El Roble Hostel Arequipa

For the rest of my life Arequipa will hold a special connection with Sheffield of all places!<br><br>The reason? Where I experienced an earthquake!!<br><br>At about 10:15 pm I felt the floor shake for about 25 seconds and then all was well. My Peruvian tour guide rather dampened the experience the next day when she said that tremors occur in Arequipa almost every day.

... of Puno. As if taxi drivers know this, one pulls up and we need no encouragement to jump on in and head to the bus station. Things get even better when we are met by a tour guide who offers us a hotel living room to crash in for a couple of hours before our next bus...for no charge. Genius. Poor Al has to drag my drugged **** off the bus, to the station, to the hotel, back again and on another bus with my rucksack. He does a brilliant job, but has confiscated all antihistamines from me.

... So we were a little frazzled once we arrived in Arequipe, but once we'd had a wander around and a Mojito we were much happier, to the point where we were beginning to be sorry that we'd only planned on night there, as we were leaving for Cabanaconde the next day.<br> The next morning mainly consisted of another wander of the city, before having to pack up and head off on the bus to our Colca canyon mission.

... went wandering. <br> We toured the Monastaria de Saint Catalina. It was founded hundreds of years ago, and was mostly for very rich girls. Apparantly, they lived quite the high life, with several servants each and lots of parties (or so some will tell you). Eventually the pope sent over a sister to straighten them out, and they went into isolation for 190 years, until 1970 when the town decided it was too good of a tourist opportunity to miss. Now the nuns ...

... Incas on top of one of the local mountains. She would have been about 13 years old at the time and was an offering to the Gods to prevent drought and earthquakes. It's a pity they didn't offer her to protect them from the Spanish who landed not so long afterwards and ravaged the Inca civilisation.<br><br>Juanita was found in 1995, high on the mountain at about 5,500m and had become dislodged from her icy tomb following volcanic ...

... The Point has no doors on the bar and, given that it`s just like a big house, you can hear the music very clearly in your room. Great when you`re in the bar, **** if you need to go to sleep to get up at 7am the next morning. Ear-plugs were of no avail, and I didn`t manage to get to sleep until nearly 4am. Combine this with the fact that the showers are often cold and it makes for a very inferior hostel, especially in comparison to its sister in Cusco, which was far better.

... Cusco for eating out, but we were trying to avoid that since we once again had a great kitchen to work out of!<br>One of the things I miss from home, as I may have already mentioned, is curry! And again, if you don&#8217;t know curry only comes in powder form from shops in South America. I&#8217;ve tried on several occasions to recreate a &#8216;Chicken Tonight&#8217; or &#8216;Uncle Bens&#8217;, but every single time, id sit with a forced smile on my face and pretend to myself ...

... We tried to clean haggling tips from our euro friends, watching how they whine like the shop owners, but Puno folks don´t drop their prices a bit. It was frustrating but I managed to obtain leg warmers and a christmas ornament.<br><br>This morning we slept till 7 and tried to warm up from our cold room over breakfast. The music on tap today for breakfast was what Haether likened to a practice session for the 4th grade recorder chorus. We´re ...

... and omg the washboards!!! Bump bump bump bump bump bump bump...my bones were rattling after only just a couple metres! Im convinced the suspension on my bike didn´t work. You have to hold on for dear life, your hands are constantly on the brakes, and you have to steer like it is an obstacle course in order to avoid the majority of the rocks. Which is just so energy draining. <br><br>And just to make life oh so much harder...the sand. Mountain ...

... take flight. It´s supposed to be amazing, with a wingspan of about 10 feet. The last option I considered was renting a car so I could stop wherever and whenever I please throughout the canyon. I stopped at Avis and their rate is a whopping $85 per day, plus I don´t think I could possibly navigate traffic here!!! (Refer to scary story above about buses barreling past on blind corners, etc.) <br><br>I don´t know what to do. I went to dinner and weighed all the options and to be ...