Arequipa

So the bus to Arequipa took 13 hours instead of the advertised 10, but the scenery was lovely, and the bus very comfy so I didn't mind. We arrived kinda late at night so we shared a taxi into the centre with a couple from South Africa (that Sarah had met while panicking about the fact that the bus had disappeared when she came back from the station toilet at the waypoint of Puno - the bus had to change a tyre but took over an hour to do it, with me still onboard).

So we took a nice place for our first night, but the next morning Sarah went to investigate other cheaper options, and found a nice place. So we packed up and moved across the town, only to find the guy Sarah had talked to was gone, and his assistant wouldn't give us the same price. We came back 2 hours later, still no boss, so we just moved 2 doors up the road to an even cheaper place (Hotel Florentina, not quite as nice but still lovely).

We spent the next 3 days strolling around the lovely town exploring the various museums (including the mad 500-year old frozen mummy of Juanita who was sacrificed by the Inca on top of a nearby mountain) and the cool huge convent that the city is also famous for. We've eaten really well too, in fact we had one of the trips better meals last night in the very fancy hotel of Casa de la Moneda.

But today we're off to explore one of the other things Arequipa is famous for, the Colca Canyon (famous for being twice as deep as the Grand Canyon). I didn't bother to get an organised tour, instead we're just hopping on the local bus to the town at the end of the canyon (Cabanaconde), and we'll just take it from there...