Anyway, aside from the illness, here's how the last week has panned out.
Look - camels!
It's a good job I'd had an early night, because my bus from Puno to Arequipa turned up at 5:45am on Saturday morning. Fortunately, my paranoia about being on time for things meant I'd been awake since 5am and had time to down a couple of cups of tea before I had to leave.As the first to be picked up, I then spent an hour sitting on the bus waiting for other people before we even left Puno. My mood was not great.
We had a very brief stop at Lagunillas. Well, the sign said it was Lagunillas...
That lake at the back is Lagunillas, I think. Supposedly it's good for birdwatching, but since we only stopped for 5 minutes and we were a pretty long way from the lake, I can't be sure. We did see some flamingoes at a smaller lake just down the road, but since the bus didn't stop there my photos are... pathetic, shall we say?
From Lagunillas we passed through some very cool landscapes and quite a few vicunas. More on these in a moment. Still, the bus didn't stop again until we made it to the turn off for Chivay. Here, we stopped for a snack and I must say that the sandwich was huge and delicious and the coca tea much appreciated.
Half the group then piled into a minibus going to Chivay while the few of us going on to Arequipa transferred to another bus. A Spanish family, two American girls and me. Hmm. Although we weren't scheduled to have any more stops, the driver pulled over five minutes down the road so we could take photos.
The volcano to the left is Misti, with another volcanic group to the right. On the flats in front of this is a group of animals. See them? Yeah? Little bit out of focus. The American girls next to me, on seeing said animals both went "oh, wow, camels!"
There are no camels in South America. These guys are vicunas and though they are part of the camel family along with llama, alpaca and guanaco, they are very much not camels. I pointed this out to the Yanks. They look nothing like camels. Even at that distance, I'm not sure how they came to that conclusion...
Anyhoos, vicunas photographed, we set off again for Arequipa, Peru's second largest city. It is by far the most western place I've seen in Peru and after trying to visit local businesses everywhere else, I ended up in Starbucks soon after I arrived. Mostly because I needed a large quantity of tea and the selection at the hostel was somewhat limited.
I may also have had a very nice chocolate muffin. Om nom nom.
And then I slept. A lot.
Do I really have to do something?
Sleep was rudely interrupted by the fact that I am staying in the hottest room ever and the sun decided to turn it into an oven at 7am. I figured I'd have a nice relaxed morning and then go into the city to explore.It didn't happen. I read. I attempted to get the blog updated (and failed...). I wrote some stuff.
The afternoon came around and I really couldn't be bothered to move. Eventually I forced myself to go to the supermarket solely because otherwise it was dry pasta for tea and then came straight back and made another go at the blog. And failed again because the internet connection was shocking.
I did take some photos of the Plaza de Armas though. The big building is the cathedral and the mountain sticking up on the right is Misti, the volcano.
After four hours of arguing with the WiFi connection, I finally gave up on getting the blog up to date and settled for reading instead. Wasted day? Maybe.
Urgh. Lurgies.
Any thought of making up for the wasted day was somewhat scuppered by the fact that I woke up the next morning feeling absolutely atrocious and spent the morning feeling sorry for myself. I have no idea what triggered it, but it was highly unpleasant.I did, however, manage to drag myself to the Museo Santuarios Andinos in the afternoon. This is run by one of the universities and is home to the mummy known as Juanita or the ice Maiden, found near the top of Ampata volcano. She is remarkably well preserved for a natural mummy and the museum also houses a whole array of artefacts found with her and the other mummies found on Ampata.
Unfortunately, Peru's weird aversion to photography in museums struck again and so there are no photos of these awesome things. Guh.
Museum fix appeased, I hauled myself back to the hostel, curled up and somehow managed to focus long enough to get one of the outstanding blog posts sorted. Well done, lurgified brain.
Lurgies persisted though and an early night was in order.
Schedule change
A good night's sleep seemed to do the trick and I woke up on Tuesday feeling much better. I was still feeling lazy though and decided I'd take it easy to make sure the lurgies were properly gone.As a result, I spent the morning booking things for the fast approaching Chilean leg of my trip. Hostel in Santiago? Check. Hostel in San Pedro de Atacama? Nope. Apparently San Pedro books up further in advance than pretty much anywhere else I've been and as a result, I've had to shift my plans slightly. Instead of going from Santiago to the north and then working south, I'm going from Santiago to Chiloe to Puerto Montt (or at least that area) to Punta Arenas and then planning to fly back up to San Pedro towards the end of my stay.
Woo.
