Hostal Estefania Arequipa

... overdue blog business? i started with option A (was gonna give the little buggers five minutes), but then i figured i've been wanting to write you folks a thing or two anywho; so, sorry steve but maybe brian will come to the rescue soon. but honestly, when they say "get a room", does it really need to be clarified to get your OWN room.
wait a minute, wait a stinking minute... brian's just knocked...loudly... and again... the seconds tick by and.... yes the door's ...

... had to go. On the way I grapped a small late lunch - a local Arequipan dish with eggs, potatoes and sauce. The tour of the museum was initiated with a 30 minutes very touching and interesting movie about the discoveries of Juanita and some other child sacrifices. Yes, Juanita - and the other children sharing her destiny - were brought up to the peak of the Misti volcano, walking for days in processions with Inca priests, always fully aware, but most likely also dedicated, to ...

... of the canyon there are springs where water seems to either seep or leap out of the rock. The whole vista is breathtaking.

We start the descent down a steep path that has large and very large rocks inhibiting our journey. It is ************ the legs and sometimes a struggle to keep our balance. However, we stop often as Pepe, our guide, takes the trouble to point out and explain everything of significance along the way. He tells us about one of the species of Cactus that the local ...

... of you, you stop. Then as there is space in the first lane, you pull out, and wait until the next lane has an opening. Meanwhile, the cars that were moving perpendicularly to you in the first lane pull right up to your car and stop. Its sort of like a jig saw puzzle. It generally takes about 10 feet of space, for a car to make its move. Stop lights and signs are merely suggestions, so crossing the street is always risky, even at a ...

... that night. We had more than halved the cost and time required, and though it was worth visiting, 1 day was plenty - you wouldn't see much more staying 2/3/4 days than we did in one.

I missed my bus out, and thus filled the following day with....

2) Juanita, the ice mummy. She's 13 and is sat in a transparent freezer in the museum. She was sacrificed on a 6000+m mountain-top many moons ago before someone recently stumbled across her. Pretty cool - though somewhat creepy.

... they were quite civilised about the whole event, probably because my arm was bleeding slightly. Had I been in the good old US of A, I’d probably be a millionaire if I had a good lawyer on my side!
Getting off the bus at the end of the tour was how I imagine getting out of prison would be like. We scurried off to the supermarket giggling before returning to the hostel and cooking up some grub and watching some TV.
On our second to last day we went to the convent of Santa ...

... style to which they had always been accustomed. After 3 centuries, the Pope sent a strict Dominican Nun to sort out all the shenanegans and sent a lot of the good-time nuns packing. Even so, the convent remained shrowded in mystery for a further 100 years until 1970, when it was opened to the public. The convent has been restored to what it would have looked like in its heyday, with beautiful brightly coloured buildings, narrow twisting ...

... as well – but then again there is a first time for many things. Apart from the popular local music, I had started to notice that when they did play popular “western” music, the Peruvians seemed to be stuck in a musical time warp. Eighties and early nineties music such as Milli Vanilli and Vanilla Ice was often playing which brought back some childhood memories. We left early as Daphne and I were to start the Colca Canyon hike the following day.