We arrive to the bus station at the ridiculous time of 4am, we get a cab and direct to the hostel found in a guide. Luckily the guy on the night shift is pleasant to let us in and share the sofa, blanket and some pillows to wait until the room gets free so we could take it.
It happens to be Francois birthday ;)))) it's 24th March!!!
We have a walk around the town to see the famous places like Plaza de Armas - the main square, and Nuns Monastery. Have some coffees and local dessert being queso helado - meaning cheese ice-cream.
We choose to do a mountain biking down-hill ride (45km) from the volcan Chachani 6075m however we didn't start at the top as the motorable road finishes at 4600m.
We were told that we will be grouped with a French couple, so imagine our faces when two guys jump into the van with fancy baseball caps, Ray-Bays, singlets and visible more than dozen tatoos! And they were of course hangover ;) Turned out to be fun Aussies with very good MTB skills, going down like torpedoes ;)
The experience was great! We started at c.4600m going down through some single tracks. We went off-road between high and chunky grass, rocks and sand. That was quite a technical ride for a beginner like Weronika.
The Aussie guys went a bit crazy, hitting all the rocks with no mercy, no more than 5 min ride both of them had punctures! After a quick change of the inner tube, we continue and again within next 20 min both of them have punctures! Annoyingly there were no more spare inner tubes so if one of us have a puncture they will have to go into the car ;( so boys slowed down and got more delicate with their bikes.
Weronika has a BIG fall after miscalculating the 180 degree turn and hit the external edge of the road, the front wheel fall into the crack of the road and stops there. She falls through the front of the bike and lands on a ground like a cat, on all four....luckily!!! Nothing happened!
While that Francois is speeding down, chasing the wind, doesn't turn around for about 3km....so he missed all the big drama. Snif Snif...
Another day we go for a free guided tour around the town. It is a superb 2hrs walk around Arequipa centre. We learn a lot about the Peruvian and Arequipian culture and Incas.
We pass Nuns Monastery (2nd daughter was sent there by the parents as a good profession and gift to society), many colleges and universities grounds, church that linked catholic and Inkas symbols and beliefs. We learn about various Peruvian food like: kiwicha, maca, dry patatoes, lama/alpaca (no saturated fat), protein rich quinoa.
We also go to the lama/alpaca museum to see the process of making products from alpaca wool.
PS: The black alpaca looks like rasta ;)
We have the chance to see the real dead body of a guy that got frozen in the mountains at 4000m...looks scary but so real.
Anecdote: We learnt that animals lamas were originally called Turpa however Spanish were asking the locals "what are their names?", "como se llama?" And hence they started confusing the response with the word llama! ("Llama" means "name" in Spanish).
Silly Spaniards!
Anecdote: We were still desperately trying to fix our recently acquired Sony Vaio that got damaged by a bloke in a coach. He was passing by the aisle and hit the disc drive when it was out, very clumsy and careless. Once we arrived to Copacabana, Bolivia, Francois went to a computer store with that guy to ask for fixing costs, impossible to assess apparently. We got from the guy c.30 USD as a damage compensation, surely it will be more.
Well, we went to a computer area in Arequipa and after spending too much time trying to figure out the place to fix it we got to know that international insurance for Sony bought in Chile doesn't work outside Chile! Thanks for mentioning that at the purchase!
So we will have to fix it at own cost ;( The new drive needs to be changed, cost c.100 USD and impossible to do it now, need to order special part. We let it go for now, will worry maybe in AU or NZ.
Anecdote: There is an ongoing for a week already a strike of the miners, they are blocking many roads in Peru. The conflict is about that the government want all the illegal miners to become legal by certifying themselves. The issue is that the company they work for will continue to be illegal, without the need to legalise them. So poor miners will incur costs for certification, will be taxed and won't get any benefits as employees as will continue to work for illegal companies.
Only one coach company was leaving Arequipa by taking longer route, we took it to leave the place.
Coach Arequipa - Cusco 595km, 8hr