Well we're back in smelly Puno, the one place we really can't stand! Unfortunately we made a bit of a blunder with the buses, we moved on to Arequipa and then realised here was stuff we wanted to do in Bolivia and sadly you can't get a bus directly there, you have to stop over in Puno and go from there, so we will also have the pleasure of staying here yet again on the way back through to get to the other side of Peru! YUK!! I have to admit that our enthusiasm for small hick towns that have one tourist attraction is seriously waining! Unfortunately the towns are built round their one amazing attraction and the rest of the town can often be a hole! Being city girls at heart, we really are starting to get cabin fever, and are trying to fight the urge to just get the hell out of here and get back to our beloved Buenos Aires! So we spent a couple of days in Arequipa, much nicer than Puno and a lot bigger. We got a very nice hostal, and had a very lazy first day after the 7 hour coach journey, we wandered around the main plaza and sat in the pretty square with an icecream in front of the cathedral and people watched. The election is happening this weekend, so every town we have arrived in has had some parade and march so whilst we sat in the square we had all these different dancers and costumes parading past us and lots of music. We also met a very nice local Juan Carlos who was keen to practice his English, he wanted to know anything adn everythign about England, and we also got to hear a lot about Peru, so it turned out to be a really fun night. Unfortunately we were chatting for so long that it was 11pm when we said bye,both of us starving for dinner, not late in our eyes we were gutted to find that Arequipa was totally dead! Everything was closed! The following day we decided to check out the tourist scene- the main attraction is Colca Canyon to see the condors. Its meant to be twice as deep as the Grand canyon and everyone flocks there to spot the condors flying around. I thought the canyon sounded interesting, but everywhere was selling a 2 day trek tour, and not being huuuge bird enthusiasts we weren't sure if we'd really appreciate it and keep up our enthusiasm for spotting condors for 2days, so we decided to save our penny's! ( typically on last night we came across a day trip tour of the canyon! grrrrr oh well!!) We did visit an amazing museum which told us all about the Incas and the sacrifices and it is the home to the most famous of all inca sacrifices- Juanita! She was a 12 yr old Noble girl who took an amazing trek to the top of a volcanic crater to be sacrificed, and her body was preserved in a glaciar for 5 centuries and they had it in the museum! Risking sounding like a total nerd, it was amazing! They had all their jewellery and bags still with cocoa leaves inside and the fabric they were wearing, it was so well preserved. 14 children were sacrificed across Peru, but unlike the others Juanita is still in tact, she has muscle and brain and hair and skin and teeth, it was unbelievable. They also showed us the journey she and her priest etc took wearing just sandles and their woven shawls with just cocoa leaves to chew, it was over 20 000ft and the climbers who traced her steps said the altitude and the terrain was just so challenging and they had all the gear and oxygen! We also went to Santa Catalina convent which was like a town in itself. There were streets within it and so many different rooms it was like a labrinth. The nuns lived in isolation for nearly 400 years, they never left the convent and had these wooden swivelling doors to buy goods from the town. I actually found it creepy- i don't think thats the intention, because it is very pretty and brightly painted and has a court yard with orange trees. But it still creeped me out, especially the room where the wakes happened and they had the wooden cages where the coffins were sat and portraits of all the dead nuns- painted on their death bed! But it was very interesting, they had a medical room and kitchens and lots of bedrooms and a room where they made the bread bits they eat in church ( is it obvious i'm not religious!?!). There are still 30 nuns who live there, but they were in a separate area in quite modern apartments not the stone building! I couldn't do it, 7 hours of total silence a day where you sit and talk to god! IMPOSSIBLE So we left Arequipa this morning and i'm back in the 1.89 Pousada Real in Puno, joy! We're booked on a coach to La Paz ( meant to be even worse!) in Bolivia tomorro, as we're making our way to the salt lakes!!! There aren't enough snacks in the world to get through that journey!!! Right i have filled my quota of winging for today, so will leave you to your bustling city lives! I have Puno to play with!!! Be in touch from La Paz!!