We were glad to get away from the middle of nowhere (even if that meant taking another night bus) to the town of Arequipa. We had picked up a new tour guide in Lima called Fredy and this was his hometown so he was in his element showing us around town. He gave us a little whirlwind walking tour of the city including the main plaza and the cathedral, along with the important things like laundry places! He also showed us the huge market where we got to try all sorts of unusual fruits and I bought some tasty custard apples. There were also bizarre stalls selling "medicinal" items like dried llama foetuses.

By the time lunchtime arrived we were starving so Fredy took us to a restaurant where they had the local specialty on the menu...guinea pig! I had heard this was an Andean delicacy which is bizarre because I've only ever thought of them as slightly boring pets. Well we decided to get one for the table so we could all have a try. When it arrived it looked completely bizarre. The guinea pig was still whole apart from its jaw which had been split open. You could see its little paws and everything! It had been deep fried which seems like an odd thing to do to it because it was so fatty anyway. The only thing I can compare it to is really really greasy chicken although some of the others said the skin tasted like pork crackling. It was strange ad expensive and not a very big meal so I don't think I'll be ordering it again.

I'm not really one for museums unless there's something particularly special which was exactly the case for one of the museums in Arequipa. There is a museum dedicated to a mummy, Juanita, found at the top of one of the volcanoes. She was a 12 year old girl sacrificed by the Incas to the Sun which was their god. You get taken on a tour to learn the history and the trek involved in getting to the top of the volcano before being shown Juanita preserved in a box curled up in the foetal position. It's a little morbid but also very interesting.

After a less than average meal at a restaurant but with great views over the main plaza, Fredy took us to sample some of his hometown's nightlife. We started off in a bar which apparently plays good music normally but just as we got there a terrible rock band started up. We swiftly finished our drinks (while watching Kasper and Caitlin prancing round on a parked motorbike) and moved on to a club. This place normally doesn't charge but tonight it was charging an entrance fee. However, Fredy managed to usher us in behind him while he distracted the doorman. We later felt a bit bad about this because it was a masquerade event for a children's charity but the drinks were so expensive we didn't feel bad for long. Here is where we first experienced Fredy's amazing and incredibly camp dance moves. We also experienced Kasper chatting up every single girl at the club in an effort to pull. An interesting tactic as long as you don't mind a lot of rejection! At the end of the night, Bryan, Katie, Caitlin and I left to go and find some food. Unfortunately McDonald's and everywhere else seemed to be shut until we stumbled across a pizza place (after passing Kasper in a parking lot with 2 girls he had apparently managed to successfully chat up). They got our order wrong and brought out double what we ordered but we scoffed the lot because it was seriously tasty!

Our visit to Arequipa was divided into two parts because we visited Colca Canyon in between. We came back for an afternoon before catching a night bus and a few of us were quite keen on checking out the city's monastery. This has been described as a city within a city and you can see why because inside it is enormous. It was really beautiful and peaceful inside the walls compared to the hustle and bustle of outside. We walked around the old part to see how the nuns used to live. They had small and simple "cells" but the gardens were lovely and if it weren't for the whole aspect of being a nun I could see it being a nice place to live. There's also a huge section where modern nuns still live but that's not open to the public. We returned to the hotel we had stayed at previously to use the toilets and then on to another night bus.