Blogs from Arequipa, Peru, South America - page 11

On route to the Canyon (around April 8-13) We explored the town, Cabanaconde, and the Colca Canyon via a stopover in the city of Arequipa. First, some quick points about Arequipa. This busy city is a nice size of about one million people. The main square is very lovely with many offshoot streets filled with shopping and restaurants. We luckily found a great local diner on San Francisco street, not far from the square (on the left side if walking away from main square). Otherwise, there are other places to try alpaca or cuy (guinea pig). A good place to stay we found via a local was Los Andes which was 50 meters from the main square. Aside from walking around, city tours are popular, but book through an agency in the main square not the ... read more

The Arequipa Cooking Experience is great for learning to make a certain dish and building your confidence level in your abilities. It WILL NOT instantly turn you into a world class cook of Peruvian cuisine, but you will know how to make the dish that you signed up for. Being the first to sign up is the trick. If you are first, YOU get to select the menu item that you will prepare. Get in touch with them as early as possible: http://www.peruviancookingexperience.com/ If memory serves, the three menu choices are lomo saltado, ceviche and chorillos pan fried fish, and rocoto relleno. Rocoto peppers are the chiles that make Habanero peppers cry. Since my wife, Rose, is Peruvian she is already an accomplished lomo saltado cook, so she selected ceviche, a dish she has never made ... read more

22/4/13 Arequipa I slept the whole night through, no gasping woo hoo! Today we did next to nothing, just getting acclimatised or rather sitting in the garden being lazy! Hunger eventually drove us out and we ate with the locals in a tiny little place with about 8 tables squashed into it, luckily one was free. For £1.30 we had a huge bowl of Peruvian broth (like scotch broth with lots of lentils), followed by chicken, rice and salad, a glass of orange squash and 8 slices of banana for pudding! Bargain!! We walked back up to the main square and had a bit more of a mooch around the city streets looking at the lovely white buildings and architecture before heading back for more lazing about. Arequipa is known as The White City, with building ... read more

Peru! 21/4/13 Arica, Chile to Tacna and on to Arequipa, Peru Last night Howard had to make a stand, or should I say sprag on the bunch of Chilean lads who were making a right racket after the official 11pm SILENCIO! He gave them until 11.30pm and then off he went to the office to complain. He shot back into our room just before the member of we heard one of the staff giving them a stern telling off ha ha. All was quiet after that, well if you are going to post rules you have to be prepared to enforce them! Up bright and early to do the border crossing, we attempted and failed to eat the dry cheese sandwich that was for breakfast and then called for a taxi to take us to the ... read more

Šiandien iškeliaujam 7 ryto. Iki kito miestelio kuriame yra terminiai vandenys tik 2 val kelio, tad atėję ten paprašom, kad pagamintų pusryčius, o mes tuo tarpu einam pasimaudyti terminiuose vandenyse. Šalia upės slėnio apačioje pastatyti trys skirtingų temperatūrų baseiniukai, du apyšilčiai ir vienas labai karštas. Tuo tarpu upėje vanduo ledinis. Iškart lendam į patį karščiausią baseiniuką. Tokių terminių baseinų čia slėnyje yra daugiau, bet pro visus kitus eina turistiniai maršrutai ir juose paprastai būna žymiai daugiau žmonių. Mes čia šiandien vienui vieni. Pasimėgaujam karštom versmėm apie pusantros valandos ir einam pusryčiauti. Šiandien dar laukia mažiausiai 5 valandos kelio ir visą laiką reiks lipti į kalną, išvis apie 1300 m. Pailsėję, papusryčiavę vėl išsiruošiam atgal į kelią. Priėję tiltą pamatom per jį einančią lapę, bet pamačiusi mus ji greit apsisuka ir nubėga atgal. Eidam... read more