When we arrived back at the bus station in Arequipa we asked a taxi driver to take us to our hotel and he said no because there was a procession on. A bit miffed we asked him exactly how we would get there if a taxi couldn´t take us, and he said we needed a smaller car (his was a Focus)... we are still not sure how that would help us. Luckily another taxi driver in an equally sized car took us.

Back at the hotel we had another scare as neither mine nor Alex´s rucksacks were in the storage room, but it turned out they had already put them into our room for us! We headed straight out for dinner in a restaurant on the top of the Plaza de Armas, which gave fantastic views of the buildings lit up below. It seemed as though today was a Catholic holiday celebrated thoughout Peru for the entirety of October to celebrate a painting of Jesus (Señor de los Milagros) that lives in a church in Arequipa. The restaurant provided complimentary ponchos and we were treated to fireworks while we used Alex´s poncho to imitate the bread with heads for sale in the bus station (see photo).

On the way back to the hotel we managed to get stuck in the procession and so had no choice but to stand and watch the spectacle as half the town walked in front of the painting facing backwards (in order to face the painting), singing hymns, wearing veils and burning incense. The painting slowly passed us, carried by about 40 holy men, while the rest of the town squeezed along the pavement alongside the painting, followed by the band. The whole thing was entirely bizarre and a little bit disturbing for us atheists. Once the painting had passed us we saw our opportunity and escaped the long way around the block and back home.

Day 99 - Easy day today and a nice long lie in. After checking out we went to the Museo Santuarios Andinos that has the most amazing collection of artefacts related to human sacrifices taken at the top of volcanoes in this area of Peru. This includes Juanita, a 12 year old girl that was sacrificed on top of Mount Ampato and discovered in 1995. Because the peak was snow covered she was really well preserved, including her skin, muscles and organs. In fact, all of the artefacts on show (including her clothing and offerings such as ceramics and metals) were incredibly intact.

After the tour we went back to our trusty retro cafe for lunch and then parted ways for the afternoon... I came to update this blog, while Mum and Alex did some shopping, evidently becoming best friends in the meantime (but it´s ok because Alex bought me a present again). Later Mum came and found me and we walked to meet Alex, on the way passing through the Cathedral and a former colonial mansion that is now a bank. When Alex turned up I could tell something was wrong... she´d left her debit card in the cash machine earlier in the day. Luckily the bank still had it, so she got it back and then we all went for a piece of carrot cake and cappuccino.

Back to the bus station for the final time to catch the night bus (full cama because GP was in charge of booking) to Cuzco. Alex couldn´t resist finally buying a bread with a head, which I feel she deserved after last night´s photo and her emotional day. We checked in with Cruz del Sur and enjoyed their VIP lounge as they changed our seats at least 3 times... ending up back in our original ones. This time we had our own screens in the back of the seat in front, so we could access facebook and watch a film (The Perks of Being a Wallflower in english). The whole bus setup seemed like a great idea, except when the guy in front of me reclined his seat the TV screen squashed my legs and eventually I had to straddle the thing. I popped out of the full-cama section to use the loo, and heard the horrendous wailing of a very unhappy child upstairs in semi-cama. I felt bad for them, but returned to my chair and slept pretty happily actually.