Arequipa's highlights

Our last day in La Paz was spent catching up with the boys for a 9 boliviano lunch (approx $1.50) of noodle soup and steak, sauce and rice. This was followed up by the biggest ice cream sundae we have ever seen. 

Yet more goodbyes and we were on yet another night bus, this time to Peru! Unfortunately we had to go back through Copacabana but at least we were familiar with the place so could get a quick dinner before jumping back on the bus for another 12 hours.

Immediately after crossing the Peruvian border we could see subtle differences like the types of cars (little 3 wheeled rickshaw type things), the buildings (a lot less brick, and actually all finished) and the people (a lot lighter skinned). Unfortunately the bus ride was a little hairy with the bus swaying like a boat when it went around corners and the driver slamming on the brakes often so I didn't manage to catch a lot of winks. We arrived in Arequipa at 4am and caught a taxi to our hostel, El Patio de Elisa, who very kindly allowed us to check into our room then so we could catch a few more winks.

I was feeling pretty spaced when we got up so it was straight to lunch for us. Yet another successful Tripadvisor recommendation - Pescadores, where we got to sample what we hope is the first of many delicious ceviches here in Peru.

Feeling much more revived we decided to go and visit Arequipa's most famous attraction - Monasterio de Santa Catalina which is described as being a city within a city. They weren't joking though as the place was enormous, taking us a few hours to explore. It was incredibly beautiful and fascinating to see where 100 nuns had once lived in isolation. The most impressive aspect was the amount of kitchens. As Jimmy said, all they must have done all day was worship God and bake. I took the most photos I've taken anywhere on this trip as the colours were just stunning. This is just a small sample of them...

Errr sorry, it seems I have a weakness for brightly coloured walls and wooden doors...

For dinner we tried out a Mexican place, Tacos y Tequilla which was a nice change in flavours from what we had been eating lately. But still not a patch on what we can make or get at home sadly. We are seriously spoilt in NZ when it comes to food choices and quality of produce. 

Other highlights of Arequipa have been, the impressive Plaza de Armas Cathedral. It's one of the biggest we have seen on this trip and takes me straight back to Spain.

Lunch at La Nueva Palomino (twice), which is a traditional picanteria that serves ENORMOUS portions of food, including whole deep fried guinea pig (we gave that a miss), crawfish soup (delicious), steak with a quinoa, cheese kind of mash (also delish) and stuffed capsicum (the stuffing was good..). 

The second time we visited we somehow managed to leave our camera behind and thought it would be gone for sure but amazingly they still had it when we phoned that night so we jumped in a cab to zoom across town and collect it. So lucky, especially because we are off to the Colca Canyon for a 3 day hike tomorrow so it would have been upsetting to not have it, even though my phone does a pretty good job too.

One other highlight was the markets which also took me back to Spain. There is something so spectacular about the way they stack all the beautiful looking fruit to create such an impressive, colourful display.

You need to work on your black corn mum! These were a lot bigger than yours.

Yes, that is a llama fetus. When they build houses they like to give a sacrifice to Pachamama before they begin building, so they bury these fetuses in the ground on the site. What is more horrifying is that when they are building something bigger, like an airport, a bigger sacrifice is required and so a human sacrifice is called for. How do they do that you ask? Well easy, they just get some 100 proof alcohol and find a homeless person who "isn't going to be missed" and then feed them the booze until they pass out, then take them to the site and throw them into the concrete foundations. This is honestly what Fred was told when he did the walking tour in La Paz. Horrific I know.

Onto brighter things, Peru is home of the humble potato and has a huge array of different varieties - a small sample of which you can see below.

Speaking of potatoes, we are off to dinner at Hatunpa where the dishes are on a base of different potatoes, so we will get to sample some of them very soon. Peru, you are going to be bad for me, I can tell already! At least we have 3 days of trekking ahead of us.

Ciao. Cross your fingers for us that we get to see some condors in flight in the canyon.