Mike Hates His Bib
Trip Start
Aug 02, 2007
1
10
22
Trip End
Aug 22, 2007
Arequipa,
Peru
Saturday, August 11, 2007
The flight was about an hour. We got off the plane onto the tarmac...what a beautiful city. The sky was perfectly blue and there were beautiful mountains surrounding us. I read that they have 300 days of perfect weather in Arequipa. The sun was shining and the air was cool and dry. So nice. We headed to our hotel, La Casa de Mi Abuela (My Grandmother's House), in our free taxi. Apparently the old man who sat next to me on the plane was going to the same place...either an odd coincidence or he just decided on the hotel when he saw the guy holding his sign waiting for us. The hotel was quite a complex, with a pool, nice bird cages everywhere, a restaurant, a travel agency, and lots of lounge chairs. The room wasn't as nice as the grounds. Mike decided we needed to figure out the rest of our trip so we got on the Internet, looked for some flights, and called some hotels. We went to the travel agency and booked a trip for the next day to Colca Valley, which is known for the condors. So, we decided we'd spend some more time in Arequipa after Colca Valley, then fly to Cuzco, take the train to Machu Picchu, back to Cuzco, then fly to Lima. We didn't have enough time to enjoy Lake Titicaca and the jungle. Oh well...but at least we'd get to enjoy each place that we went to more.
So, we headed to the main square...on the way we saw a travel agency, Colca Tours, advertising trips to a jungle lodge. So, we decided to give it one last try since our whole idea of going to South America started with wanting to go to the Amazon. Much to our surprise, the woman said they had room at their lodge for two nights and the price seemed right, so we decided to book it. We thought it was a little odd she didn't have a brochure for the lodge and said that their website was down...but we really wanted to go, so we trusted her. She spent forever writing out a detailed receipt and then explained it to us...apparently we'd be staying one night in Puerto Maldonado, which is the entrance city to the jungle...not the jungle. We asked her about that because we wanted 2 nights in the jungle, and she said that's how they do it. We left to go get cash and as we were discussing it, we decided it was weird that we had to stay a night in Puerto Maldonado. So, we went to an Internet cafe to check whether we could even get a flight to Puerto Maldonado and also to see if the travel agency had information about their jungle tours on their website...what do you know...they did. Two nights in the jungle lodge; 0 nights in Puerto Maldonado. We realized we had almost been scammed, so we went back to Colca Tours and told her we would not be going on the trip because we wanted 2 nights at the jungle lodge and as their website showed, it was not necessary to spend a night in Puerto Maldonado. Not at all surprised, she responded: "Yeah, we are all booked, so you could only stay 1 night at the jungle lodge." Nice of her to tell us that before! What a liar.
So, now we were convinced we were better off just sticking with our plan. We went to the main square. Wow. A beautiful square. We relaxed at a restaurant there for a bit as Mike called some hotels because we needed a hotel in Arequipa for the two days after we got back from Colca. We found one, Casa Arequipa, for the 15th, the second night, but all the hotels seemed booked for the 14th. We found out it was the city's anniversary. We went to Casa Arequipa to give our credit card to reserve the room after an adventure with a cab driver who couldn't find the place (not the last time this would happen). What a beautiful little hotel...it's actually a mansion. Really nice people their too. The desk clerk recommended a restaurant for that night and made a reservation for us.
Later that night, right before we went to dinner, we were booking a flight, and as I reached into my bag to get my passport, I realized I didn't have it. OMG! We left them with that liar at Colca Tours! And now it was 8pm, they were closed, and she hated us (or so I thought since we had cancelled on her)! We were relieved to find out she had called our hotel and had the passports. We couldn't do anything about it at that point, but at least we knew they were safe. We went to Zig Zag and had an amazing dinner. We had the best table on the 2nd floor right in the window (hmmmm, again on display). They are known for their meat on rocks. They serve alpaca, ostrich, beef, and lamb on hot sizzling stones. Wow...all of it was amazing. Alpaca tastes really really good...like a very tender steak. The ostrich tasted a bit like pork, was very lean, and tasty. Well, all of it was amazing, except that they put bibs on you before they serve you the sizzling stone & meat! Mike's face was priceless. He was not at all amused and within a matter of minutes ripped the bib off and refused to put it back on. Eventually I took mine off too...I didn't want to be the only one looking like a fool. All was good...except for our absent passports...
