Arequipa

Arequipa was exactly what I needed after my two crappy days in Cusco. Even though it's the second biggest City in Peru it had a really relaxed vibe and the center is really beautiful. And the climate was gentle as well. It got colder at night but during the day you could easily get around with a shirt.
I arrived early in the morning but my hostel let me have a shower and I could chill in the hammock on the rooftop terrace till my bed was ready.
Just before I left my hostel in Huacachina to go to Cusco I met Elisabeth from Barcelona who was on the same route as me. We exchanged details and had met briefly in Cusco for the free walking tour. She got to Arequipa the same day I did and we met on the Plaza de Armas around midday to have a walk around town. Elisabeth did a good job guiding us around with a map she got in her hostel. We had a fresh juice in the market and found a nice and cheap restaurant for lunch. Elisabeth told me that food is important for her so she always made sure we would know where to eat ☺
After lunch we split to get back to our hostels as our rooms should be ready for check in now.
After I moved into my room I went back up to the rooftop terrace where I met a lot of different people over the course of the afternoon. I talked to people about what to do in the area and played cards with some french Canadian girls. At night Elisabeth came over and brought a friend from France. We met Yves from Switzerland on the roof who had been in Arequipa for a while and knew where the good places to go to were.
Around 9 Elisabeth announced that we should get some food as it was getting quite late. Too late as it turned out. Yves took us to a few nice places but there were all about to close. So we ended up in a greasy chicken restaurant. I couldn't be bothered to order the usual chicken with fries and wanted to try something else. I found something called mollejitas and asked Elisabeth if she knew what it was. The thing with Spanish though is that lots of the food is called different in different countries. She asked the waitress who said it's the female chicken. At least that's what we understood (even Elisabeth). As it said 8 pieces I assumed it must be something like chicken wings or chicken nuggets and just went for it. When I got my plate I knew that we probably misunderstood as the 8 pieces on my plate definitely looked like some intestines. Probably something only the female chicken has? I really wanted to try but even a little piece was so chewy and I just couldn't eat more of it. I guess this can always happen to you when ordering random food in a foreign country - apparently even if you do speak the language 😅🙈
Luckily they came with fries and Elisabeth donated me a piece of her chicken.
I was still not feeling a hundred percent but as we were already out I decided to join the others for one more drink. Yves took us to "Dr. Shots" (seriously) where he met some of his friends. After dancing to a few songs I had forgotten about not feeling well. I stayed for another drink after Elisabeth left and even though I got home around 2am (which was when the night just started for the other people) I got the payback the next morning. I was really feeling like crap again. But the good thing was that I didn't have any real plans for the day and I just took another day of making sure I got my old strength back. So after breakfast (I had to get up for this around 9 because they only served the free breakfast till 9:30) I spend the day between the hammock on the roof and my bed reading and doing some research for the next few days. In the afternoon I met Elisabeth again to visit the cathedral and have a drink for sunset on the Plaza de Armas. When I got back to the hostel I felt ready to go back to bed but I realized it was only 6:30pm. So I went back to the rooftop where I met Yves. We played a ridiculously long game of pool (we both weren't the best players so it took forever to sink all the balls). Yves was meeting some friends for dinner and as Elisabeth had taught me that food was important I decided to join them. We went to "El Buda Profano" a place for vegan sushi. This sounded weird at first but Yves had been here before and was convinced we had to try it. We met Sharon from Germany, who had already been out with us the night before, and an old school friend of Yves from Switzerland with his wife who was Bolivian at the restaurant. It was a nice group of people and the food was really amazing. I think usually sushi tastes a lot like fish. Which isn't a bad thing but it's sometimes hard to taste the other ingredients. In the vegan sushi you could taste all the different ingredients.
Yves and Sharon went out again afterwards but I figured I shouldn't push it and went back to the hostel.
The next day I joined the free walking tour and went to a lookout point over the city and to the surrounding volcanoes. I also booked my tour to the Cañon del Colca for the next 2 days (extra post).
I spend two more nights in Arequipa after the tour to the canyon which made Arequipa one of the longer stops on my trip but I did really like it here and I guess I kind of needed a break after a lot of traveling. The food here was amazing and not to expensive. Yves was a good culinary guide for this and he reminded me a little on my friend Sebastian from Switzerland who I met last year in Colombia and who also always knew where to get the best food. Maybe that's a swiss thing?
My last day in Arequipa I wanted to buy some warm clothes as I only had one jeans, one leggings and 2 jumpers and I was wearing these clothes now all the time as the weather got colder and I had to wear everything in layers when it got really cold. Especially the leggings are pretty worn out as I also have to wear them at night if it is to cold for my usual shorts. So my plan was to find a second simple leggings and another pullover to have one more thing to wear. I went to the market but it wasn't to easy to find what I was looking for. You could get the typical woolen pullovers with Peruvian patterns which were nice but every backpacker was wearing the same and I just couldn't be bothered. Besides that most of the clothes were not the best quality and all the pants I found were far to short for me. I found myself thinking "It would be so easy if there would be an H&M around!". I only bought a colorful beany and socks matching my gloves from Cusco and went back to the hostel. On the way there I stopped at my favorite juice place and couldn't believe it when I spotted a girl with an H&M bag in line! Back in the hostel I checked online and found out there was a shopping mall just outside the center where there was an H&M! I know I didn't travel to the other side of the world to go to familiar stores. But for just buying some simple clothes against the cold this was perfect! I spend an hour just at H&M trying on lots of different things but I found exactly what I needed. A simple black pullover that is tight enough that I can wear it under my other jumpers. And a pair of stylish sweatpants that I can wear on the street as well as to sleep in the cold or on night busses. It felt like a short excursion back to my western home.
I went to dinner with Yves, Sharon and her friend Kenny one last time before catching the bus the next morning towards Chile.Read more