And Flying Some More

Tuesday 9 January

It seemed we had been in our room such a short time as the alarm clock rang just before 09.30. We struggled up, still feeling very weary, and I decided to try the jacuzzi. It took about fifteen minutes to fill the large oval shaped bath, and when I lowered myself into the water and pushed the button – nothing happened – no whirring jets whizzing the water around me. What a disappointment. Still had my first bath for . . . well a long while. Having let the water away, I plugged in my hair dryer to find that didn’t work either! Must be something wrong here. Colin became chief investigator and found you had to turn on the main fuse box in the cupboard for anything but the lights, fridge and television to work. Shame I missed out on the jacuzzi – but I couldn’t face the wait for the bath to refill with water. We still felt somewhat fazed by the time we arrived at breakfast. Obviously we were the last guests to arrive for breakfast in the small area off reception, set aside for eating. There was still some fruit, cereals, cold meats and cheeses, breads and hot drinks (although the hot water ran out on my second cup of tea). The cooked foods had all been eaten, but as we were not that hungry this was not a problem.

On settling our account after only being in residence for eight hours – US$2.38 for a bottle of mineral water that I think was complimentary anyway – it took the male receptionist almost ten minutes to produce the bill. By this time our car was waiting to take us to the airport for our flight to Arequipa, but Jorge, our guide, was missing. Eventually we picked him up elsewhere in town, and he spent the rest of the journey apologizing profusely that he had other tourists to meet. The drive to the airport was somewhat hairy, as the traffic in Lima does not obey traffic lights, rights of way, zebra crossings, etc. A couple of times we had near misses with other cars careering across our path as well as youngsters playing football in the middle of the road, and not stopping as we passed. Our route took us along the coast, and lots of people were trying to surf in the quite small waves – nothing like the huge rollers of Easter Island. The weather was warm, but very misty, so it was difficult to see very far.

Overnight Jorge had managed to produce our boarding passes from the internet, so we escaped joining the very long queue to book in at the airport – just had to get our luggage through. It was inspected several times by different people before heavy tags were tied on and it went on its way. Jorge sat with us and gave us lots of useful information about finding our way around Arequipa and Cuzco and restaurants he could recommend in these towns. He was very sweet, and it would have been good to have had a tour around the city with him as I am sure he had lots of tales to tell. The flight was uneventful, taking just an hour, in which time we were fed with a pack of cheesy nibbles, a fairy cake and a chocolate square.

Coming in to land we could see huge mountain formations with deep valleys and gorges, and very little vegetation peeking through the dun coloured earth – our first view of the Atacama Desert. Arequipa city is a small green oasis in a flat valley, surrounded by three massive volcanoes, all of which have been inactive for many years now. The tops of these craters and the peaks of the Andes close behind were all covered with snow. But the area is still subject to earthquakes, as more tectonic plates move - the last one was in July last year (about the same time as we left home) which measured 7.5 on the Reichter scale and caused a lot of damage.

When we landed at Arequipa, Beatriz, our new guide, was waiting for us. She is an enthusiastic Peruvian lady, mid 40’s, who speaks excellent English, and she spent the short ride to the hotel in the centre of town, telling us about life in Arequipa, with its cathedral, churches and monasteries. 80% of the people in this country are Catholic. She pointed out landmarks – like the statue of the Pope, erected to commemorate John Paul II’s visit here in 1985. Alfonso - our driver for the next few days- a very quiet man who speaks little English – wove his way expertly through maniac taxis and early rush hour traffic. Arequipa is the second largest city in Peru to Lima, but the difference in population is enormous – 10 million in Lima and just over 1 million in Arequipa. Peru has a total population of 33 million, so a third of its inhabitants live in the capital.

Our hotel, Casa Andina, one of a South American chain, was very average – the room quite small, but with most of the facilities we would need for an overnight stay. We had been told in our itinerary and by Beatriz that we needed to rest for the remainder of the afternoon to acclimatize to the altitude, so I blogged for a bit and Colin charged up all the technological things and had a snooze.

Armed with a map we set out a little later to find a restaurant called “Zig Zag”, recommended by both Jorge and Beartriz. It was only a short walk from the hotel, but the traffic here drives very fast – it is mostly made up of hundreds of yellow mini-Daewoos that act as taxis, and they don’t wait for anyone – so it took us a while to negotiate crossing the streets, which are all cobblestoned. The buildings here were a bit like we saw in Portugal (and I suppose they are the same in Spain) – very plain fascias and uninspiring architecture, with huge wooden doors (mostly closed) and windows (often shuttered), in keeping with the massive Spanish influence of a few centuries ago. Most of the bricks are plain grey so the overall appearance was of lines of brick walls with tall narrow closed entrances, quite drab and unwelcoming. They give no hint of the often opulent interiors or glitzy shops hiding behind the doors. We passed the gigantic cathedral on our way, the doors standing open so we could see hundreds of candles alight near a brilliant gold altar – we hoped to come back and look around here some time later. We found the restaurant, a long, high ceilinged room, in a line of other not so salubrious looking establishments – cafes looking dark and dingy, video shops with lots of x-rated movies on show and antiques establishments, displaying ancient household items, china and tools, looking very dirty and dusty and as if they hadn’t been moved in years – they probably hadn’t. But the restaurant looked very smart inside – subdued lighting, wooden tables and chairs, laid with white table linen and sparkling glasses. We studied the menu and that too tempted our taste buds – so we decided we would come back a little later and sample the fare.

We returned to the hotel, rested a little more (hadn’t noticed any effects of the altitude yet – we are about 3,400 feet above sea level here) before changing for dinner and retracing our steps to the restaurant. By now it was dark so the roads were even more treacherous, but we safely negotiated our way. There seemed lots more people on the streets now – locals, and tourists perhaps wandering around looking for a restaurant like us? When we entered Zig Zags there were several tables free on the ground floor, or we were given the choice of eating upstairs. As this meant traversing a stately looking spiral staircase, complete with brass rail and black ironwork, I chose to go up. A few tables were already taken here, including the ones on the balconies. We sat at a table for two – another table that was rocky – it’s amazing how many tables we have eaten at on our trip, that have been rocky and needed a serviette or the bread treatment. A small entrée of goats cheese and olives accompanied by some very tasty crusty bread arrived as we chose our menus - soups to start – Colin’s was quinoia, a local grain, with long strands of cheese a bit like mozzarella, and mine was tomato with bell peppers, basil and goats cheese. Both were delicious. For main courses Colin chose lamb – which ended up not tasting too much like anything but ‘meat’ - and I chose a selection of Peruvian meats – ostrich, beef and alpaca. Both dishes were served on hot iron griddles, still sizzling when they arrived at the table, with jacket potatoes and salads. My meat was served as three chunky fingers. When I have tried ostrich before, it has always been dark, dry and slightly tough, while this portion was still very dark red, but moist and tasty. Alpaca I hadn’t eaten before, but was a bit like a chunk of veal, very moist and easy to eat – it’s supposed to be exceedingly good for you as it has no cholesterol and very few calories. The beef was very tender and still rare even though they said it would be “medium”. We had no room for desserts, but finished with cappuccino and tea, and the whole bill came to 100 Peruvian sols, or US$35 or less than 20GBP – really good value. By the time we left the whole restaurant was full and really buzzing.

We made our way back to the hotel for a good night’s rest before starting our tour of the Colca Canyon tomorrow. But first we had to sort our luggage as we would only need our back packs for the next three days! Eventually we both managed to squeeze changes of clothes, wet weather gear, sun block and washing gear into two small bags, not forgetting the laptop and, of course, my reading book.