Hola At 6am we were rudely awoken by sunrise on the bus, and a view over a cliff, which was a bit shocking at first until it registered. The views were stunning, a big valley with small farming communities at the bottom. At the bus station, much to our relief our bags had also arrived, so we grabbed a cab to the plaza des armas(main square, which every city has) we became true backpackers and lugged our backpacks around three or four hostals to find a cheap one, and ended up at hostal katty, our first truely clean, safe hostal, 2 mins from plaza with a lovely rooftop patio to do our washing and eat our breakfast, thew snowcapped mountains make a nice backdrop, El Misty is a huge volcano towering over the city. Arequipa is busy but relaxed and friendly with everything we need......even a supermarket which is a first! We feel quite settled here, hence why we've done very little in the last few days, internetting and trying to book machu picchu and our jungle treck.......oh I forgot, the first day we watched the footy match in our room with snacks and a bottle of beer, although sort of wish we hadnt! We've halved our food budget as we realised we were spending twice our allowance, but now crave simple pleasures like a beer or a coffee, or a drink with our meal, but have got it down to a T, 2 quid a day for both of our lunch and breckie! Off to book our colca canyon trip and to see some local churches etc. Adios Claire & Ian xx