La Gruta Arequipa

From Cusco I caught the nightbus to Arequipa and just spent one day here before heading down to Chilean border. Admittedly I didnñt get to see much of the city as I was here for such a short time - it seemed OK here.

Met one of the guys from my Galapagos trip here and we went to see 'Juanita'. Juantia is a mummy of a young Incan girl who was sacrificed to the Andean Gods ...

... come to every morning. Every morning Jim and Gloria come down and hug each of the girls and ask them how they and their family are doing and if they have shown the same affection for their kids. The hope is that the affection they show to the girls will be translated to the girls’ kids and family. A side note – in Peru, hellos and good byes are always done with a hug and a kiss – no matter how well you do the other person. These hugs ...

... La temperatura era de 5 grados y Maritza comprobo que los niños no se mueren instantaneamete a esa temperatura (ahora nos falta validar si se congelan a menos de cero grados).

Lo que tambien comprobamos es que Mateo ha heredado mi poca tolerancia a la altura ya que se sintio mal luego de andar un poco a 4600 metros de altura y felizmente ...

... up, you'll know that I've been on a bit of a gastronomic tour as well as a geographical one. The food in this country is pretty special but the holy grail for me was Cuy (guinea pig). How tasty can a cute and fluffy domestic pet really be? Cuy is a national dish here. It comes many different ways - chopped up in stews and stir fries, but also comes whole. You might ask yourself whether one person could manage a whole guinea pig but it seems that there isn ...

... normément cette ville. Tout est très propre et il n'y a pas du tout le bordel habituel de l'Amérique latine que je connais. Je suis assez étonnée d'ailleurs (j'ai eu le même sentiment en Bolivie). Il semble que tout a beaucoup changé depuis ma dernière visite ! J'ai visité le couvent santa catholina qui est vraiment grandiose ! Quelle vie devaient avoir ces pauvre femme à l'époque ! Pas de choix le premier de la famille devait se marier et la deuxième ...

... the deep 3000metres canyon. As we were back in Peru, we took the oppurtuntity to have some ceviche (raw fish marinated in lime juice ) and jarea (squid, fish and prawns battered then served with huge hunks of lime). Unfortunately whilst we in Arequipa, my bank card stopped working , so we had to spend some time on the phone with Nationwide begging and cajoling them to reinstate it. The following day we booked a bus to go out to the ...

... outside!

Eventually we pulled away with us already very comfortable in our 'full cama' business class style bed seats, but very uncomfortable with a screaming baby directly behind us.

The seats were great, but they were just a fraction too small for me, so I couldn't stretch my legs out properly. I had to try and rest them on the wall, which put them level with my heart and ...

... their noses to the windows and stare at you, smiling; and if you annoy them, they spit on you.

Anyway, I leave the llamas and head for some typical tourists' attractions, like Yanauara, Plaza de Armas, the cathedral, the Monastery of St. Catherine. By the time I reach the latter, the air gets freaking boiling so I just stroll there rather sulkily, hoping to get something tasty to eat as soon as I get back. Now, a quick ...

... about. His friend was trying to back me up at some points of what I was saying, but he eventually kept quiet as it seemed he did not want to land up offending his friend. I found it amazing that I was just having my breakfast, trying to be friendly when he just felt the need to explain to me as to why he thought it was better to not travel alone. I say everyone has different preferences – but he can't say one is better than the other if he hadn't ...

... to stop there, just the simple fact of stepping out of the bus costs you around $10 USD. All we saw was a single condor, for a split second, very far away.

After the sighting, we caught another public bus to Chivay to eat, where we self had to pay for our food, though it wasn't really made clear to us, we wondered for a while before ordering - then asked, and the guide told us we had to pay for ourselves. Some people ate, some people preferred going ...