The night bus is scheduled to leave at 10PM.  We are dropped off by Mickey at about 9:40.   The waiting room is crowded with people and very very hot.  We check in our bigger bags and wait for our bus.

It arrives about 10:20, we watch as our bags are loaded and board the bus.  We have booked the bed seats for 130 Soles, just over $50 CAD.

 

We settle into this comfortable bus thinking that it would be really nice if we had seats like this on a flight!

 

 

 

 

We  get rolling about 10:30 and shortly after they turn out the lights and we can sleep.  Well, that is the theory.  🙂  It is very dark out and the road is not lit.  We feel the bus take several turns, what feel like hairpins to me.  We can see the speedometer displayed at the front of our cabin and I think he is going too fast!  The road feels very rough, like a gravel, but large gravel.  It is like being on a roller coaster for 10 hours!!  The bus has 2 levels, we are on the bottom and feel the sway.  Later we discuss what the passengers on the upper level must have felt.  We are told that a week or so ago there was a rain storm and lots of rocks fell down on the road.  We think we felt each one.

Greg and Leslie managed to sleep for most of the wild ride while Stu and I dosed in and out.

 

We arrived to a beautiful morning in Arequipa.  Locate a taxi to take us to our hotel.

 

 

It is only about 8AM so our rooms are not ready.  They offer us their breakfast for 5 soles ($2 CAD).  Fruit, cereals, yogurt, the strong strong coffee we are seeing everywhere, also eggs cooked the way you want them.  Not a bad deal!

 

 

We head off to explore once our rooms are ready.

 

 

 

 

 

We see this street clogged with taxis on our way to Armas Square.

 

 

 

The square is a very busy place.  The Cathedral borders it on one side and 3 large buildings with colonnades flank the others.

 

 

This lady is serving drinks from this bucket using glasses that she rinses out and carries in the other bucket half filled with water and uses them for next customer.

 

 

They have what appears to be “Official Photographers” in the square.  They all have credentials around there necks and wear khaki vests.  It is obviously a very tiring job!

 

 

 

 

The pigeons are really enjoying this fountain.  They are sitting on the rim letting the water roll over their little feet.

 

 

 

 

This the the Cathedral.  Quite beautiful.

 

 

 

Arequipa is at an altitude of 2,321 Meters or 7,614 feet.  We are starting to climb now.  Our next stop will be a bit higher at 3,635 Meters.

 

We are out for dinner and the Cathedral is lit up beautifully.

 

 

 

We enjoy a pizza and salad at a little place Greg and Leslie found this afternoon.  Large Pizza, Avocado Salad and a litre of red wine for 79 soles or $30 CAD!

 

 

 

 

 

On our way home we find Che!  He has shown up almost everywhere we travel.

 

 

Off to bed for a good sleep tonight!!