Finally some sun!

Having said goodbye to the cold and cloudy weather in Lima, we flew south to Peru’s second largest city, Arequipa. Our taxi driver on the way to the airport confirmed what we had read in Lonely Planet – that we should expect sunnier and warmer conditions than in Lima, with much less humidity. How disappointed we were then to find cloudy and cool conditions when we got off the plane after a short one hour flight from Lima!

Being such a small airport, we could see the luggage being removed from the plane. Sarah looked slightly nervous as she tried to identify her back pack in the distance. Again, mine came through quickly but we had to wait quite a while for Sarah’s to turn up, which fortunately it eventually did!

We arrived at our B&B for the next two nights – la casa de los pengüinos – which hopefully I don’t need to to translate for all non-Spanish speakers!. It’s a gem of a place which Sarah (of course!) found on Trip Advisor, run by a very friendly and chatty Dutch lady. I made a mental note not to mention the football world cup. She assured us that the good weather should arrive the next day.

Other than a little tiredness, we seemed to be unaffected by the jump in altitude. We wandered in to the centre of Arequipa for a bit to eat (the B&B being a short stroll from the city’s main square, the Plaza de Armas).

We were pleasantly surprised by just how stunning the centre of Arequipa is. The main square and the surrounding arcades, both night and day, are a buzz of activity and simply fabulous. The architecture has a clear European influence. We grabbed a couple of delicious savoury crepes (well, me two, Sarah one!) at a French creperie and meandered back to the B&B for an early night.

Thankfully, this morning we awoke to sunshine and made an early start, determined to make the most of the good weather.

By 11am it was actually quite hot and, having taken in most of the sights around the main square, we decided to pay a visit to somewhere a little bit cooler – the Santa Catalina convent. This turned out to be an awesome place to visit, not least because of the sheer size of it (it is over 20,000 square metres) and the number of different buildings and courtyards to visit. It is definitely somewhere where you can get a bit carried away with a camera with a new 4GB memory card!

The convent was built in 1580, fewer than 40 years after the Spanish arrived in the city, and enlarged in the 17th century. It suffered considerable damage in two earthquakes that struck the city in 1958 and 1960, before being restored and eventually opened to the public in 1970.

Two hours and many many photos later, we stopped at Land Adventures, the company which has organised our 3-day trek into the Colca Canyon.

“Buenos dias, habla usted Ingles?”, I asked as we approached the guy at his desk.

“Buenos tardes. Un poquito”, he replied. Could be interesting, I thought to myself.

Anyway, it turned out that his English was really pretty good and, like most Peruvians we have met so far, he was a very chatty, laid-back individual who talked us through what we would see and do on the trek. We barely managed to get a word in edgeways!

We paid for the trip and exchanged parting pleasantries.

“Muchas gracias”, I said (I thought I should make something of an effort!).

“Cheers big ears”, he replied, to which Sarah and I had a good laugh – I guess he must have dealt with quite a few Brits over the years!

We headed back to the B&B to chill out in the garden. Sarah enjoyed the use of a hammock but I refrained (they looked like they were built to withstand your average sized Peruvian and not your more than average sized Westerner!). As I was writing the blog, we noticed a tiny little bird hovering in the distance. I quickly grabbed the camera and managed to take a few photos (thankfully there was some room left on the memory card) of a little hummingbird. Most impressive!

So, tomorrow we need to be up at 3am to catch a bus to start our trek which should be great fun, especially if the weather holds. With a bit of luck, we might see some Condors. Fortunately, I remembered to bring my binoculars! We will be carrying our rucksacks on the trek so will need to pack lightly with just the bare essentials, which for Sarah includes chick-lit and me, Football Manager 2010 (AKA Championship Manager) on the PSP!

Adios!