Welcome to Arequipa

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Survived the overnighter to Arequipa and actually slept most of the way. Had some great Peruvian food yesterday. I had lomo saltado, the local specialty which involves beef (or pork if they run out) in a kind of stir fry. Soph had steak with fried bananas and eggs. Weird but surprisingly very nice! We ate at this ramshackle joint where they seemed to run out for ingredients as soon as we ordered. Can´t fault the standard though. Glad we didn´t order chicken... every other market stall had dozens of them sat out in the midday sun. Nice. The bus trip could have got very messy....

We got to the Point Hostel in Arequipa at about 7.30am reeling a little from the night spent on the coach. We weren´t sure anyone would be up to let us in. How wrong we were. About a dozen people were staggering around still up from the night before reeking of beer. About 5 of them decided to be our new best friends and we spent the next 1 1/2 hours chatting away to a bunch of drunkards. Surreal. Apparently it was an Irish girl´s birthday, which may explain the all night drinking. Met a nice Aussie couple who gave us some info on the upcoming Inca Trail. They were from Melbourne like all the other Aussies we´ve met so far. Melbournites are staunchly proud of their city. What I want to know is why are none of them are actually there?

The hostel itself is really nice. I´d recommend it. Unlike other ´party´hostels I´ve been to it doesn´t seem too clicky. Everyone seems really friendly. The tail end of an all nighter will do that I suppose. It is an old mansion house with a great back garden for cathcing the rays and a roof terrace with spectacular views.

Arequipa is known as the White City on account of the sillar stone that was used for ost of the buildings. It is the nicest city we´ve been to by far. Lots of great archetecture from the Spanish colonial era. Far more impressive however is the 5800 metre cone shaped volcano that dominates the backrop of the town flanked by two enormous snow-capped Andean mountains on either side. Amazing. We had a wander round town primarily to find a laundrette and book a tour to (arguably) the world´s deepest canyon, the Colca Canyon. We hoped to whizz up there for a day, give it some 'oohs' and 'aahs' then head back to Arequipa. It appears that is not possible because it would require us to leave at 2am in the morning. Not because it takes that long to get there but because you stop at about 4 mountain villages on the way back. I dont want to sound cynical but if you´ve seen one mountain village, you´ve seen them all. I think I've spotted a surprising weakness in the tourist market and may head back here to make a fortune selling whistle stop tours for people like me.

Anyway, we are going to do a two day tour which leaves at a more sensible hour and takes in some hot springs, the giant canyon and other assorted sites. There are condors (the world´s largest birds) at the canyon that apparently spiral up on the thermals. Sounds cool. I´ll let you know how it goes.

There is a local gym run by a guy called... you guessed it, Juan. Its actually in his back garden but did the job. Only cost about 30p. He decided to give Sophie a free personal training session and she is currently paralysed from the shoulder down.

I´m going to give this party hostel a run for its money tonight. Before I go, I have a rather grim story from Nazca I forgot to tell. I met this Geordie guy on the Nazca lines trip. He went to a local cock fighting event which is apparently a social high point in Nazca. Told you it was backward. Anyway, to spice it up they apparently tie knives to their feet prior to the fight. Nice. Apparently they got through quite a few bouts that evening....

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