Arequipa

Suffering from the night out in Puno we got up early and boarded our bus to Arequipa, this was a real bargain, we only paid 25 soles (£6) and were expecting a death bus, but we got a quality double decker coach with a bathroom! Was an easy 6 hour ride, the bus company is called Julsa, its half the price of all the other tourist buses.

We got a cab from the bus station, I gave the man the address of the hostel I booked the previous night on the net, however we got shown to a room which look like nothing it was described on the net, so I showed the owner of the hostel the address and learned that the taxi driver had brought us to the wrong place!! Luckily he was still out side and the cheeky little man charged us the same again to get to the original place we asked to go to, but I can live with 40p!

We stayed at Arequipay backpackers, we were greeted by Evelyn the lovely owner with better English than mine, and shown to our deluxe room! I cant remember having a TV in our room on our travels before, this had cable TV and a DVD player with loads of DVDs, free breakfast, own bath room, hot showers. This hostel/home only has two rooms and is a gorgeous little house. ! 10 / 10

We watched a lot of CNN about the Chilean earthquake and were shocked with what is going on in this world at the moment, an 8.8 earthquake in Chile following the Haiti quake, floods in Europe drowning people, floods in Peru, what the hell. Thank full again we weren't in Santiago for the quake as we were only there a month or two ago. Very sad to watch the news.

After an amazing night sleep we walked 20 minutes into town we could wear shorts and t-shirt, as Arequipa is only 2300 metres above sea level, so was quite hot. It was great to be able to walk more than 2 yards without breathing heavily! We had a wander around the amazing Plaza de Armas, behind the Cathedral in the plaza you can just about make out the amazing El misti Volcano (5822)

Another cool thing about the city is the 100s of yellow cabs, like New York but they are much smaller and much more mental! There seems to be one for every person, stick your arm out and one will be there, and the drivers are really friendly.

I'm not going to bore you guys or us by writing too much in this blog, as we didn't do any tours, we enjoyed walking around the city. We did a lot of shopping which we shipped home, this was a nightmare as the woman at the post office had never heard of Wales and got into a right stress, and we walked away not really knowing if your stuff will get home! Better do because we found some great things and we shopped all day!

The shopkeepers here can be a little annoying as they do not allow you to browse they are breathing down your neck all the time. We refused to buy items from any pushy people and ended up buying most things from a shop with a nice lady who just allowed us to browse. We made this ladies day epeisally as she had a terrible cold, and she even let us take a photo of her, lovely ladied.

At night in Arequipa we enjoyed a bit of TV for once and watched some great movies in our room, seen the Negotiator? What an amazing film!

Leaving Arequipa after 3 days doesn't feel right as its such a cool place and you know you have found a place you love when you feel like this, as Mish said to me a very livable city.

Our next stop is Cusco and as Machu Pichu is closed we are going to take on this hike which is 4 times more difficult and rewarding so everyone tells us and is just as beautiful, just hope we are fit enough for it! 9 hour night bus tonight Cusco. No problem

Miss you all, home soon!

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