Happy birthday to me! And shopping advice.

Day 17: Currently in Arequipa, Peru, and it´s my freaking ass birthday! And I celebrated by booking myself on another hike! Woohoo.

Today was a great day. We arrived in Arequipa at 6:30am on the overnight bus from Cusco. We immediately made our way to our original hostal (Hostal Casona Blanca) of choice but found it full, boohoo. No problemo, off down the street to another Hotel (Hotel Arequipa Center) that costs the same. Typing this up in our Hotel lobby with free internet while the receptionist is blasting freaking RAMMSTEIN (!!) on super high volume (wtf???). They seem to like Rammstein down here. Our guide for Salkantay, Julio, also wanted to hear some Rammstein during our campfire night. Anyway, I can´t recommend this place too much as it has no charm, but it is cheap (s/ 35/night), clean, and has cable tv--not that we need it.

After settling in and showering, we hit the streets and find a wonderful creperie that is recommended in both our guidebooks: Zig Zag on Santa Catalina St. Highly, highly recommend going here. It´s so cute and the crepes are sooooo freaking delicious we ended up having dinner there as well.

After breakfast, we head to this huge convent here in Arequipa. It was completely shut to the outside world for 400 years before finally opening up to the public in 1970. We take a guided tour and it was interesting, informative, and I certainly enjoyed it (pictures later). Definitely take a guide with you-they´re free, you just have to tip them.

Other things accomplished today: we booked our bus tickets for the 23rd heading to Tacna, a border town with Chile. We also booked ourselves another hike--the Colca Canyon hike via the Llauar (sp) route as opposed to the traditional route. We booked with EcoTours which was a little pricier than we anticipated but hopefully their service makes up for it as it does come highly recommended by tons of people and guidebooks.

Of course, the van is coming to pick E and myself up at.... (drum roll, please) 2:45am! That means, the current time of 8:57pm is way (way) past our bedtime. I´ll be heading there soon, trust that. Tomorrow´s hike is 3d/2n deep into Colca Canyon, so once again you will all have to live without my delightful blog entries. In the Canyon, we´ll enjoy some hot springs, condor sightings, and some gruesome hiking. I think I have been bitten by the hiking bug. It´s masochistic but also fantastic.

Anyway, I think Arequipa is now my favourite city in Peru. It´s small, but not too small. There are nice churches and plazas and friendly citizens. There are also great restaurants all within walking distance in the primary ¨tourist¨ area. And best of all, there isn´t someone harrassing you to look at a menu or get a massage every other step you take (as in Cusco).


Now for the SHOPPING TIPS & what you should bring!

- If you want to buy nice alpaca stuffs, buy it in Arequipa. Avoid buying anything in Lima or Cusco. Also, visit a few places and compare prices before settling on anything. E and I could have bought 2x the number of scarves for what we paid in Cusco.

- If you want crappy alpaca stuffs, buy it in the markets in Cusco. It may be a little more pricey than in Arequipa but you get great selection there.

- Bring as many tampons as you think you will need. A 10 pack of crappy Tampax runs $5 here.

- With the exception of top grade hiking gear (shoes, really good waterproof jackets, etc.), you can buy everything else you need for the hike at significantly cheaper prices in Cusco. I got a day-pack there for s/55 and it´s a North Face knock-off (probably just a factory imperfect item... they have NF factories in Peru, no?) that does the job just fine. Also, trekking pants in Cusco run about s/30 ($10) whereas the crappy pants I bought in Chicago were $55, and they don´t even convert into shorts. Psshaw.


That´s it for now folks. Gotta get me to bed.