More time in Peru

So we left the comfort of Mancora, despite a large attempt by the bar staff to get us to stay another night, and again had to hop on an overnight bus. This time we were heading on an 18 hour ride to the capital city, Lima. We were told we were leaving at 7:00 and that we would get dinner and breakfast, sweet! The bus was 40 minutes late, and after being on the bus for an hour or two we figured we had to have missed dinner as it was now almost 10.... We hadn't eaten yet intending on getting food on the bus but were so hungry at this point that Laura resorted to pulling out the only food we had on us.... a smushed loaf of bread and some fruit that we had bought way back in Quito, Ecuador. As she handed me 2 pieces of smashed, days old bread she told me ¨dinner is served.¨ It was so funny! Then about a half hour later we actually were served dinner! Turns out there was another late stop and they don't serve food until everyone was on! Well, now we know for next time, although I was a little upset I suffered through those nasty slices of bread for nothing! Surprisingly after watching four movies, an hour of music videos, eating dinner and receiving a blanket, I actually was able to sleep that night, and rather well I might say!


Around 1:00pm on Saturday June 3rd, we arrived in Lima, Peru. We were planning to stay with a girl named Mili who is a friend of one of Laura´s friend, Christian, who is from Peru but now lives in Wisconsin. We had not had any communication with her but had been communicating with Christian, who was then updating Mili. As far as we knew Mili was aware we would be arriving to Lima that afternoon. So, we get off the bus and immediately send Christian a text saying where we were and asking whether to take a cab to her place or wait for her. We get no response. We send another text, still no response. At this point in time we realize we are at the wrong terminal! We are way outside of town and were suppose to have stayed on the bus. Dumb move. After sitting in the wrong terminal for over two hours we decide we need to be more proactive about this situation. We need a phone because apparently my texts are not going through. We finally find a phone and get a hold of Christian! He says he has been calling and texting us the last couple hours and that his friends were waiting for us in the other terminal.... the one we were suppose to be at. We get Mili's number and address and decide to take a cab there as to not inconvenience her as we were quite far from her house now. We jump in a cab and head towards her place. Our cab driver is crazy! He clearly demonstrated his ignorance about the United States asking us questions about racism, Obama, immigration and many phrases in English. He was entertaining but could have really offended some people. About 45 minutes later we are still in the cab; he is clearly lost! We stop at a market and ask for directions, no success. We stop at a gas station, still no success. We find a payphone and have the cab driver call Mili, as they can communicate better with one another. She doesn´t answer. Finally we get directions from a cop (and a random guy eating pineapple on the street), who was surprisingly helpful, even pulling out a map for us, which made our cabbie super surprised. He said he's never seen a policeman be so kind! Finally we arrive at Mili's house!


Her house was very nice and in a very safe part of town, called San Luis, which is located in the center of everything, making it very convenient. We showered after being on a bus for 20 hours, got settled in and then went out for dinner. Laura and I were craving pizza so we convinced her to take us to Dominoes. We had not seen one yet on our trip and although we felt we should eat typical food we were working off little sleep and really wanted comort food! It was amazing! After dinner we went to a friends house. One of Mili's friends was having a 1st birthday party for her son, Sebastian. We arrived at the house to about 20 friends and family memebers and a ton of presents!! I have never seen so many presents for a young child! It was crazy. We socialized, had cake and opened presents. At this point of the night Sebastian was super tired and clearly had no interest in anymore presents, so his parents put him to bed and then broke out the beer and snacks. Laura and I clicked really well with a couple of Mili's friends and enjoyed having some drinks and just talking to them about life in Peru and the U.S. It was fun to be able to hang out with a bunch of Peruvian girls. Traveleing, we have met a lot of guys, and although a few of the girls there had boyfriends and husbands around, it was still fun to just have a night with the girls. We stayed until about midnight or so and then decided to head home to bed.

