Arriving in Arequipa...

Wednesday 26th September: An interminable Bus Journey
to
Thursday 27th September: the second longest day of my trip!

As with most backpacking trips, there are some days when one must forget about all the good parts of travelling and focus for a couple of hours on the mundane and boring admin side of travelling in a completely foreign country... and so this was my day.
Having only made a decision the night before (after a few too many of Paddys excellent Pisco Sours), it was now up to me to run around town and find the best priced bus ticket to my next destination- Arequipa, as well as wash my loaded backpack full of dirty clothes (never have I wanted to throw away so many otherwise decent clothes and just buy a whole new set... eeeughh, 5 days of trekking had not been kind to my wardrobe!).
And so it was, that the Wednesday was spent in internet cafes, travel agencies, coffee shops and then a final farewell to my fellow fantastic trekkers before heading off to the Cusco bus station for the night bus to Arequipa. Hopefully to be my first and last 9 hour overnight bus journey!
Let me just sum up in a few words- the buses are great, the roads are not. And so after bumping and winding for a full 9 hours, we finally made it to Arequipa and I took myself off to a hostel.
Having managed to doze for all of 20 minutes, this was not going to be the day of happy chicken. The hostel turned out to be miles from the centre of town, and really expensive for a tiny room, an opened pack of condoms, and the dirtiest shared bathroom Ive come across.
Deciding that maybe a brisk walk into town for a cup of coffee and a look see would make the situation seem a bit better, I set off with the worlds worst map and found myself wandering the streets of Perus second largest city with no sign of Plaza de Armas. After a couple of interesting conversations with the local hairdresser, shop owner and ice cream vendor, I was back on track!
Spent the morning exploring the Santa Catalina Monestary: Founded in 1579, it has been a working nunnery since then. Opened to the public in 1970, it has been named as one of UNESCOS top destinations world wide. Constructed from Volcanic rock, the nuns constructed private cells where they were hidden by high walls from the rest of the world. Shrouded in mystery, only a handful of people have been allowed to enter the monastery in the last 500 years and the cells, the chapels and the courtyards have all been beautifully preserved. It is an amazing experience to see how these nuns lived, cooked, cleaned, ate and worshipped all those years ago.
It is still a working nunnery and 30 nuns still live in a secluded area of the monastery.

After touring the city, I tracked down another hostel that had been recommended to me in Cusco and promptly checked myself in to this (cheaper and far nicer) hostel!
I also booked my next adventure- a 3 day Colca Canyon trek into the worlds deepest canyon and a day with the amazing birds- the Andean Condors!

Caribbean Chickens Backpacker tip of the Day: Overnight busses and dodgy hostels do not a happy chicken make.