City Tour and Arequipa

Thursday was my last day working at the clinic and at the end of my shift I said goodbye to Yovanna and Señora Alicia who told me that the doors of Cuzco are always open to me. In the afternoon Zack, Ariella, and I were supposed to go on the city tour together but Ariella came home late from the jungle and was too tired so she stayed home and rested. The tour itself was alright; we were the only English speaking people on the bus and the guide asked if he could run the tour in Spanish and answer any questions we may have had in the end. We both agreed but also noticed that when the guide started to talk for longer than five minutes we would tend to zone out because it requires active concentration on both our parts to think in Spanish. During the tour we visited Saqsayhuaman (pronounced "sexy woman"), Tambomachay, Pukapukara, and Q´enqo.

At the end of the tour I quickly said goodbye to Zack and then bolted out of the bus because I was running late for my bus to Arequipa and I still had to stop by the house to collect my things and eat dinner. During my taxi ride the driver made conversation with me by talking about the differences between Canada and Peru in population, size, and attitude toward marriage between Natives and local people. It was the most interesting taxi ride I have had to date and in the end he complimented me on my Spanish. After being in Cuzco for three weeks I have definitely noticed an improvement in my Spanish though I still have to use a lot of hand gesturing and random English words. Once I came home and finished getting ready Ariella and I left for the bus terminal for our ten hour overnight busride to Arequipa. The bus itself was pretty nice and the chairs leaned back 45° in our "economy class", in the downstairs area they leaned back even more to be almost like a full bed. I didn't mind our seats because there was no one in front or behind us so we had extra space to ourselves. In order to check-in for our busride we had to be fingerprinted and were briefly filmed by a security guard holding a camcorder. Originally I was worried about pickpocketers taking my things while I slept but I hugged my bag the whole way and I felt better knowing that Ariella was sitting next to me.

We arrived in Arequipa the next morning at 5:30 AM and by the time we were collected from the bus station and met up with the rest of the group it was 8 AM. We started our tour by driving to the small village of Chivay. On our bus we were once again the only English speaking tourists and the rest were mostly from Lima. The bus ride was quite long, about 4 hours, but we made a couple of stops along the way. Once we arrived in Chivay we were driven to our hostels and then got to relax for an hour before being taken to the hot springs. Unfortunately, Ariella wasn't feeling well so I went to the hot springs without her. The hot springs consisted of six different pools, some covered and some not, and a series of locker rooms and showers. Unlike the hot springs at Aguas Calientes, these pools had clear water and were not muddy and wierd looking. It was so cold outside that I thought for sure I would only stay in the covered part but it was actually more pleasant to be in the open air becaue the small amount of rain felt refreshing compared to the temperature of the hot springs.

Afterward I walked around the small market across from our hostel with one of the girls from our group, Eva. She told me that she is currently studing in Rome to be a mechanical engineer though she is originally from Lima. At dinner she also introdued me to her friend Yvette whose grandparents live in Arequipa and she has come to visit. Once again, I found myself glad that my Spanish has improved and I am now able to carry on conversations with people around me. It was too bad that Ariella wasn't feeling well and had to stay home because the dinner featured live music and folklore dancing. However because she wan't present I was forced to go a little outside of my comfort zone and actively socialize with the other Peruvian girls. I may not have been 100% comfortable with my Spanish but it was enough to make a memorable and enjoyable evening.

On Saturday morning we woke up early yet again to depart for Colca Canyon at 6 AM. The night before there had been some sort of parade going on when we went to bed consisting of lots of loud singing and banging on drums. It's a good thing we were so tried from the day before that we were able to fall asleep despite all the noise. Along the way to Colca Canyon we stopped by the small towns of Yanque and Maca and I was able to take a picture with a condor on my arm. Once we arrived in Colca Canyon we were able to watch the condors fly over the river and above the canyon. There were about 5-6 condors flying overhead and at one point, as I was sitting on the ledge observing them, one landed on a rock in front of me. We spent an hour and a half at the canyon before boarding the bus to return to Chivay for lunch and then back to Arequipa. During one of our "picture" stops I was able to try a cactus fruit which looked like a round kiwi but tasted very sour.

Back in Arequipa we had to wait for about four hours for our bus back to Cuzco. I was originally going to walk around with Eva but she had some sort of issues with her transport to Lima and had to go take care of it. Ariella still had a headache and wasn't feeling well enough to walk around but much to her excitement and surprise we found a Starbucks and she happily sat there with our things using the internet on her phone while I went shopping. To finish off our trip we ate dinner at a restaurant on a rooftop terrace overlooking the main square, also called Plaza d'Armas. It was so pleasant to sit over the city and watch the lights while eating out pizza. They even provided us with woolen ponchos to wear and there was live music. It was a great wasy to finish off the weekend, though I wish Ariella had felt better. I'm glad I got to meet Eva and have some interesting conversations with her. I can't believe my trip is almost over but I'm looking forward to coming home and getting back to the clean air of Vancouver, as well as some fresh fruits and vegetables in my diet and not just rice, bread, and potatoes.