I also managed to do some more blog updating. More woo.
And then I cooked potatoes for tea and one of them exploded in the pan... This was how thrilling this day got.
I am the god of hellfire...
Determined to make up for all this non-exploring in Arequipa, I'd booked a cooking experience the previous evening. First stop, a trip to San Carmilo market to see the huge range of fruits, veggies and meats on offer. I took far too many photos. Look, chickens with the heads still on.
Also, so much fruit. We got to try some of it, including a very tiny melon, passionfruit, sweet lemons and tiny orange berries that look like what I know as Chinese gooseberries. Very yummy.
Might have to be going back there... Anyway, with our trip to the market finished, we trooped into the open kitchen to start on the cooking lesson. For this session we were preparing causa and lomo saltado. First up, the causa, which is a layered "pie" made with mashed, spiced potatoes, a veg and chicken mayonnaise mix and avocado. Here is the group, hard at work.
And here is my finished creation, which I was pretty proud of, although I think my presentation needs a bit of work... not quite Masterchef standard.
Yes, it is decorated with ketchup and mayonnaise and yes, it was delicious. Next up, the main course - lomo saltado. Diced beef, onions, garlic, chili, tomatoes, fries... I've never had to peel a tomato that hasn't been in boiling water before. I don't plan on doing it again - faffy stuff.
Anyways, with all the ingredients prepped, it was time to cook. First, a demonstration from Monica so we knew what to do.
Because, yes, this does involve setting fire to the food. And yes, my brain might have been playing Fire by Arthur Brown on a loop when it was my turn to cook. Oh, and did I mention there's pisco in this dish?
Yummy.
Following our cooking and devouring, a few of our group stuck around to learn how to make pisco sours. Fairly straightforward - add lime/lemon juice to egg white. Shake until foamy. Add pisco, syrup and ice. Shake until ice is broken up. Pour into glass. Add bitters.
Drink.
Yup, that was a pretty good way to spend 4 hours - explore, cook, eat, drink. Nom.
Following that, I spent a nice, relaxed evening at the hostel, finally sorting out another blog post. Unfortunately, whatever lurgies have been afflicting me on and off for the past week, decided to make a return just as I wanted to sleep. Urgh.
It has WiFi?!
I woke on Thursday morning still not feeling quite right, but determined to do something with my day. The morning was spent arguing with the hostel's WiFi and trying to get some more stuff sorted out for Chile. So now I have flights and a hostel sorted out for San Pedro de Atacama - I'm giving myself a whole week there because there's a lot to see. Also, if the last week has been anything to go by, I need to give myself time to properly slow down before I get ill again.Satisfied that there was nothing else urgently in need of booking, I made my way to the Monasterio de Santa Catalina. This is apparently one of Arequipa's top attractions and only a 20 minute walk from the hostel. I figured if I had another attack of the lurgies, I could get back to my nice cosy bed pretty quick.
Also, I've never been in a monastery before. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, especially as this is a still functioning monastery, not just a tourist attraction.
I definitely wasn't expecting brightly coloured walls. There's blue, orange and an almost-red. And it's beautiful.
I also wasn't expecting there to be WiFi. Which meant I had to do the stupid tourist thing and send a stupid selfie to Facebook proclaiming my surprise at the WiFi and the bright colours.
Yep. I'm so cool. The monastery was founded in 1579 and has survived through a fair few major earthquakes. Today the information says there are 21 nuns. I didn't see any at the monastery, but I have seen one or two around town - can't be sure they belong to Santa Catalina though. Many of the original cells are open, so you can see that the earlier nuns were from rich families. Not quite what you'd expect from an order that has poverty as one of its core values. This is the Profundis Room, where wakes were held.
There's also a great view over the monastery and city out towards the volcanoes that overlook Arequipa.
I spent a good couple of hours wandering round. It's a good job I had a map, because I can imagine that despite the semi-decent signage, it's pretty easy to get lost if you're not paying attention. The place is huge - very much a city within the city.
After that gloriously peaceful afternoon, I spent the evening fighting once again with the WiFi in an effort to get this post mostly finished and then had a bizarre meal of tomatoey mashed potato, cheese and tuna in an effort to use up the random assortment of food I had left. It was surprisingly delicious.
Adios, Peru
With Friday came my farewell to beautiful Peru. A very slow farewell that included more tomatoey mashed potato and a visit to Arequipa's enormous cathedral.No one wants to hear about my ridiculous mish-mash cooking, so let's have a look at the cathedral instead. The place is huge, stretching along one entire side of the Plaza de Armas. It has been rebuilt a couple of times due to fire and earthquakes.
