She Says:
30 years!!! Yep, Will is now officially 30 years old. Welcome to the 30s mi amor! Arequipa has been very good to us. We´re staying at The Point hostel in Arequipa, the sister hostel to Arequipa Lima. This hostel is located in a beautiful residential area, a 15-minute walk from the Central Plaza or a 5-minute cab ride. While it is a bit farther away, the quiet ambience and beautiful green backyard with hammocks and fruit trees make it all the worthwhile.
We flew to Arequipa on Aero Condor on Friday (I hate to fly) from Lima in an hour and a half, through crappy weather, much like a REALLY bad roller coaster. A rep from the hostel picked us up at the airport and it was a 20-minute ride here.
How exactly did we end up in Arequipa so soon? Well, truth be told, I won´t ride on long bus rides without bathrooms, and the only buses making the 3 to 4 hour journey to Ica were economic buses. No thanks… so we´re going to rent a car when we return to Lima and drive to Huacachina. Fair enough.
HAPPY PISCO SOUR DAY!!! Yes, there is a day devoted to pisco sours, and it was Friday so of course, we HAD to partake! They served it on the plane even, and I think even the kids got to drink it…
We went to a great restaurant Saturday night called Ary Quepay and had one heck of a fantastic traditional Peruvian meal. Will had the alpaca (llama) while I opted for the vegetarian stretched cheese and vegetable dish. Will said the alpaca was great (gasp! I had a little bite) and mine was great of course. We had a great appetizer called soltero de queso which is with a cheese (like queso panela) with onions, olives (with the pits), potatoes, green beans, carrots, tomatoes, in a herb oil dressing... yummy! Of course we had more pisco drinks, mine was really rich with creme de cacao and cinnamon and milk and whatever else (took the whole meal to drink it) and Will had something with cherry and mint. Pisco, by the way, is the national Peruvian alcohol (similar to brandy), though the Chileans claim they came up with it.
We headed to an Irish pub which besides the Irish flag really wasn´t Irish at all. Mojitos and cuba libres were two for 8 soles. The exchange rate is around 3.35 soles = $1 to give you an idea of costs here. Anyways, we started playing pool on the crazy pool table which had much smaller pockets than we were used to and really fast felt. Two other gringos came into the bar and we asked them to join us. Patrick and Laurent from the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Two brothers traveling around South America for a few months. So we spoke a combination of Spanish, English, and French… it worked! A Chilean couple were sitting at a table near us and the guy spoke English while his girlfriend only spoke Spanish. So we added Gonzado and Magdalena to the pool table mix and all three languages were flying all at once. When we got tired of the Irish pub, we all headed to Deja Vu nightclub to sit on the upstairs patio for yet more pisco sours and joking. It is possible to translate a joke to another language and actually have it mean the same…too bad it was a joke about women, but all the same… we eventually high tailed it out of there at 2am with plans to meet for dinner the next night.
Yesterday, Sunday, we were a bunch of lazy bums and didn´t get up until almost noon. We headed into the center for a Mediterranean lunch at a Turkish cafe with fantabulous Peruvian coffee. We then went to the Santa Catalina Monastery which is a beautiful monastery near the central plaza. It cost 25 soles each ($7.50) for a 2-hour, self-guided tour.
After a stop at the farmacia for shaving cream, we headed back for an afternoon nap, yep lazy bums on a Sunday. We had tried to go to the mall to do a bit of shopping but after hailing a cab and driving a few blocks, the driver informed us only the cinema was open on Sunday. Yeah, thanks for the info a little late buddy! So after the driver took a wrong turn to the hostel and I had to redirect him 5 minutes back THE OTHER WAY, we got there in one piece, 3 soles lighter in the pocket.
So it was also Super Bowl Sunday AND a group was going go-carting AND we had to meet the others for dinner at 9pm. So we did it all. First we went go-carting on an inside track near the hostel, 10 soles for 15 minutes (we did it in three separate rides), the floor was slick and I spent half the time spun out…and my feet couldn´t reach the pedals. Yeah, fun time. Then we came back to watch part of the Super Bowl with some Canadians who were rooting for Seattle, and finally left to go to dinner.
We met the others at the fountain in the central plaza and headed for dinner at a nearby restaurant. Chicken or Beef or Pork with salad bar and french fries and a soda for only 6 soles! We´ll see how our stomachs do with this food (I have my doubts!). Back to the Irish bar, which was closing, and eventually to what seemed like the only open pub on San Francisco for cheap cheap drinks. Four pisco sours or Peru libres for 10 soles…really we don´t usually drink THIS much…but seriously, 80¢ for a drink??? Come on now! The pub quickly filled with other people looking for a good time on a Sunday and it was a mishmash of all different nationalities. Midnight rolled around and it was HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILL !!! sung in a variety of accents… but seriously, a 30th birthday in Peru, how cool is that??? By 2am the birthday boy was ready to head back to the hostel… maybe TOO much pisco sour?? Nah… never too much!
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