Finding and leaving home in Arequipa (6-9 August 2012)

After a great (if a little toilet-heavy) weekend with Diego and his parents it was time to leave Chile behind, and apparently the most common way to cross the boarder was by taxi. Diego’s dad drove us to the spot where these taxis where waiting and he had soon found a guy who would drive us to Tacna in Peru. “Taxi” seemed to be a very loose term in this case, since his rusty car didn’t even have one of the cheap, little “TAXI” stickers that you can buy at every corner shop. But Diego’s dad assured us that this is OK, so we put or backpacks and the guitar into the boot of this car/taxi. Next, the driver wanted our passports. Another alarm bell went off in my head, but again Diego’s dad assured us that this is OK. So we handed our passports over to the driver and he disappeared into a small hut. Five minutes later he returned and we said our goodbyes to Diego’s dad. Once we were seated on the fluffy back seats, two guys climbed in beside us. So we were actually sharing this cab with other people? Oh well, another alarm bell to ignore and off we went. It turned out the two young guys were on their bi-monthly trip to Peru to get their braces tightened and after a 20-minute drive through the desert, we arrived at the Chilean side of the boarder where we received our passports back. Hurrah. Once our bags were scanned at the Peruvian side of the boarder, we continued our drive through the desert and 45 minutes later we arrived in the rather desolate looking town of Tacna. Ritchie’s bowels were holding up, so we decided to catch the next bus to Arequipa.

The buses in Bolivia had been, let’s say, basic. Therefore we didn’t expect much from the buses in Peru, and we were truly surprised when we found out that our bus would not only have a TV and meals but also WIFI! The 6-hours flew by but Rich was still a little weak from his stomach issues, and we were very happy when we finally arrived at our hostel in Arequipa.

The next morning we went for a walk through the centre and we right away loved Peru’s white city. 

At the big market you can enjoy a dirt-cheap papa rellena (filled potato) with hot sauce and a fresh fruit juice while watching the flies that occupy the cow tongues and chicken feet on the opposite market stall. Somehow I didn’t manage to drag Rich to this part of the market too many times… 

But we both loved the architecture of Arequipa. The plaza was the prettiest that we had seen so far, surrounded by big colonial buildings and a massive cathedral, with the Misti and Chanchani volcanoes in the background.

At the crater of another volcano close to Arequipa, some researchers found the body of an Inca girl in 1995. The girl was about 11-15 years old when she was killed as an offering to the Inca gods sometime between 1450 and 1480, and due to the ice, her body was in a very good condition. We were able to see “Juanita” at the Museo Santuarios Andinos and the museum gave us a first insight into the dark sides of the Inca culture…

Another historical sight of Arequipa is the Convento de Santa Catalina, a huge monastery which was built and extended throughout the 16th and 17th centuries.

Our hostel was great too and we felt like we had kind of “arrived” somewhere special. This was perfect since we were planning to stay in Arequipa for a few weeks. The British girls from our Amazon tour in Bolivia had told us about an orphanage in Arequipa where had volunteered. Before we had left for the Year of Winter, I had hoped that we would come across a nice project where we could help for a little while and this seemed to be the perfect opportunity. We went to the office of the organisation “Traveller not Tourist” and it turned out that they were in need of more volunteers for exactly the time that we were planning to be there. But before we could start, we were meant to meet Aiden, one of Ritchie’s best friends, in Cusco.

So after three relaxed days in Arequipa, we left our new found home and half of our luggage behind to catch the overnight bus to Cusco…


PS: Traveller not Tourist is currently short of volunteers! If you aren’t able to travel to Arequipa, please spread the word!