Quite an early start to today - we had to be bags packed and out the hotel door by 7am since today, we were flying to Arequipa, Peru. As we approached the airport, although we were incredibly excited, there was a looming thought on both our minds: our bags better come with us this time! This thought was even more present when we realized we were flying with LAN airlines again. But as it turned out, the 1 hr flight was great. Didn't expect even a drink service but there was that and a large box of snacks! I will give it to Lan, besides this whole fiasco, they do have very good service. As we approached Arequipa, it was hard to believe that anyone could live in this mountainous desert of a region. But before we knew it, a massive city surrounded us. We landed on the city's one runway (at approx 2500 m above sea level) and stepped down onto the tarmac: we no longer had the ocean breeze of lima, and this 20 degree sunny day felt like a +30! I immediately pulled my very present bag off the conveyer and changed into shorts for the first time. Then we were on our way for a city tour. Btw, our coach today was a VW, super thrilled! While we were landing today, it looked like we were flying into the largest slum in south america! But when we actually took to the streets, the city was beautiful up close. Arequipa is known for many things, one of them being their volcanoes. They beautifully backdrop the city and we were taken to multiple view points before hitting up a nice local courtyard restaurant. Here, i had the best ceviche i've had yet! look it up, its a really unique seafood dish. Next, the city square. We were surrounded by many shops, and a huge church. And all this was a couple blocks from our hotel. We checked in and then immediately went to our next tour: a convent located a block from our hotel. We were toured around the massive grounds. By the reactions of my contiki group, i'm guessing contiki doesn't get too many catholics like me taking their tours. Every so often i'd slip in a bit of background info or insight just to offer a bit of a different perspective to the topic of nun-hood. We then had some free time which my friend Amanda and I used to souvenir shop. Although i'm not much of a shopper, i did quite well and even succeeded in a bit of spanish bartering. I picked up a few little things, but we both ended up buying some "super cool" alpaca sweaters/ponchos made in town. That's right, i dare you to look cooler than us right now. :) we found out though that as we venture further into the mountains, nighttime lows could reach 0 degrees! These warm jackets were a must! Finally after going back, cleaning up and a bit of uno, the group went for a really amazing fancy dinner. We tried some amazing alpaca meat (yes, we just took this alpaca's coat then ate it - sorry vegetarians) which was still cooking on hot volcanic stone as it was served to us! Delicious! Amanda and i also tried this restaurant's special drink which was essentially a berry puree served in an ostrich egg shell. Pretty neat. With all that food though (eaten at about 9:30pm tonight) we took one final walk before packing our bags and turning it in. Colca canyon is tomorrow and the day should be exciting!
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