Lima

An early start. The taxi turned out to be a Daewoo cab and the immediate problem was how to fit in our big cases. This overcome eventually, we headed out to Arequipa airport and had a substantial conversation (in dodgy spanish) about the cost of hotels and flights, the traffic and cost of cars in Arequipa, and the different types of volcanoes in Peru. Oh, yes, and the impact of earthquakes.

Last view of El Misti

Arequipa aeropuerto only has four departure gates, and unlike British Airports, you only need to check in about half an hour before.

We were met at Lima by a Hyundia taxi that still did not have enough room for our luggage in the boot. After a few minutes we realized taking a taxi was an extreme sport in Lima. We headed down to the Pacific, and in true Lima style it was foggy.

Sign in our hotel room. We'll be safe if there's an earthquake!

Our hotel is in Miraflores, south of the main centre, and from our room we could see the sea.

Surfers

The hotel is very pleasant and a few minutes stroll from the cenre of Miraflores and may be one minute to the beach.


We headed to Miraflores Centro and ate lunch at the famous Cafe Haiti, a bit like a Rive Gauche cafe in Paris beamed up to Lima. The waiter was charming chastising us for not visiting Macchu Picchu. (What Joan did not know is that this cafe is famous for its Pisco Sours.) Miraflores feels quite affluent, with high rise blocks of flats, posh cars and Waitrose like supermarkets.

Lunch (tomato and palta sandwich and chips)

After a light lunch we strolled down to the prom, where we could see surfers catching waves in the old suburb of Barranco. There was a garish statue of two lovers on top of the cliffs and an interesting lighthouse.

Back at the hotel, Kevin especially caught up with some much needed sleep.

Towards evening we headed downstairs as the wifi in the room was not working. When we returned upstairs our bed had been turned down, chocolates were left, plus a forecast for tomorrow's weather. It felt odd.

After a stroll to the supermarket, we headed out for dinner. Though Miraflores is famous for having lots of different world cuisines, Italian seemed (as usual) to be the safest bet. We ate at Donatellas on the main drag. Delicious but we have both overloaded in pasta for the immediate future.

Puno and Chivay towns were really a bit shabby to stand for more than one night. It seems that is as much most tourists stay. Arequipa had a certain ex-colonial grandeur with its old mansions made out of sillar and narrow streets. Admittedly we have come to Mirafloreswhich is the most affluent part of the city, with broad pavements, avenues, department stores, etc. After dark it is softly warm, with lots of people buzzing about and with bigger buses with conductors who will kidnap you to be a passenger if you stand on a corner too long. We know that most of the city isn't like this and many people live in half constructed shanty-like towns. But for tonight and for city-haters like us, Lima seems pretty nice.

Arequipa to Puno

We woke up early in Arequipa and were the first for breakfast. Today is Sunday so the roads were not so mad as we left the city. Unlike last time when we headed out north, we seemed to get caught behind many VERY slow lorries, especially on blind bends. The road to Lake Titicaca rose for an hour and a half before reaching altiplano. Buses on the side of the road stopped so the passengers could take photos of the vicunas.

It took five hours to Puno. The scenery was hilly but without the mad drops. There were a few one donkey towns along the way. A curious feature was that many dogs lay by the road, watching traffic go by.

Eventually we came across a laguna and K took an excellent video of flamingos flying.

At Juliaca, we were pulled over by the cops when K nearly went down a one way street. He inspected our documents and passports, before giving us remarkably good directions through the town centre to Puno. (not so sure about his aftershave though!)

Puno is only 45 km from Juliaca, and we reached it in no time. Then we came across views of Lago Titicaca. It really does feel like the top of the world. We found our hotel with ease, except that we drove down a one way street the wrong way. The hotel hadn't got our reservation from Expedia but still let us in. The rooms are huge and comfortable, with kettles and hairdryers!!!!!

The Expedia booking had not reached the hotel, but we were given a room anyway. Eventually we managed to prove that we had booked and pre-paid.
We took a stroll in the town and down to the edge of the lake. The town was poorer and shabbier than we had imagined. There were taxicholos but also human powered cabs. In a couple of places we came across youths playing volleyball in the streets.




We decided it would be best to head back in the centre. We saw a circus and hopefully we will go tomorrow.






After a while we found the restaurant we were looking for. Called Pizzeria del Buho (Owl), the waiter was very nice and spoke only Spanish.


The hotel was only a couple of blocks away so we decided to call it an early night.

Beware! Contains nudity (sort of): Toyota HiLux and Yura thermal baths

Today was the day that we picked up the car that will hopefully get us around Southern Peru for the next two weeks. We have learned from bitter experience that it pays to get the biggest, sturdiest 4WD available. Suzuki Jimnys are simply not up to the job. So, off we went to Europcar and picked up a beautiful, huge Toyota HiLux.

The pick up of the pick up had to be planned with military precision. Basic things need to be known like whether it is diesel or petrol, how to open the petrol cap and, most importantly, where is the spare tyre. (See last year's entry for Christmas day.)

Also we had to plan the route from the hire car office in central Arequipa back to the hotel. We had already done a partial recce yesterday as Peru, like Chile and Argentina, operates a bewildering one way system in town centres that has no apparent logic. (Actually the same can be said of one-way systems in England sometimes, particularly in Sheffield.)

Just trying to get off the kerb was bad enough as no one wants to give an inch and let you out. But a HiLux is a beast to be reckoned with and Kevin skillfully asserted himself. Leave a metre spare and a Daewoo taxi will be in there like a shot. At junctions we let the mad taxi drivers block the way and dodged out alongside them. We used Daewoos as a kind of human shield. Still we made it back to the hotel, but then had to negotiate the vehicle in to the hotel's "cochera" (parking garage) with a couple of centimetres to spare.

