Arequipa, Peru 8-9 Feb

08 Feb – woke up at 6:30am as we were getting picked up at 7am to get our bus to Arequipa. It took us 6 1/2 hours. We finally arrived and the city was huge. We had a crazy taxi ride to our hostel. The streets of Arequipa are packed with little yellow taxis. We decided to treat ourselves to the super delux room and we were so glad we did – the room was amazing. It looked like a 5 star room you would find in a fancy hotel. It was a huge old colonial building and the room had really high ceilings, marble and polished stone walls and floors and opened up to an awesome bath and ensuite at the one end of the room. We were only going to stay one night but we decided to stay for 2 before going on the hiking tour to Colca Canyon. I was in heaven being able to have a bubble bath with a few glasses of red wine 🙂 We went to find a restaurant for dinner and landed up in a really posh Italian restaurant. There is a lot of rain around the area at the moment. The rivers are in flood and the streets become rivers just about everyday. We almost had to swim to the restaurant. We had amazing wine and food. I had the most delicious spinach and artichoke cannelloni and felt like i was in Italy not Peru! 1st day in Arequipa was amazing and very indulgent- we definitely didn’t feel like backpackers!

09 Feb – Having spent the night in luxury, the day started off a little slow. We needed to book our tour to the Colca Canyon and not much else. To be honest it is quite nice every now and then not to itinerise yourself too much. We took a walk to the market square, and of course got drenched along the way. The markets always present a Kaleidoscope of colours with all the fruits and veggies packed high. We are getting good at avoiding the butchery areas. It just doesn’t get any better, the meat is hideous. After the market we walked around the old town. It really is a beautiful city. Lots of old colonial influence. The main plaza is dotted with huge palm trees and fountains and is really bustling with locals, pedlars, tourists, hippies and pigeons. Their is a pedestrianised road that feels very first world, with great shops and even western brands. We couldn’t resist having a KFC and a Starbucks for lunch. Not very participative in the culture but it was really tasty. After the walk we headed back to the casa and prepared our kit for the trek. We went to bed early as we were up early the following morning.