Karina Hotel Ilo

Arrived in Arequipa yesterday at about 5pm after 10 hour bus journey which wasn´t too bad other than being warm and someone puking in the stairwell. The hostel here is fantastic. They have all been good up to now, more like hotels all of them, but this one is tremendous with a huge garden with sunloungers etc, a bit like holidaying in Spain without the pool actually. Cable TV in the room and 8 quid a night each!

The place is also home to Él Misti´, a huge ...

what do you do when the door to your room in your hostal is locked with two annoyingly smitten youngsters and a sleeping stephen (hopefully sleeping) locked inside? do you a) chill out in the lounge for an alotted amount of time, b) knock incessantly on the door until activities cease and the door opens, c) kick down the door because you're freaking tired and paid for a bed on the other side, or d) use it as an excuse to write a semi-angst ridden blog as well as discuss ...

Arequipae Inka trail I decided I needed a bit of time to relax and re-group. I had a read of the lonely planet and a little town called Arequipà sounded perfect along with the hostel Casa De Avila, it has an amazing grass courtyard with sun loungers. I took an over night bus from Cusco...using mybargainingg skills I managed to get my ticket for 8USD rather than 20!

The bus ...

After yet another breakfast of bread rolls and jam, we stashed our bags at the hostel and went for a wander around Arequipa to kill some time before our 8.30pm bus to Cusco.

We purchased some things from one of the local markets to send home, unfortunately when we got to the post ...

We awoke at 4am. Had breakfast at 4.30am. Then started our ascent at 5.05am before it got to hot. It took us 2 1/4 hours to reach the top as a group (record by tourist was 1hour 20min; slow people 3.5 hours; locals about an hour) so it was not a bad time. What made the trek hard was not so much the steepness but the trouble we were having ...

... it was a way of saying, "Welcome back to Peru!!'

We drove into the city- which is a beautiful town of probably 100,000 people (guess) with palm-tree-lined streets and well-groomed squares, freshly painted churches and buildings and a nice commercial downtown area, where we stopped to get Peruvian Soles from an ATM and have a decent breakfast. Besides the driving, which is horrendous, it is nice to ...

... with a spare screw we had in the tool set. That set us back an hour or so but we were back on the road. With about 150 miles ahead of us and no town on the map, we decided to find someone to sell us some gas. We bought two gallons of gas and filled the tanks back up for the ride towards Arica, on the Peruvian border. We probably could have made it ...

... to get to Quito and mail home all my wintry clothing. Well we saw this 500 year old mummy named Juanita who was a twelve year old girl the Incans had sent up as a sacrifice to the mountain god and she got frozen and was pretty well preserved. Then we went to check out this monastery/convent place where the nuns used to chillax and do nun-like things. Rob took lots of artsy pictures of the convent. A weird thing they had, which I have ...

So, back across the border, a lot less stressful this time, and into Peru again. Heading for Arequipa and the Colca Canyon... Arequipa is a lovely city, a lot more laid back than Cusco, and less people hassling you and kids trying to flog you postcards, finger puppets and the like! When we arrived the first hostel was full, so they rang through to another, who then took us next door before we found somewhere we liked!! Very friendly and ...

Arequipa is known as the `White City`. The architecture is amazing and the surrounding snow capped mountains (three of which are over 5000m in height) give the place a surreal feeling. We arrived here so tired after our night bus, but we still found the energy to head out on our free walking tour to have a look at this pretty city, once this was finished we headed to santa catalina convert for a tour ...