Hola,

So since the last blog entry we recovered our legs by lazing around cusco for another day: going to the market, sunbathing on BOTH plazas reading our books and guide books planning our next adventures. It is really sad sitting on the plzas and having either very old people with their back narly horizontal trying to sell us water melon or pineapple, to very young kids (who should b at school!) trying to sell us things like chewing gujm, postcards or fingr puppets.) There are even women who dress up in traditional clothing as well as their small children with little lambs in their sachels posing for tourists to take photos in desperate need for any money they can get. It again mak me appreciate how lucky we all are back home.

That night we officially ot the first night bus ALL BY OURSELVES- we were so proud. The guy from the bus company as really lovely though and even escorted us to or seats!! Despite layering up considerably we were all still freezing, my jacket even stucj to the window (iced!!) but hey we survived and arrived in beautiful arequipa at 5am. Fortunately, Miranda read in her lonely plant that there was a 24hour cafe somewhere, so w caught a taxi to there and sat for a few hours until we though it was a reasonable hour to go and search for a hostel. After some tea and food, we stubmbled, still half asleep, onto a gorgeous plaza with palm tress, a fountain at the centre and a beautiful white cathedral at the end. WIth the sun shining and this scenery we knw it would be a good day. Now the hostel search. We had reserved a spce at a party hostel, however this was far from the centre. SO instead we found a lovely bed and breakfast and managed to get a triple room for only 15 soles a night which is about 4 quid- bargain! ANd this time no smashed window or malfunctioning showr, but clean room with very comfy beds and lvoely hot powerful showers. Luckily we got a room pretty much straightaway so we went straight into to catch up on the sleep we had lost on the bus.

That afternoon we set out to explore the city and to try and find a trip that would tak us to the colcan cayon. We finally found a one day tour for a very good price (thanks to mirnadas haggling skills!) but it mant we would have to get up at 2am!!! SO we had a early supper on the balcony overlooking the plaza, with the cathedral lit up...we were happy girlies. SO with filled stomachs we went to bed around 9 to try and get as mch sleep as much as possible.

Getting up at 2am was not pleasant, neither was the 5 hour rickety bus ride to the place where we would stop to ahve breakfast. I don´t actually think we slept a wink- but it was a good oppurtunity to it and reflect on whatever we wanted: life, the trip etc. Somne of the views of the canyon and the terraces were painting like and we saw soem flying condors and took pictured. At this point I was very hjeulous of peple with amazing cameras and wished that I had invested in one before the trip. Never mind, my memory will just have to serve me well. Other than that we saw some llamas and al pacas, but to be perfectly honest we were all so so tired that w preferred to just stay ont he bus and admore the scenery.

That evening we got back and met up with our old groups new tour leader (jesus) because he had reserved some tickets for us so that we could get the night bus to nazca with our group. Then after a brief nap we had some wine with a french girl (we met on the canyon tour and she is travelling by herself and wanted to go out) and I say wine but really it was like drinking syrup...it was soooo sweet...but for the price it was i guess we coudn´t really complain. Also with the lack of Ipod speakers, it resorted to us listening to classic music on my phone which I have not yet updated with recent music.

Then at 10.30pm we wondere up to the bar where our prev group would be waiting for us :-) When arriving there were lots of yelps, hugs and kisses, glad to all see eachother again after a week of being apart. There we all caught up, drank delicious cocktails and as always danced the night away.

This morning we missed our free breakfast seeing as we had been up about 26hours the previous day. Instead, once checked out, we treated ourselves to big breakfast again on the balcony overlooking the plaza. It has been a beautiful day so we could actually justify wearing our summer clothes and agin enjoyed walking about, exploring the markets to buy gifts and sititng in the sun on the plaza. I ahve to say arequipa is probably one of my favourite cities so far and the peruvians are so just so lovely and helpul, despite us knowing very little spanish.

Having just gorged on big slices of delicious cake and miranda a huge ice cream sundae, we are off to the groups hotel to catch yet another night bus with them. Hopefully this one will b alot warmer!!

Speak soon x