So I have made it to Peru, which is the country which initially sparked off my desire to go travelling...and it hasn´t let me down. I love it here. It´s so pretty, has a fascinating history and the people are interesting. The towns I´ve been to so far have been an odd mix of ancient Inca buildings and grandiose Spanish architecture, with perfectly laid out, tree-lined plaza da armas. If I could pick one word to sum up Peru, at the moment, it would be "cute". Let me explain. On the bus, as we drove through the Andes, the craggy, snow capped peaks dominated the landscape which has tiny villages and farms nestling in the valleys. The houses are made of mud and brick with thatched roofs. Admittedly the newer versions have corrugated steel roofs instead, the residents quite understandably favouring waterproofing and sturdiness over aesthetics. All the houses have two little windows in the upper storey, giving them the appearance of having faces. Do I make any sense? I´ll try and take a picture to prove it. The traditional women are really really cute. Normally it´s only the old ones who dress like this, but they all wear woolly socks, ponchos, do their hair in pigtails with tassels at the end, and top off the outfit with a sunhat complete with flower. If they´re in the catering business (a loose term) they wear a flowery apron too. I was at the bus station the other morning at around 6am, and there was a pile of blankets in front of me. At 6.30am on the dot, the blankets shifted to reveal one such lady, who folded up her bedding neatly before sitting down and taking out her knitting to await her bus. They also have loads of these animals called alpacas, which are the most stupidest looking creatures I´ve ever seen, resembling something like a cross between a sheep and a giraffe, with a very gormless expression. Still, they´re very cute. I am also currently sporting my new alpaca wool hat and gloves, and they have very warm wool, so I like them even more. Apparently they´re endangered, but I´ve seen thousands of them already. So, yes, cute. I did have this revelation some 7 hours to a less than pleasurable 11 hour bus journey, to be fair.

So I got my collectivo taxi across the border to Tacna, which was a very simple process, and I even haggled my taxi lady down from the fixed fare. Arriving in Tacna, though, I wasn´t quite sure where to go, and after changing my money and wandering around a big building which resembled a bus terminal, and being followed by a guy who kept offering to help me and was obviously going to demand an exorbitant fee for this "help", I eventually conceded. Turns out the bus terminal is across the road, which I would have figured out by myself if I didn´t have the dude following me. People always throw me when they do that, and I seem to lose my ability to think clearly (what there is of that). Taxis have a habit of stopping right in front of me when I´m trying to cross the road and make me miss my gap in the traffic and I have to wait another ten minutes. Anyway, I ended up on a bus on my way to Arequipa only 15 minutes after arriving in Tacna, which was pretty good. We got snacks on the bus, so of course I was happy. I am also developing a newfound appreciation for cinematography from not understanding the dialogue. We made it to Arequipa without event, and I got a taxi to Home Sweet Home (ah). I was somewhat unimpressed with the town during the journey from the bus station to the hostel, but once I´d dumped my bag and wandered down to the main plaza in time for sunset, I changed my mind. Arequipa is beautiful, lots of very impressive old buildings, and they even have a crazy market selling half chopped up pigs to keep the "reality seeker" (?) in me happy. I spent a day wandering around and going in churches (which I still seem to have a thing about) and parks. There was a section on the map from the hostel that the lady had crossed off (she didn´t speak English), so I thought I´d go and see what I wasn´t supposed to see, and discovered it was the poor section of town, with people selling random things like toilet rolls and herbs in the middle of the street. Also, bizarrely, the guitar factory area, followed a few streets down by the guitar shops area. There was a little square which I sat in for a while, which was filled with people with typewriters. I have absolutely no idea what this was, it was very curious. maybe if you can´t afford to use a computer you can pay them to type you a letter or something? Very odd.

Everywhere in South America so far has had self-catering, after a fashion, which of course keeps me happy, but on my day in Arequipa I decided to be adventurous and go out for lunch. I picked a cheap place with a selection of dishes of which I had not the foggiest what they were. The man was very helpful and I ended up with "suppa" (even my Spanish extended to understand what I was getting here). Why is it that every country I go to seems to have some version of noodle soup? It is far easier to eat with chopsticks than a fork, I now know. Anyway, it had loads of spaghetti, a great hunk of potato and a bit of chicken. Kind of big for lunch but I just about managed it. Towards the end though, I noticed that everyone else who had eaten the soup was now getting a second course, a plate of rice and chicken which would have fed two people, so I escaped before they could give me any more food. I think I paid less than two soles, which is about 40p.

So, you will be aware from my need to purchase a hat and gloves that it is bloody cold here. It´s a bit weird though, as during the day I have to wear shorts and a T-shirt, but as soon as the sun goes down the temperature drops and it´s freezing cold. Of course there is no heating. Maybe it´s the altitude. And it is winter here. I just expected it to be hot because it´s South America. So I´m back to thermals and lots of layers at night-time. I´m lying as well, I´m actually in Cusco at the moment, but that deserves a blog of it´s own.