doorway - very pretty.

I decided to escape the manic city a bit by walking up to the San Lazaro area - the oldest area in Arequipa where I found a very well kept park that was hosting some sort of ceremony for the local school kids. They look so cute in their uniforms!

I then crossed the River Chili where there is a fantastic view point of El Misti volcano and the Andes. I continued up to Yanahuara - a smart area with narrow, winding streets and peace. The mirador here by the plaza is SO gorgeous - the white stone arches of it frame El Misti. I found a local restaurant to have lunch in - didn't know what I'd ordered but it turned out to be chicken nuggets!

I went to the Recoleta monastery which is really beautiful and peaceful with lots of white arches.
I of course had to visit the Cathedral which looks magnificent lit up in the dark. The plaza is buzzing at night.

My evening meal consisted of a big fruit salad and beer in my room whilst watching Henry VIII!


Sat 11th: The first thing I did was call Hannah on her 30th Birthday. It makes me so friend sick speaking to my friends that I made sure I had the rest of the day full of activity.
So I visited the Iglesia de San Agustin and then the Museo de Santuarios Andinos - SOOO interesting. It's a fair price for entry but definitely worth it. We were shown a 20 min video on the discovery of 'Juanita' - a mummy that was found on the summit of a mountain in the Andes, along with sacrificial items. She was a 12 year old chosen as a human sacrifice to the Sun gods (who the Inca's thought they'd pissed off after El Niño). She was chosen for her nobility, beauty and virginal status and it was an honour to be chosen as it was believed the human sacrifice would then become a god. She was found along with 4 other kids but she is the most famous as she was at the peak. Scientists can even tell what she ate the day she was killed! We had a tour of the museum where all the pots, llama statues, little figures dressed in the same clothing (even with such detail as a pouch in their cheeks from coca leaves!) and clothing from the mummies that had been cleaned to perfection were displayed.

I then spent the next couple of hours exploring the Santa Catalina Monastery which is another not to be missed attraction in Arequipa. It has loads of tiny streets which contain the houses of the 200 nuns and 300 servants that used to live here. The rooms are so basic and most houses contain tiny outside kitchen areas and the lucky ones had a small patio. There are a few little plazas, a lavanderia, bright coloured cloisters, small chapels and cabinets showing the torture instruments they used on themselves (that's what I say they are anyway). On top of the monastery, the views of Arequipa are amazing.

After the monastery and the many other churches here, I have at last had enough of visiting religious buildings. So in celebration to Jo and Hannah (Happy 30th girls), I treated myself to a posh meal and a big glass of the best wine they had on a restaurant balcony overlooking the plaza. I have to bang on about the food a bit here as it was so nice. Ripe avocado filled with chopped ham and potato for starters, a typical Arequipan dish of stuffed pepper with cheese, egg and potato and a proper coffee to finish it all off. A local pan pipe band were playing throughout. A beer and films back at the hotel finished the perfect day.

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