Arequipa

We left Puno late in the afternoon and caught a bus up to Arequipa, known locally as the white city due the volcanic stone used to build the city. Since we didn´t arrive until about 9pm we didn´t do anything the first night we were there, apart from crash out. Next day we had booked onto a "countryside tour" this was a total pile of crap, over priced and all we saw was fields (hhmmm so unlike Scotland and Ireland), a church and some views of the 3 volcanoes that surround the city. We were both totally underwhelmed by this and have vowed not to do anymore tours in South America as it seems that the old walking dollar sign image is firmly engrained on local people as soon as they see you.

On our last day in Arequipa we went into the city, and it is a beautiful city in terms of architecture. We spent a few hours roaming around before heading to the catholic university and it´s attached museum to view an ice mummy known as Juanita - an inca sacrifice victim preserved in the ice at the top of the local volcano and discovered back in 1995. The tour that goes along with the viewing of the mummy was really interesting, we found out that she was 13 years old when she was killed (she was given a sedative then hit on the head to kill her). Probably a good thing that we couldn´t take any photos of the mummy - a little sick perhaps. Still it was amazing to be looking at a body that was well over 500 years old.

We then killed some time in town having some food, before heading back to the hotel and then catching the overnight bus up to Nazca.