Tonight was supposed to be our last night here in Arequipa.  We looked at the calendar and where and what we wanted to do before we arrive in Puno/Lake Titicaca on the 21st of March.  We have accommodation booked the week before Easter as Peru is a predominately Catholic country, Easter and celebrations the week prior can be dicey.   So to get the dates all lined up we opted to stay one more night in Arequipa and then move to Chivay for 2 nights and then to Cabanaconde for 2 nights and then on to Puno.  Chivay and Cabanaconde are along the rim of the Colca Canyon.

Here is the route we have traveled so far.  It includes our trip to Chivay on Thursday the 17th.  Chivay is at an altitude of  3,635 meters.  This where we may feel the affects of being so high.

Today we don’t have much planned except finalizing our trasnportation to Chivay and finding a couple of geocaches.

 

We decide to go back to the little coffee shop and look at our options for accommodation in Chivay and Cabanaconde as they have wifi.  We check the availability and price for 2 places recommended by the travel operator.

On the way there we see another protest in the street.  This time it is elders.  The translation for this banner is “Regional Federation of Elderly Pensioners of Arequipa. Fighting for non-contributory pensions .  Long live the Peruvians without board !”  ??  I am sure something is lost in this translation 😉

 

 

We enjoy our coffee once again.  Stu needs to stand in the spiral staircase to pay the bill.  We leave with the information we need to make a decision with the tour operator.

 

 

 

On the way back to Plaza De Armas we stop in at the Cloisters of the Compagna church to find a geocache.  We were here the other day and there were lots of people.  Pretty quiet today.

 

 

Back in the square we see several men with portable typewriters.  I googled this and from what I read, they are completing forms for people who do not or may not have the skills to make claims from the state.  Interesting.

 

 

Stu and Leslie among the pigeons!

 

 

We get back to the tour operator and spend considerable time reviewing the costs of the transportation and hotel options.  We are able to get a better deal on line for the place in Cabanaconde, so we book that while we are there.  The other we book through Andrew.  It comes time to pay and we bring out our Visa cards as they have Visa signs everywhere.  Andrew wants some cash, so Stu and I pool all the Soles that we have (130) and he agrees to put the rest on our card after trying to suggest we withdraw cash from the ATM they conveniently have in their office.  We are finding that there are limits imposed by the local banks on how much you can withdraw.  We have found some machines that only allow 400 soles and a $5 CAD fee for each withdrawal.  Some allow 700 soles with about the same fee.  There is a daily limit of 2000 soles which means you would need 3 transactions to get that much, and 3 fees!!  Tricky.  We are finally done here!!

 

We head back to a nice little Turkish place for lunch. After lunch Stu heads back to the hotel.

 

 

Greg, Leslie and I head to a neighbourhood called Barrio Solar to find another geocache.  We were in this exact spot the other day with our walking tour, but didn’t take the time to look for this cache then.

 

 

The place we had planned to have dinner isn’t open tonight, so we search for an alternative.  We find a French Creperie restaurant called Crepísimo Crêperie. They make traditional crepes as well as ones made from a variety of quinoa,  We try these.  We all have a different filling and they were all wonderful.

 

 

Since we were all too full last night (except Greg) we skipped desert to Greg’s disappointment.  Tonight, we decide to share one of the desert crepes.  This one is basically peaches and cream.  Excellent!!