Arequipa, Peru

(For the purpose of this blog it is important to note that I have a phobia of birds. Pigeons have been known to make me cry in the past.)

We bit the bullet and took our first overnight bus to Arequipa, it was 12 hours in total but we slept the whole way and it wasn't nearly as rough as we were expecting. 

We stayed in the Wild Rover Hostel in Arequipa, it´s in a great spot and has a cool bar which is always buzzing with music and lots of friendly people. The rooms were a little cold but they have a make-up room with hair dryers and straighteners which was a nice touch.
(Sidenote: I am typing this on a Spanish computer and I can´t feckin find any punctuation marks!)
We took things easy the first day, went for a stroll in the sunshine around the very pretty town of Arequipa and saw some sights like the Plaza de Armas where I took my life into my hands and walked through hundreds of pigeons (shudder):

And we visited a few of the local sights like the Monasterio de Santa Catalina, where over 200 nuns used to live without any access to the outside world:

We booked a tour to Colca Canyon for the next day and we were shocked to hear that the bus was going to pick us up at 3am that night, so we had a few hours sleep before peeling ourselves out of bed again while it was still dark. Arequipa is really sunny during the day, but the nights are baltic. The bus journey was not fun. Imagine bouncing around potholes in a noisy freezer for 6 hours absolutely exhausted and you may be half way to understanding how uncomfortable it was. It was also the highest altitude we have reached so far, which comes with it´s own complications!

We arrived at Cruz Del Condor just before 9am to catch the flight of the Condors. These gigantic birds come out to fly at the same time in the same place every day, pretty beautiful eh?

HOWEVER, look a little closer and these 12kg birds are not so pretty. He would totally eat your face off, just sayin.


Then it was time to get back on the ice-bus which drove us around to some other viewpoints and to a tiny village where the locals sold their wares. The views were breathtaking (as was the altitude! It´s going to take some getting used to)

There was also an "opportunity" to use the bathroom. Now, I´m prepared for most things when it comes to bathrooms in Peru, but what I was not prepared for was a CHICKEN clucking around the toilet. I could hear it before I saw it. I was terrified and I didn´t know what angle it was coming from.Then there it was, an actual chicken. I was all bird-ed out for one day!

We made our way back to the hostel where we really should have went to bed, but instead partied the night away in Wild Rover and a club called Circus. I LOVE the music here and even Irish guys can dance to it, the Latin rhytm must suit them...

Our final day in Areqipa rolled around far too quickly, but we went out in style with some rafting along the River Chile, which is up there with sandboarding for the most fun I have had since we got here:

Other bits and pieces:

 I would have liked another day in Arequipa town as it is so pretty and the nightlife is great, so make sure to give yourself enough time to fit everything in. It is quite modern and has everything you need, so stock up! 

It really does get very cold at night time, might be time to invest in an Alpaca Jumper!

Next Stop: Cusco