Arica and Arequipa

Our flight from Santiago to Arica went well. Arica is a medium sized port city on the border between Chile and Peru. We got in on  Feb. 5th and spent a half day wandering around Arica. Arica has a nice downtown area and there was a festival going on that celebrated local indigenous culture and there were a lot of people in the streets dressed up in indigenous clothes dancing. The central square had a fantastic church the was designed by Eiffel the same person who designed the Eiffel tower. We also went to the top of a hill that overlooked the city and was the site of a major battle between Chile and Peru during the war of the Pacific. The next day, Feb. 6th we went to the museum. The museum was pretty small but had a lot of mummies and a lot of history about the local indigenous groups. Afterward we went to the beach and hung out for a bit. It was a relaxing day. The hostel we stayed at in Arica was a lot of fun. The owners name was Roberto and he gave us all free beers when we showed up. He was really laid back and their were only about 5 other people at the hostel so we all hung out in the evening and played ping-pong.


On Feb. 7th we took a colectivo (Shared Taxi) to the Peruvian border. Managed to get across to Tacna, the first town on the Peruvian side of the border, at about 12:15 and caught a bus to Arequipa at about 1. The bus ride was about 7 and half ours and we got to Arequipa close to 8:00 at night. We bought a bus ticket to Cuzco for the next night and checked into our hostel and had a good nights sleep. The next day we explored Arequipa and it rained the entire day. It was a big change from the heat that we were used to experiencing. There several small museums that we visited and a couple of very ornate and elaborate churches. We also bought our tickets for the train to Aguas Calientes.

Today is the 9th of Feb. and we arrived in Cuzco this morning at around 6:30 after a long overnight bus ride. The bus was fairly comfortable but I still only got about 5 hours of sleep. We are going to take it easy today and try to hit Cuzco hard tomorrow and see the sites.

I will try to keep you guys updated as often as possible but internet may be hard to find.