Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Arequipa

We woke up at 6am because Madagascar was playing at full volume for the entire bus. So far all of the movies we have seen on buses have been American movies that were dubbed in Spanish with English subtitles.

I was excited to get off the bus as quickly as possible. I maneuvered my way down the aisle, clutching my purse and squeezing past sacks of herbs and people standing because they joined our trip from the side of the road instead of the bus station.

As soon as we got to our hostel in Arequipa, Le Foyer, we went to sleep. After our nap, we made plans to go to Colca Canyon on an organized trip tomorrow. We also decided to stay another day in the same place.

After taking care of the travel logistics, we walked around and took pictures at the Plaza de Armas. The entire plaza was overtaken by birds. They were everywhere. We also did a little shopping, and I bought a beautiful hand painted watercolor of a Peruvian child. The eyes in the painting are piercing. I am so excited to frame it.


On our walk we also saw a massage place, and after 12 hours on a bus, we both jumped at the opportunity to feel less like we have been lugging three months worth of belongings around with us every day. The massage place was interesting because both of the therapists that we had were blind. We couldn't figure out if the place intentionally hired blind people as part of a mission to help people with disabilities, or if it was just a strange coincidence.

Our goal for the day was to walk to a lookout to take pictures of the amazing volcano that boarders the city, but because of the massages it was dark by the time we walked there. We will have to return tomorrow after the canyon adventure. We did, however, see llamas grazing at a park on the way! It was so strange to see llamas roaming around in a very public place (Arequipa is very much a big city) as though they were a stray dog or cat.

No comments:

Post a Comment