Heading to Puno

My second day in Arequipa was pretty easy and enjoyable. I walked over to this beautiful lookout that offered stunning views of the mountains and the city.

I passed by a demonstration that from what I understood was by professors seeking more pay. Then I had a fantastic Peruvian lunch of beef ribs that were accompanied with this fantastico spicy sauce on the side. As a pre-meal snack, they offered roasted corn kernels, also delicioso.

Then, I spent about an hour walking 5km away, only to be disappointed in an alpaca outlet that I was hoping to buy some alpaca wear from. Not really my style of bland, non-traditional options.

So after spending almost all day walking nearly 10km, I retired early at my hostel and joined 2 Swedish girls for pizza delivery and a movie: legally blond, a great friday night. They shared their horror stories of traveling through Bolivia- how unfriendly and unhelpful everyone was, and the miners were striking, shutting down roads and requiring them to sleep on their bus without heat in freezing temperatures. Then they told me horror stories about taking taxis in Peru! And how easily women can be sexually assaulted... Hence why we ordered in and watched a movie.

The next morning I left beautiful Arequipa for Puno. The experience at the bus station was very interesting! Unlike in say, morocco, where there is one maybe two bus companies to choose from, in Peru, the bus station is more like a bus market. There might be 25 companies with stalls selling tickets to all destinations at all times. I literally went from stall to stall and chose based on price and time. What an easy way to travel! The station has wifi and plenty of vendors selling snacks too, so it's really not such a bad experience at all! I was lucky enough to have a double decker luxury bus for like $12 and it took us 6 hours to get to puno. This journey cut through mountains and sped us around barrier-less cliff-winding turns. But this driver wasn't an asshole like the one in ouarzazate. I felt safe.

On my way to my hotel in Puno however, which was not too late, but dark, I passed by a tasteful man standing like an Incan statue. His left hand was raised at a right angle in salutation, and his right, well, it was holding his penis. Sigh. I never left my hotel until daylight the next morning.

Finally a word about my hostel: it is quaint, has an amazing view of lake titicaca from the roof terrace, offers a great breakfast, and can we talk about how it is only $8 a night? At that price ill give myself a 6pm curfew.