We slept well that night, woke up to a good breakfast on Sunday and had just a few hours in the afternoon to explore Lima. Laura and I both have already been here but neither of us had seen the main plaza and it's surrounding areas so we spent some time doing that. We walked around a bit and then decided to make a quick stop for fruit and snacks for the bus. We walked into a little convenience store and it was immediate chaos! Five Peruvian men working/drinking at the store immediately began taking our pictures, asking us to take shots with them and throwing free stuff our way! It was as if we were celebrities or something. We explained to them we were in a hurry, said our thanks and ran out with our fruit and other unwanted things. So much for our ¨quick¨stop. We then jumped in a taxi, needing to get back to Mili's to get our stuff and then to the terminal in 30 minutes! Of course our cab driver, not knowing we are in a hurry, decides he wants to play tour guide, showing us all around the city, even stopping for us to take pictures. It was very much appreciated, but we quickly told him we needed to be on a bus very soon! We rushed back to Mili's, said our thanks and good-byes and headed to the bus terminal, where we again would be taking an overnight bus.


We were now off to Arequipa, a beautiful town southwest of Lima, known for its volcanoes and colonial architecture. Arequipa is also called ¨la ciudad blanca¨ due to the abundance of white buildings built from light-colored volcanic rock called 'sillar' surrounding the city. We got on the bus at 3:30 pm from Lima and were looking at another 18 hour ride. About 5 hours into the trip our bus made an unplanned stop on the side of the road. We had a flat tire. We knew these were common here due to the bad road conditions and all the night driving, but hadn't experienced one yet. The bus sat for about an hour and finally we were on the road again. I unfortunately had no luck sleeping on this trip. I had a man next to me who I nicknamed Snorey McGee, a girl behind me who was super car sick and got up to puke every 10 minutes, and a cougher infront of me, not to mention the extreme cold temperature of the bus. It was a nightmare. Thank goodness I was able to watch 5 movies, two of which I had wanted to see back home! Somehow Laura slept through the whole thing; I was quite envious of her.


After no sleep I arrived in Arequipa around 9:30 am on Monday July 5th. We took a cab to a hostel called Home Sweet Home and got beds in a dorm-room after waiting a bit for people to check out. This place was very busy, yet very homey. We had a great view of volcanoes from the roof of our place! We showered and headed out to see some of the city. We first headed to a tour agency where we booked a tour for the following day to visit a famous Canyon in the area. We almost chose not to do the tour as we were told it had a 3:30 am pick-up time, but decided to go ahead and do it. We ate a delicious lunch at Crepisimo where we ordered 2 amazing crepes, and ate them while having a beautiful view of the volcanoes infront of us. We then headed to the main plaza in town where we took photos and were surrounding by pigeons. Afterwards we did some street shoppping because I was in deep need for socks! I only brought a few pairs and had been complaining for days that I didn't have any clean ones. My Mom reminded me that I could probably buy some for very cheap anywhere, and so I quit being lazy and went out and bought 6 pair for $1.00! What a deal! I've never been so excited about socks! After shopping we visited a popular cathedral in town and the Monasterio Santa Catalina, then went to get our things ready at the hostel for our early morning tour pick-up. We had planned on going to sleep early that night but found ourselves in an internet cafe until 12:30 am, oh no! We totally lost track of time. Looks like another night of no sleep as we had to be up by 2:30 am or so!

The tour started bright and early on the morning of Tuesday July 6th, with a 3 hour cold bus ride at 3:00 am, where I kept asking myself ¨why we do this to oursleves?¨ The bus took us to a little village called Chivay, up in the mountains, where we ate breakfast, before starting our excuriosn to see Colca Canyon. Our next stop was at Colca Valley where we had an amazing view of the landscape surrounding us! We then ventured higher up the mountain, driving along-side donkeys, sheeps, bulls, and horses, before approaching the Cross of the Condor and Colca Canyon. El Canon del Colca is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon and is 120 km long! This canyon is famous for it's spectacular view and also is home to the world-famous condor birds, which were seen flying over the peaks all around us. It was quite cool to see these beautiful creatures so close to us. After leaving the Canyon and the condors, we made a quick stop at Pinichollo to see yet another amazing view, and then Maca, a small village where we were able to take pictures with Alpacas and local women and children in thier traditional dress. I also tried a new fruit and juice, typical of this area, called sancallo, which is similar to a kiwi. We then headed back to Chivay for a delicious lunch buffet, and a walk through the city´s market and plaza, before heading back to Arequipa. On our drive back we stopped at the highest point in Peru, as well as at a llama/alpaca farm. We arrived back in Arequipa after a long day, grabbed some food at a Mexican restaurant and then headed back to our hostel to relax before getting back on another overnight bus! This time we were headed to Cusco, Peru, an 11 our ride.