I have made it to South America

It was a swiss guy who summed it up. "I have been to Chile and Argentina and now I am in South America." Peru is exactly what I think South America should be. It is very conservative and cheap. And I also look like a tourist. In other countries I can pass for a local if I just keep my mouth closed but here everyone knows that I am not from here. So here are a couple of pictures that I have taken so far.



This is a picture of the Cathedral in Arequipa. There is so much history in that city. The only problem is that it keeps on getting destroyed by earthquakes.
There are just so many religious places to see in Arequipa. When I got here I meet a group of Kiwis and ended up going out with them that night. It is strange to go out and be at a bar or club at eleven. I am used to Buenos Aires and not even starting until one in the morning. The next day I spent on my own because the Kiwis left and the hostal was empty and it happened to be a Sunday. There is nothing to do in this country on a Sunday. The only things that were open were the resturantes. But the next day I met a girl from Germany and I spent the rest of the time going around the city with her. The first day we went to the mercado. It was very colorful and lots of interesting foods. I didn't take any pictures though because I never felt like I could take out my camera. We had fruit juice that was freshly made and ceviche and everything came to about eleven soles which is about four dollars.




The next day we went to the Santa Catalina Monastary. It was so amazing there; a city within a city. It took up a couple blocks and has it's own street names and a church amoung other things all in the heart of Arequipa. This is a picture of one of the many cloisters that are in the monastary. This is the orange cloister because there are five orange trees around the courtyard.



This is a picture from one of the kitchens. It still smelled like fire and cooking. These have not been used since the sixties. The original monastary was constructed in the 17th century and it all felt surreal.


After Arequipa I came to huachina which is just a lagoon in the middle of a couple of sand dunes outside of Ica. I got to sand board which is basically riding down huge dunes on a piece of wood that we cover in candle wax to make it go fast. I only hurt myself a little bit. The tour also included buggie rides that we had to sign a wavier saying that they were not responsible for any injury or death incurred. The buggie rides were more of a theme park ride that actual means of transportation. We knew that we were going to be going town a big dune when the driver would slow down and the hit the lip of the dune and we would just drop, bouncing our heads on the roof when we hit the bottom. I don't think that I was actually ever in real danger because we couldn't go too fast because of the size of the buggie.

The sunset at the end of the day was the best part of the whole trip. It made the trip up to the dunes perfect.


So I am still in Ica, and I will probably wait here until mom arrives in Peru. I am only six hours away from Lima so I am going to wait at the pool and eat good food.
Besos to everyone.