Welcome to darkest Perú where guinea pigs are very nervous and are apparently best served deep fried or roasted, with paws, eyes, ears etc still intact. I will upload a photo if I ever summon up the courage to try one.
So we drove from Arica, in Chile, over the border to Perú to the town of Tacna for an hour’s break to change money from Chilean Pesos to Peruvian (Nuevo) Soles and for lunch, during which I ordered – in Spanish – a coffee and a glass of white wine to go with our lunch and inexplicably ended up with TWO coffees and a glass of RED wine. Something got lost in translation, but I needed the caffeine anyway! We then flew from Tacna to Arequipa, which only takes about 40 minutes. Checked into our lovely bed and breakfast place for two nights, the name of which translated to “Grandma’s House” and set off with our guide Leni down to the main square and up to a rooftop terrace where we could watch the beautiful sunset looking down on the Catedral de Arequipa and have drinks and dinner. We were all given large ponchos to wear as the night got chillier.
It’s a beautiful city and the following day we went on a double decker bus trip around the surrounding area for a couple of hours, which included a tasting of cheese ice cream (surprisingly nice) and a trip to a llama and alpaca farm. Never realised there were so many different types of alpaca, all part of the camel family, two of which are called Vicuñas and Guanacos, mainly reared for their incredibly soft wool.
The Vicuñas get frightened quite easily and let out a really high pitched whinny and then they spit copiously at you from one of their three stomachs. Just by the by, I don’t know that I’d like to have three stomachs, but I wouldn’t say no to three bladders, especially on the longer bus journeys. Having personally been on the receiving end of one of these Vicuña projectile spitting attacks, I can confirm that it smells really, really bad and sticks like concrete if you don’t wash it off straight away. So now I know everything there is to know about every type of llama/alpaca, including their gestation cycle (11 months), which may some day come in useful at a quiz night, by which time I will have forgotten all of it.
Enjoyed our time in Arequipa, lots of history there, including the oldest preserved Inca Mummy, called Juanita. I won’t include a photo of her because (a) you’re not allowed to photograph her and (b) she is possibly the ugliest museum exhibit ever and would give you nightmares.
Our next stop is Coporaque, near the Colca Canyon where the giant Condors can be seen. Getting much chillier as we rise in altitude and am very glad of the merinos I brought with me.
2 Frosty Tops Do South America 