4th September - Arequipa to Puno

Next morning, Jamal and I toddled down to the near-by Cruz de sur office and booked a bus from Arequipa to Puno for that evening. We returned and slowly roused the living dead from their slumbers. Once everyone was sufficiently awake and fed, we headed into Arequipa.

We found the Plaza de armas and, avoiding a small Socialist Worker's Party type march, made our way into the cathedral, were a service was just beginning. We continued out the rear of the cathedral and up to the Mummy museum. Not long ago, a volcano erupted behind Arequipa which melted the snow capping of the mountain beside it and revealed a number of dead bodies which had been sacrificed by the Incas. A small museum has been set up to display a couple of the bodies and other artifacts that were found. We had to wait a while for the guided tour to begin and so the girls craftily tried sneaking into the café next door, only to be chased back out by the waitress.

The tour was grand, although the bodies seemed smaller than expected. I suspect Lyndsey was beginning to feel the effects of either the altitude or exhaustion and had to sit down for a while as she felt a bit rough.

After we had seen the Mummies, we returned to the Plaza and took up Gypsie's offer of lunch on the balcony. We had very nice sandwiches and then confused the system by asking for deserts. None-the-less, the views over the square were brilliant and we were all refreshed afterwards. We had a little look around for a couple of the airline companies in order to arrange flights back to Lima from Cusco, but although we found a nice bridge with super views up to the mountains, the office we were looking for was closed for lunch.

Undeterred, we continued up to the convent. The convent had been an isolated city within Arequipa for hundreds of years until 30 years ago. About 450 nuns and their servants lived within the grounds until the earthquake of around 1960 when the entire compound was extensively damaged. The nuns were forced to sell the majority of it and, although they remain in a small sub-section, the remainder has been restored and opened to the public.

The people in charge were quite keen that we take a guided tour, not least due to the fact that we seemed incapable of following the arrows or the map which they had given us. In fact, at one stage we almost ended up following the girls into the toilets. Eventually, we got ourselves organized and spent a pleasant couple of hours perusing the lanes, alleys, cells and plazas of the convent.

Afterwards, we returned to the Plaza de armas and James sorted out the air tickets from Cuzco to Lima for the end of the following week. We then grabbed taxis up to a viewpoint of the mountains and watched the sun set. We also had a little look in the neighbouring church, before wandering back down towards the city. We were trying to find a local café (of which, the guidebook assured us, there were many). We, however, could find none. Eventually, running out of time, we headed into a big department store and asked if there was a café. Sure enough, there was and we headed to the back of the store were we had been directed. Sadly, our intentions of feasting on Peruvian food were thwarted by the provision of a Burger King, KFC and Chinese fast food counter. We were happy to get something to eat, however, and so after grabbing a quick bite to eat, we were back in the taxis to the hostel (James haggling the driver from his initial offer of S/.3 up to S/.6 for reasons best known to himself) and then on to the bus station.

The bus left bang on time, for a change, but, given that the previous warning had been utter rubbish, we hadn't bothered too much about wrapping up beforehand. Mistake. As we climbed higher and it got later, the temperature in the bus plummeted. Zoe and I huddled for warmth; Chris and James claimed that what they were up to was also to provide them with heat; and Lyndsey had opted to hide her feet in her rucksack to try to keep them warm. We were all very cold and very tired when we arrived into Puno.

Having learnt the lesson from the last time, we took taxis to the Hostel from the bus station. We arrived and once we had managed to get the door opened we bundled in. There was some confusion about where our rooms were (the Peruvians opting for the American system of describing the ground floor as the first floor) and in the ensuing confusion, we got yelled at for making too much noise. We later found out that the hostel had almost no sound proofing and I guess it would have been annoying to have been woken at that hour of the day. Jamal and I went straight to bed, but unfortunately James and Chris went up to the 3rd floor to see the girls and while not making large amounts of noise, were completely audible even in our room downstairs! Inevitably, they had a second complaint about noise just as they were about to go to bed and so, making their apologies, they skulked down to their room.