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We had a pretty good night sleep to be honest, we slept about 8 out of 10 hours of the journey, it was a bloody bumpy one though! Twisting and turning around the hills aswell! Bloody nightmare with water bottles flying about the place!
We woke around 7.45am (the latest yet for us!)
I felt a lot better, however Scott was over come with the feeling of "holy crap I need to go to the toilet now! There's no room for talking and minimum movement is required to concentrate on getting to the toilet without shutting yourself. (Sorry mum, its true!)
We got there in one piece and Scott darted for the toilet - the suspense is killing you all I know! ...well he made it in time! We both successfully overcome the Peruvian s***s without going in our pants! Woo! Score.
We got the hotel, the city seemed very pretty! We are around 2300 metres above sea level with some very impressive volcanoes standing at around 6000 metres about sea level, a few that are still very much active.
We dumped our bags and chucked some clothes in laundry and all got taken to a recommended crepe house by Renzo. This was his home town and you could tell he was proud of it.
The crepes were delicious, I had a ham, spinach and cheese one whilst Scott had the usual Nutella.
We weren't feeling light headed as of yet but Renzo advised us to keep drinking plenty of water and cocoa tea. Oh, and to stay away from alcohol.... Great advise, and you know me I love a bit of water, only I'll be peeing myself all the time drinking the amount he's suggested! Although not a fan of the second part of advise, its Christmas/holiday time that's not going to work for me.
He showed us around the main square (Plaza de Armas de Arequipa) Arequipa is also know as the white city because of the beautiful white buildings surround this area of the city.
The Basilica Cathedral de Arequipa was beautiful, a stunning white building with donations from around the world on it and in it due to the one tower collapsing in their biggest earthquake back in 2001. The clock was from London, the marble flooring from Italy and the organ inside from Belgium.
The city of Arequipa was built in 1500, they have active volcanoes everywhere in Peru which I was unaware of and a lot of the surrounding the Arequipa area. They have one that is active and lies North of the city, 'Misti' it's 6000 metres above sea level and erupted 20 years ago. However the city is built on hard ground apparently and when they feel at least 10-15 tremors per day they very rarely loose life when there's a big one that hits.
Renzo took us to a legit alpaca wool shop and showed us how to realise the difference between them, after this he was meeting his family for lunch and staying with them tonight, seems as it was our free day. Whilst we were in the square his little daughter came running up to him, she was so cute!
We all sort of split up once Renzo left us. Some went back to the room to sleep which I thought was a little strange seens as we didn't have long here. Me and Scott went for a wonder around the streets, we came across a mummy museum but weren't fussed seens as we had seen a whole bunch of mummies in the desert preserved the same way.
We went and visited the Monasterio de Santa Catalina, it was so pretty inside! It was built in three different centuries 15th, 16th and 17th and then the earthquake struck and destroyed it all so the city rebuilt it using the same materials and the 'sillar' which is produced from volcanic ash.
After this I was on the hunt for some badges for our bags, I spotted them within minutes! So we got some tiny ones and a machine picchu ones aswell!
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