Arequipa

When that nightmarish bus was finally over, we shared a taxi to the very busy center, found a place to stay called El Caminante Class, and we went to a restaurant for lunch/dinner at like 9pm that was in my Lonely Planet guidebook called Istanbul that was supposed to be well known for its falafel and I was looking for redemption since the awful one I had in Uyuni. It wasn’t as bad as the last one I’d had, but honestly I was not impressed, not even close to Mad Greek Deli at home. The next day for lunch I found a place just down the street a few steps that was much cheaper and much better! I’d recommend El Turko over Istanbul any day. The other place that my guidebook raves about is a crepe shop called Crepisimo, known for having over 100 toppings/flavors to choose from. It was a perfect choice for some dessert. Tyler chose one similar to an apple pie and mine was blueberries and sweet cream. They were both massive and delicious! 

Tyler got sick during the night again, I have no idea what keeps doing this to him but I wish I could give it a firm talking to and tell it to hit the road! He needed an easy day the next day, I did some walking around but would come back every so often to check on him. We decided a double decker bus tour would be okay so we booked one for the early afternoon. Our hotel/hostel was really helpful and got us the longer 4 hour tour for the price of the 2 hour. It was a nice way to see the city. Part way through it started raining and thankfully the tour guide made room for us on the dry bottom level. 

We saw some wonderful viewpoints that offered great views of Arequipa, the natural surroundings, and the Rio Chili.

Rio Chili coming down the middle

A top viewpoint of Arequipa

At an old corn mill

His right hand is said to bring great fortune if you touch it

 We toured the mansion that once belonged to the mayor of Arequipa; they told us it was put so far out of town because they had a son who was insane. They then told us that this son died at the age of 12, I couldn’t help but think to myself, how in the world did they know this child was ‘insane’ when he was still a child? Anyway, the home had been mostly destroyed by two earthquakes that had occurred but it had been fixed and refurbished since then.

Kitchen Mansion

 Some of the more interesting points to me were a painting of a pope that when you walk past it it seems as though his feet and eyes follow you. Very strange.

 The other was a massive filter with no hole in the bottom.

 This filter was in the kitchen and made of volcanic stone, it could filter one liter of water in about 10 hours just through its porous surface.

We saw some llamas and alpacas and the very rare vicuñas too! Llamas and alpacas are sheered once a year and they can collect 3 kilos of fur from one. A vicuna can only be sheered once every three years and for only half a kilo, they have the most prized fur and the guide said that a single scarf could cost $1,000. 

vikuna

I also tried queso helado (cheese ice cream), not actually made of cheese but similar in look and color! Tasted sweet and yummy!

Looks like cheese, tastes like ice cream!

We ate dinner at Crepisimo, I had one with cheese and avocado and Tyler had a mango one. They were good yet again but not as good as the previous night. 

The busses to the Colca Canyon only leave at 3AM and Tyler was still just not feeling well enough for that ride yet.

 Luckily, he woke up the next morning feeling pretty well so we opted for a couple hour rafting trip at 11am. We had a good time! It wasn’t as intense as they’d made it seem, considering it was an intermediate level trip, but it was still a fun time, I got Tyler to swim at the end too even in cold water!

Before our adventure!

We did some tourist shopping and booked our bus ticket for the next day, Tyler was ready! (we thought) After dinner where Tyler ate his first guinea pig, we went back to our hostel where they informed us that there had been numerous earthquakes at the canyon and nobody could hike in. I was so bummed, I'd really looked forward to it. Most companies weren't even making the drive there but she was able to find us one that would. So at 3am we were up and out of Arequipa.