How do you know when you're in a bureaucrat's office? In the case of the Bolivian Consulate our first clue was his desk; it was overflowing with stamps, apparently for cementing long-arrived at decisions in ink. He confirmed our fears by spending well over a minute critically examining each of our ten $20 dollar bills only to reject one on the basis of a pen mark. A pen mark. That was our day today - up and down his office stairs at least five times to retrieve crisper bills, procure evidence of a hotel reservation, and finally to do his photocopy bidding for their office files.

But the good news is that $200 lighter and a day later we are now legit to enter Bolivia and explore the other side of Lake Titikaka. We've spent the past few days on the Peruvian side of the lake exploring the incredible floating islands, at least when we're not hooked onto our hostal's cable TV and its news of the political and economic happenings in the US!

Lake Titikaka's been great but I'm going to leave it for the next blog because we still haven't updated from our last stop, one of my favorite places in Peru so far, Arequipa. (Wilfredo, your city is beautiful!)

Arequipa was a welcome relief after the tourist hourdes of Cuzco and Machu Picchu. We lucked into a great hostal - Colonial House Inn - which was exactly as advertized: an old colonial house with high, peeling ceilings, erratic heat, a charming courtyard, and a playful cat named Britch (pronounced breetch). All this for $15 a night including breakfast on the roof overlooking the two 6,000 meter volcanos that frame the city.

Arequipa is known as the White City because most of its buildings are constructed out of sillar, a light volcanic stone. (It looked more beige to me but I guess the Beige City just doesn't have quite the ring.) For me the best part about Arequipa, besides the manageable level of tourists, was definitely the colonial/mediterranean architecture. Over the course of our trip I've become more and more camara happy, and this city put me over the top. Turns out I'm a sucker for peeling Spanish stucco. In particular the Santa Catalina Monastary was like a playground with its colorful walls, endless archways, wrought-iron lamps, and shabby wood benches.

Besides the monastary we visited a beautiful old Colonial home where we took a tour. (This was a big deal since usually we're do-it-ourselvers and like to take in the big picture rather than all the details we invariably forget. And partly we're just cheap these days!). But this tour was free and we ended up learning that the courtyard was made from volcanic and river rock, the paintings all had slightly absurd hidden signatures, and half the house had been turned into a fire department. Good stuff.

Now after a little over three weeks in Peru we're onto Bolvia, where we've heard the political situation has stabilized somewhat. As a result we're reconsidering a trip into the jungle, which involves a small plane landing on a dirt strip, and in my case, lots and lots of mosquito repellant. Maybe you can tell I'm not a huge jungle enthusiast...?? Luckily I have a little time to hedge since we'll spend the next few days on the lake and in the capital city of La Paz. But my better half has this thing for big trees so in the end I'll probably make like Jane and see if those long jungle vines are all they're cracked up to be.