After a cooling off period, we decided to do a short run to get the hang of driving - or rather Kevin did the driving whilst Joan navigated. The destination was the thermal baths at Yura, some 25 kilometres out of town and a "must do" experience.

Miraculously we made it out of town, avoiding crazed cab drivers, mad minibus drivers et al who stop without warning, don't indicate and are a bit horn happy. (Italy comes to mind.) The road rose out of Arequipa. It had tarmac on it, which was a plus! (See Ruta 40, Argentina last year.)

The outskirts of Arequipa were vast swathes of scrubland with half built houses all along the road. The odd suicidal dog would wander out but we're used to these by now.

Towards Yura the roads quietened, and were more relaxing. Yura itself was a small settlement with only one road, yet somehow we missed the baths. A Peruvian granny directed us back to the only hotel in town where the famed baths were.

On arrival, we had to shoo some baby llamas out of our parking space.

At the reception desk we asked for two adults, but the lady insisted that we saw the baths before we paid.

The baths were a rather run down affair. A man showed us in the door only to come across three senior Peruvian ladies in a state of undress in what was meant to be a clothed area! A hasty retreat was made whilst they covered themselves. The ladies thought it was hilarious.

The baths

Inside the baths were four small pools. Each was a different temperature, and had alleged different curative properties.

Pool one shown above was 32 celcius and could help rheumatism, arthritis, obesity (!), skin problems, problems with veins, digestion, respiratory diseases (!), and urinary infections.



Other pools could help with diabetes, nerves, infertility, psychosis, anaemia, as well as fortifying the body and strengthening children.

A genteleman sharing a pool with us advised us that the pool adjacent would help our eyesight.

Actually, to us, there was just a sulphurous smell that went with us when we left the pool. Also whatever was in the water meant that you could float without paddling. Weird.

Eventually we were advised by an attendant that we had stayed too long, so we walked down the stream which fed the baths and found another closed pool. The water in the stream was warm to touch and originates from Volcan Chachani.

On the way back we found what looks like the Peruvian Formula 1 circuit, laid out in the desert.

Arequipa - Yanahuara - Sa Catalina

Flowers in the Monasterio

Entrance to Monasterio Santa Catalina

It starts to get light in Arequipa about 5am, but gets dark about 7pm, even though it is the equivalent of June here. This is because of the proximity to the equator.

We woke up early partly due to the light and partly due to our bodies still being on GMT. Our room is situated on a courtyard, surrounding a lush garden. Like many buildings in Arequipa it is only two storeys high, due to the history of earthquakes in the region. But saying that there are plenty of old buildings about, so they must build them well.

Breakfast was continental style: rolls, jam, very sugary fruit juice and coffee. We took it sat on the lawn in the sunlight. Also on the lawn was the hotel's mascot - a huge tortoise who zooms around the place.

For the first day, we decided to visit the Mirador at Yanahuara, which is said to avail good views of the city's three guardian volcanoes: Chachani,Misti and Pichupichu. Misti is a classic Strombolian volcano, perfectly conical and gives Mt Fuji a run for its money. It's the type of volcano a child would draw.

You can just about make out El Misti

We walked up the busy road alongside the River Chili up to Grau bridge. In a park by the bridge an alpaca was tethered, being used as a lawn mower. You could see perfectly round circles of short grass where she had been tethered on previous days.

The Mirador was not too far, and by it there was a church, again carved out of sillar. Unfortunately we have come in rainy season, and though it was bright and sunny in Arequipa, up in the mountains clouds were gathering and we could only get tantalisingly brief glimpses of El Misti and Chachani through the murk. (This happened last year in Chile too - until one day the cloud broke and there were volcanoes everywhere!)


Behind the Monasterio

We walked back down to the city and decided to visit the Manastario de Santa Catalina. This is a Dominican nunnery that is a city within a city. It still is home to nuns who live in isolation, but the most part of the site is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and open to the public.

Model of the Last Supper

The majority of the site is made up of a labyrynth of nuns cells. These were not single rooms, but three and four roomed dwellings with open kitchens and stairs to the roof.

Seemingly some of the nuns who lived here were rich and had servants, pianos and fine furniture. In a way, the way the nunnery was lain out reminded us a bit of Pompeii with its low buldings and narrow streets.

There was no electricity in the rooms, but all were light with light chimneys in the rooves. The streets were lined with potted geraniums.

We ate lunch in the coffee shop in the middle of the nunnery - omelette and more cheese laden crepes.

In all it took about three hours to explore the site, and its rooms and shaded streets gave some respite from the midday sun.

Exhausted we retreated to the hotel to have a rest and catch up with the blog. In the garden, Kevin managed to catch a brilliant picture of a humming bird as it darted between the flowers.

Once it went dark, we headed back into town for dinner. We ate at Mirador Misti, a rooftop restaurant behind the Cathedral. Kevin opted for pizza whilst Joan chose Rococo vegetariano, which was described as a typical Peruvian dish. The English translation of the dish gave no clue as to what it would be. It tuned out to be a spicy red pepper,filled with carrots and french beans in a bed of strange egg-like sauce and sliced potato. Interesting. It might have been a variation of Papas a la Huancaina which is in our guidebook ("an excellent and ubiquitous snack") and seems to be a staple sauce in Peru.

www.southamericanfood.about.com/od/saladsidedishes/r/huancaina.htm