When the bus finally showed up, it did turn out to be a very cosy one. Not only that, I had no one next to me, which meant I could really stretch out, which I did.

I slept as well as can be expected on these things, until about 6 AM, when it became too bright. At about 8. we stopped at a restaurant and I had an empanada, not suspecting anything was amiss.

But as it turned out, there was a demonstration further up, and we wouldn't be moving for another 4 hours, until 12 o'clock. I took my book and sat outside in the shade of the bus, as inside it was growing very hot as the sun rose higher in the sky. When it had risen so high there was no strip of shade left, I sat in the boiling bus for another hour. When we finally moved again, it was as if a convoy of buses was moving towards Arequipa...

In the end, we arrived there about 3 o'clock, after watching Al Pacino and Robin Williams in Insomnia (how appropriate!). The taxi driver brought me to the first hostal in the LP, but they only had a dorm room left. The lady was very friendly though and suggested another place, Los Andes. It's brand new, and for 10 USD I had a room of my own, with bathroom, with hot water and breakfast. Lovely.

I book-exchanged my books for good old John Grishams 'The Pelican Brief' and 'Marrying the mistress' (Joanna Trollope) and booked my Colca Canyon trip for Saturday. Smiling Freddy tried to get me to go tomorrow but there is no way I'm getting back in a bus that soon. I wanted to do some trekking, but he warned me there are not a lot of people who want to, as it's the rainy season.

Arequipa is quite nice, I had a wander around. I bought some goodies at the supermarket (Pringles!) and had an overpriced meal at Mixto's. I met Leslie and her husband, two Canadians from Toronto who were in Peru for two weeks. I told them I much preferred Lake Titicaca to the Nazca lines and they decided to change their plans, so I hope they like it... There was a band playing and although I'm slightly allergic to flutes, these guys were really good! They had all the classics (El Condor Pasa and their own version of Guantanamera) and they were so good I even bought their cd!