Crismar Hotel Arequipa

... and then back to this Hostel for another night before our flight out to Cusco. <br><br>Hope everything is going well at home, oh and HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY JACOB!!!!!! :o)<br><br>Hope Murph has learnt not to snort grass blades now. Hehe.<br><br>Love to you all and thanks for all your messages :o)<br><br>FRAN xxx<br><br>Hasta luego!<br><br>=========<br><br>Visited the Convent and the Ice Princess museum. Awesome places. Have uploaded photos so enjoy!!

... decks in sight. The guy then drags another woman up and then Phil and the woman are expected to dance together....what actually happens is they flee from the dance floor and embarrassing shade of red and hide behind their glasses....not before Al and I have succeeded in taking photographic evidence of course!<br><br>We reach the canyon the following morning after a 5am start and it is pretty amazing. There are five huge condors flying around and about 2000 tourists all ...

... around and a huge main cathedral at one end.<br><br>However, the kids' vote of the tour went to a place above the city which gave us a view of the impressive surrounding volcanoes and river but more importantly to them also housed a cage of guinea pigs! Cute they were, and poor old Betty had to think of a way of explaining to the kids that they mostly would end up on dinner plates as the local speciality. Ian was asked whether we would like to try them at a restaurant ...

... When they found out that I passed the bar, though, they said they were taking me out college-style.<br><br>So, I met up with them last night. We started at an Italian restaurant and had a little sangria, just to whet the palate. Then, we were going to go to a wine bar, but they decided that that would not cut it. We went to this bar, and they gave me a list of four drinks to choose from &#8211; all with skulls and cross bones beside them &#8211; ay carramba! So ...

... the camera at the last minute... bonus.<br><br>After this we went back to the centre and had a bit of a wander, taking lots more photos of the plaza and the buildings nearby. Arequipa´s plaza is immaculately-kept and gorgeous, with the view of snow-capped El Misti in the distance adding another dimension to its splendour. We got ice creams then had a wander round the market, before getting a taxi back to the hostel.<br><br>There was a BBQ that night which was ...

... but close to 8 am all of a sudden about 8 to 10 birds suddenly rose up in front of us, everyone suddenly fell quite and all you could hear was the click of hundreds of Cameras. The birds seemed as curious about us as we were about them and they hovered so close for about half an hour, wheeling back and forth watching us with their keen eyes. <br><br>After a quick morning tea we set off back to the hotel to collect our bags and hit the road for Arequipa. First we did the ...

... saa vi var lidt usikre paa, hvornaar vi kunne komme afsted, men rejsedamen sagde, at vi da bestemt kunne tage afsted i morgen foer egentlig planlagt. Hvis det blev et problem med strejken, ville vi koere saa tidligt, at vi kom afsted, foer de foerste var paa barrikaderne. Vi ved ikke helt, hvad strejken denne gang gaar ud paa, eller om det stadig er noget med at folket er sure over, at boederne for overtraedelse af faerdselsloven stiger ...

... so we spent our third day visiting some of the local wineries in the nearby city of Ica. Stupidly we had consumed a beverage or two the night before, so we weren´t really in top shape for wine tasting (but we had paid for the tour and were therefore not wasting our money hehe). Luckily Carl pulled through and him and our guide for the day (it was his bday) really made the most of the free booze. <br><br>The first two wineries were kinda average ...

... s Club -- in fact, I´ve gotten 10% off every hotel so far thanks to that membership. <br><br>After dropping my bag in my room, I headed straight out to see about booking a tour to the Colca Canyon. I visited 3 agencies all recommended in my guidebook and I´m feeling very mixed-up about it all. The first agency has an amazing 3 day/2 night tour that includes lots of stops to see vicuñas, a crazy geological rock forest, thermal springs, a nice hotel, hiking down into the canyon ...

... walking around town. The city isn't huge on the backpacker trail, which I'm diggin' at the moment. Most make a B-line for Cuzco and Machu Picchu and move on. Thankfully, I didn't. <br><br>I spent this morning at el Monasterio de Santa Catalina, a huge convent that takes up an entire city block. A wealthy widow that chose her nuns from only the richest Spanish families founded the convent in 1580, but her ...