Arequipa - Emma and Robs day

After checking in to the new hostel which is lovely, one of those square buildings with nothing in the middle, just a balcony decorated with flowers all the way around outside the rooms, we decided to have another snooze and then take advantage of the best shower I have had in ages. Super powerful and really hot.
We headed into town for lunch and went to a place called crepissimo, they had so many different types of sweet and savoury crepes! Rob went for Nutella and banana and I had mango, lemon and sugar. Delicious. Although there was a mix up with my order and after watching Rob eat all of his I eventually Google translated some Spanish for "where is my food please" and finally got to eat mine.

In the afternoon we headed to the Sanctuario Andino Museum (Museo Santuarios Andinos), which told the story of a young girl, Juanita, whose frozen body was found at the peak of one of the Andean volcanoes, Mt Ampato, in almost perfect condition. She was a sacrifice by the Inca's to the gods. The museum housed many artefacts and clothing from burial sites on the surrounding volcanoes and others in Peru and it was really interesting to learn about the Inca traditions and ritual sacrifices. The journeys they went on are pretty incredible, especially when you consider how little clothing they would have had and how cold and snowy it would have been to get to the summit.

Eventually, we were taken into a special room where we got to see the famous Momia Juanita in her frozen state. It was amazing, she still has skin and hair and muscles and organs. All in such perfect condition from how she was wrapped up. Very eerie but so very interesting.

In the evening we wandered the shops, there are no loud music laws here apparently and it shows when you see the electronic shops with speakers the size of cupboards for sale everywhere. They sound like night clubs! We headed down a high street we hadn't seen before and past many lovely and cosy looking restaurants. If we had more time here it would be amazing to try out more of them. We stopped at an alpaca clothing shop too and bought a souvenir throw which is lovely and soft. I still want something brightly coloured though! They had lots of bright and colourful cotton throws but they're a bit too heavy to buy just now.

Finally, we headed out for dinner. We were meant to grab takeaway food as my belly was being funny and I didn't want to eat out, however, it took so long to find anything we might as well have sat down somewhere. After an hour and a half of wandering and searching, including in a massive supermarket that had surprisingly little food, we decided to go back to the same place as yesterday so I could have the alpaca Richard had had.

Unfortunately, the service was not so good today and we had a man serve us who I think as soon as he found out we were English, decided we were not worth any effort. He was very rude and we were left waiting ages, which is a shame as the food was good and it let it down after the previous night. Still, we were at least fed at last and we wandered back to the hostel to the sound of 'under the sea' steel drum style, playing from somewhere on repeat and extremely loud.

Its morning now and we have awoken to fresh bites that are very swollen...my ankle looks like a cankle. Apparently, we are not immune at altitude and now we regret throwing the bag of repellents away after one burst in the bag and actually melted it (the wonders of DEET).

We have just had breakfast with another juicy mango that Rob managed not to massacre and we also caught ourselves a Charmander! (yes we are having the odd pokemon hunt within the confines of the WiFi). Apparently being close to volcanoes helps to catch the adorable fire pokemon. Just going to get packed up and ready for another day now before we meet Rich at about 17:00.Read more