Spring Break: Part VI

Today is day six of our South American journey. To recap quickly, we started out in Santiago de Chile on Wednesday, September 9th and made our way to Arequipa, Peru via Lima, Cusco, Machu Picchu, and Cusco again. We arrived in Arequipa via overnight bus this morning at 5:45am and spent the day getting to know Peru´s second largest city (population-wise, I think).

We got two cabs to the hostel. Traveling in a group of six can be a tad inconvenient when it comes to traveling in cabs. We rang the doorbell of the immense wooden door and a guy came to let us in. The doors the the rooms at the hostel don´t have locks, so the front door is the only defense against outsiders. We stored our stuff in the closet by the hostel´s office while we ate a typical South American hostel breakfast of bread, jam, butter, tea, and Nescafe (continent-wide instant coffe, or at least Chile and Peru).

Our room wasn´t available so we eventually decided to explore. We headed to a local church becaue the Fodor´s travel guide said it was open at 8. When we arrived, we realized it didn´t actually open until 9. What do six Americans do in Arequipa with a hour of time before the guided tour of the city begins? Go to the Plaza de Armas, that´s what! We strolled around and got the lay of the small neighborhood while 9 approached. We then retraced our steps back to the hostel and waited the arrival of our tour guide and his van. We hopped in and for S/. 35 (read: thirty-five soles) we got a great four hour tour of this unknown city. The people seem to live on the outside encircling a huge plot of agricultural land. It´s odd since most cities I have come to know are surround by farmland instead of surrounding it. It´s not an overly developed city, just like the other´s we´ve see in Peru. The tourist areas are nice, but most everywhere else is not very modern my any means. There are, of course, nice parts of the city and a bunch of nice old buildings. There are three volcanoes that sit nearby so the land is fertile and there is a ton of white volcanic rock that the founders used to make many of the cities first buildings. That´s why it has the nickname "The White City."

Our tour of the city was interesting. We saw some plazas and some churches with obvious Spanish influence as well as the mansion of the founder of the city, an alpaca textile factory, and a Peruvian farm where we got to feed a bull and ride horses. We also got a quick little tour of a Peruvian garden that had artichokes, papayas, passion fruit, squash, and other typical Peruvian crops. We tried some toasted corn kernels that looked like huge unpopped popcorn kernels, but had a nutty flavor and a powdery texture inside. They were pretty good.

After the city tour concluded, we headed out to lunch. We then stopped by a museum to see one of the oldest and most well-preserved mummies on Earth. She was sacrificed by the Incas to the Sun God over 500 years ago.

Next stop was the grocery store for more PB & J supplies. You may think that we would get sick of this childhood favorite, but I assure you, we haven´t. Between the 6 of us, we have already consumed three loaves of bread, three jars of peanut butter, and three jars of jelly. That´s not including the one and a half loaves for tomorrow, and the one and a half jars of both PB and J for tomorrow as well. It´s a great way to eat while traveling because it travels well, it´s cheap, it´s somewhat nutritious, and is generally a crowd pleaser if you don´t have to have the crunchy vs. creamy debate or the strawberry vs. grape debate. For the record, both crunchy and creamy have their place in my metaphorical lunchbox; it just depends on what´s available between the two, what´s available to accompany it (apple, celery, cracker, etc.), or how I´m feeling at the time. In terms of jelly, it has to be strawberry preserves most of the time with rare exceptions when certain circumstances present themselves, but I won´t get into that now.

Steven and I headed back to the hostel to shower while Leanne and Austin went exploring for Peru souveneirs and Emily and Katy went on their typical hunt for something sweet. Steven and I met up in the dining area and commenced the ritual preparation of PB & J. We have it down to a science now. A light layer of PB on both pieces of bread with a coating of jelly in between to maintain the integrity of the wheat bread. Once you have a whole loaf ready, you stack the sandwiches back in the bag and you´re all set to go. Man, I´m going to miss this part of cheap travel.

After the group showered, five of us went to get our last Peruvian meal. Lomo saltado (asian inspired beef stew-like dish served over papas fritas and a side of rice) for Austin and me, and pollo a la plancha for Emily, Leanne, and Steven. We also got our Peruvian pisco sour in just in time. I prefer the Chilean variety because it´s a little more sour.

One of my favorite parts abour Peru is that you can eat great for pretty cheap. We all got Menu Ejecutivo which included a pisco sour, soup, an entree, and a beverage for S/. 15 (or S/. 18 for lomo saltado, but totally worth it!). That´s a little more than US $5.

Now we´re all back in the hostel and getting ready for bed. We have to wake up at 5:30am tomorrow to catch cabs to the bus station where we´ll embark for Taca, a small Peruvian town on the border of Chile where we´ll make the switch to a collectivo (cross between taxi and bus) and attempt to cross the border (cross your fingers that all goes well).

Day 6: Tuesday, September 15th at 5:45am to Tuesday, September 15th at 10:30pm