Arequipa

On the bus that I took from Lima to Arequipa, I was shocked to see just how luxuriously I would be treated. The seats on the bus Cruz del Sur are upholstered in leather, with plenty of leg room and they recline to a position in which it is actually conceivable that you could sleep. I was so impressed! As if just sitting in this beautiful bus seat wasnt fun enough, the Cruz del Sur buses had plenty of other surprises up their sleeves. Movies I actually like... like Sweet Home Alabama! And not even dubbed in Spanish! And in between movies, they made the experience truly interactive by holding a BINGO game on the bus, with a prize of one free ride home on this glorious bus! I was so pleased...but I should have listened closer to the instructions, because I thought you only had to cover one line of the bingo card. I was so excited to think that I had won that I shouted out Bingo! in an obnoxiously excited voice, and help up my card and waved it around. The Peruvian man behind me looked at my card, shook his head, and said, No, falta mucho. And he was right....we were supposed to cover the whole card first.
Oops, I announced to the bus. I messed up.
I didnt win the Bingo game even following the correct rules, by the way.
So we arrived at Arequipa. After paying 50 centimos to use an extremely clean bus station bathroom, I went to the ticket counter and got a nasty surprise. Bus routes to Cuzco have been cut off! There is a protest going on where the highway connects the two cities, and because of this huelga, buses cannot pass. I would have been more anxious about fixing the problem right away (Kirsty, I hope youre reading this, though Im pretty sure you dont even know I have it), but taking a page from the Motul trip of Spring Break I decided to play it by ear and see what I could do before freaking out.
Apparently, the only option to get me to Cuzco is to take the bus to Lima and then to fly from Lima to Cuzco. It was not extremely expensive, thankfully, even though it was more than I originally thought that I would pay. But I was glad to get all of that drama behind me. And with it behind me, I finally got to take a look at Arequipa, which is a really special city.
Arequipa is nestled among three mountain volcanoes, Misti (which I learned is Quechua for white, thanks to reading Arguedas), Picchu Picchu, and one more whose name Ive unfortunately forgotten at the moment (it might be something like Chalki?). At any rate, Arequipa is SO beautiful, similar, I think, to cities in Mexico like San Miguel de Allende in Guanajuato. Its hard to breathe up here, because the altitude really is quite shocking, and sometimes I feel that altitude when Im walking around, in the form of a weird tingling all over my body. Arequipa has a beautiful square, where Ariquipenos and the hugest concentration of pigeons Ive ever seen share public space, and lots of historical buildings, like the Cathedral and the Convent (apparently, in Peru monks live in convents and monjas live in monasteries). Anyway, Arequipa is best enjoyed, I think, by strolling. Thats how Ive found it, at least. Though besides strolling, I have also enjoyed some of the citys cultural activities. I was the ONLY visitor the whole day at the Museum of Archaeology by the Catholic UNiversity, for instance, and the security guard had to turn on all the lights so that I could see the exhibit. I also visited the Museum of Andean Sanctuaries today, where Juanita, one of the oldest corpses found well preserved in situ, is housed. I dont usually find that kind of think creepy, but seeing that mummified little girl actually kind of freaked me out. Shes kept under really low lighting, in a really cold room, inside three glass boxes. The whole effect is really quite chilling. Add to this, in fact, that before we even got to the room where Juanita is housed, a girl on the tour actually FAINTED, collapsed in front of us onto the floor. The guide, a very well composed lady who, I must mention, was wearing nothing but Under Armour for a shirt, ran for security, and the rest of us followed the French girl out to the plaza where the guard promptly elevated her legs to get the blood back to her head. (For those who are concerned, she was fine afterwards, and was able to continue the tour and see Juanita through her own two yeux.)
Ive really enjoyed my time in Arequipa. At the hostel, Ive been one of only a few americans to pass through. The three Californians from Lima were there, and I also ran into Rose and Scott from Australia again. During the days, Im still mostly by myself, touring these cities on my own, but at nights its nice to have the hostel people around. I actually met a girl from Philly there, who has been living in Chile for the past 8 months. We went to see a classical music concert together, a free show put on by the Orquesta Sinfonica de Arequipa, (just lost my train of thought, a little boy came in asking me for money) and the concert was wild. The second act was a guitar solo played with orchestra, and the soloists children, who were in the audience, suddenly decided in the middle of the act that they missed their dad and started jumping up and down in the middle of the aisle (the concert was held in a cathedral) calling out for him. The conductor, a really tall woman named Zoila, turned around angrily and scowled at the audience as she conducted, and the now very loud children were soon scooped up and hauled out. Of my two nights in Arequipa, that was the more classy entertainment. Last night, I played cards with two Swiss girls, a Dutch girl, and a boy from the UK who is working at the hostel and studying Spanish. We played this weird game that I know exists in the US, but none of the Europeans knew what to call it, so I cant say. It was quite fun though, and we had some really sour wine to add to the rollicking ambience.
My bus back to Lima leaves in about two hours, but Im a real stickler for getting everywhere early. I suppose, then, that I should go. But Arequipa needs more description! Ill close by saying that I really amused myself writing a letter to Monica that I think sums everything up pretty well. Also, I forgot to mention that a cab driver made a gun sign with his hand and made shooting noises directed at his head in order to convince me to stay somewhere else. Bam, bam, boom. Oh, Peru.