It's home to this enormous, Belgian-made organ, the biggest in Peru.
And a pulpit made in France which features this excellent carving of a devil being squished by the power of God.
The tour also took me up to the bell tower, where I couldn't help but think of the Hunchback of Notre Dame and was most disappointed to find a distinct lack of gargoyles. The bells, though, are pretty cool.
Also, the view from the roof is awesome, with the Plaza de Armas on one side...
And volcanoes on the other - Chachani, Misti and Pichu Pichu, although Pichu Pichu has got missed off the right side of this shot...
Very pretty. And then a delicious chocolate muffin in Starbucks. I love that the default state for muffins here is to be served warm. Yum.
A few more hours killed in the hostel and then off to the airport with a taxi driver who meandered between lanes, picked fights with buses and generally had me wondering if I was even going to make it to the airport.
Fortunately, I did get there in one piece, only to find that my flight had been delayed by an hour and a half. Given that I only had 4 hours between connections at Lima, I had to try hard not to panic. The lady at the desk was pretty cool - she put me in the second row so I could get off the plane quick and put my luggage through as priority, although I wasn't convinced it would help.
With far more time to waste at the airport than anticipated, I took myself out for tea at a surprisingly well-priced airport restaurant, where I had salchitodo.
Yes, it is a pile of chips with sausage, fried chicken and an egg. Yes, it was delicious. Apparently it's a variant on salchipapas, which is a popular fast food consisting of just the fries and sausage. And, because I needed to relieve the stress building up, I washed it all down with a delicious hot chocolate that was mostly chocolate and not milk.
Oh, and I finally tried Inca Kola. It tastes somewhere in between dandelion & burdock and bubblegum. Bit too sweet.
Somewhat less anxious, I toddled on up to the gates (Arequipa has a grand total of 4, all squished together) to see whether there was any news of my flight. Nope. No ETA, nothing. Anxiety returned.
And then, to my complete disgust, a Peruvian Airlines plane appeared and it wasn't mine. And I'm looking at the people getting on the flight wondering why they couldn't be delayed another few minutes so all us poor buggers who've been waiting ages for our flight could have that plane instead. After all, both flights were going to Lima.
Irrational, yes, I know. At any rate, I ended up on the plane and in the air by 9:30, a full 2 hours after my scheduled departure and worrying about how the fricking hell I was going to make my flight to Santiago.
Despite it clearly not being time for sleep, I was knackered and thought I'd try to catch forty winks. Peruvian Airlines had other plans and came round with a snack and a drink. Appreciated, but maybe not right at that moment. And then I went back to worrying and trying to sleep.
We arrived at Lima just before 11pm. My next flight was due at 1am. And we parked at a remote stand, which meant not only did I have to do the usual waiting to get off the damn plane, I then had to get a bus to the terminal. A nice, crowded bus that played up on other anxieties not related to missing flights.
First positive of the night came when my bag was first off the carousel. Apparently my doubts about the priority tag were misplaced. It was, at this point, 11:20pm.
Fast walk to the check in desks, where to my utter confusion and horror there is an enormous line for Sky Airline and my brain starts going "notgoingtomakeit, whatdoIdo?" on repeat.
Until I realise that pretty much everyone else in the line is waiting for the same flight. OK... does that mean I can stop panicking now?
Apparently, yes. Check in goes smoothly and then it's off to security where something in my bag gets the staff worried and a very friendly security man takes everything out of my bag in search of it. My bag is jammed full. It takes a while. The "threat" turns out to be a whole load of loose foreign coinage which has spilled out of the little box I was keeping it in. I should probably do something about that...
Flew through immigration, where I acquired another passport stamp. The Peruvian ones are pink. I like them. They're happy.
At any rate, I finally made it to the gate an hour ahead of departure. Plenty of time for me to calm down my poor, overworked, overanxious brain. And so, onto the plane.
Where I had to turf an old woman out of my seat, which was great fun because I couldn't work out how to say "that's my seat" in Spanish and had to rely on pointing repeatedly at my seat number and my ticket, which didn't work and then the steward had to get involved because she couldn't get it into her head that she was in the wrong seat. Ugh.
And then the plane was delayed nearly 30 minutes, but by that point I really couldn't give a shit any more because I just wanted to sleep. Which I did. Somehow.
Well, I'm now in Santiago. I have a month planned for Chile, with the first week involving much exploration of the capital and then heading south to Chiloe.
Let's see if my Spanish improves...
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