Got out of bed at 2am not really knowing if I’d had a nano second of sleep but my tour was booked and I had no option of rescheduling it.

There were other Peru Hop people in the lobby waiting to be picked up and we all looked as worn out as each other.

Right on time the tour bus was punctual as always and I stood in line for my name to be called. One by one couple and single travellers boarded the bus and in the end three of us were still standing as he left and closed that heavy door behind him.

I followed him into the street to ask him to recheck the list – nope, my name wasn’t there, I even checked myself and neither was the names of the other two people.

Luii, the Tour operator on the bus from Huacachina had forgotten to add our names 🤬 to the list. Nothing else to do but go back to bed, at least I would sleep in silence.

Up for 9am breakfast wondering what to do for the rest of the day. I picked up a free walking tour leaflet from reception and decided to give it a go. As I have said before, my map reading skills are appalling and perfect squared streets or not, I couldn’t find the ruddy meeting point. I almost gave up, then decided to ask a concierge standing in front of a hotel. He very kindly pointed out that the number on his building was 148 and the number on my leaflet was 156 so it was 4 doors down 🤐 – at least I had the correct street!

The tour guide lead us all round the beautiful city.

First to a convent

Then we strolled up the paved street to visit the Alpaca weaving and textile outlet.

The process was amazing and the natural dyes used to colour the spun wool was extremely vibrant.

Continuing our journey we went to churches

University buildings

Down the narrow streets

To the Cathedrals

Up to a view point to see the impressive volcanoes.

What an amazing tour and an amazingly informative and dedicated tour guide leading us through the streets of Arequipa for two and a half hours for free but of course we all gave him a donation for his worthy cause!

We were shown so many wonderful sights and it is a tour that I would definitely recommend to anyone visiting Arequipa. What a wonderful day.

It was my daughters birthday today so I popped into a wee cafe for lunch, buy a beer and connected to the Wi-Fi to call her on FaceTime to toast her birthday. She was at my mums sharing a bottle of Prosecco – perfect timing. We had a good few laughs and it made me realise how much I was missing everyone at home.

Off to self navigate back to the hostel to prepare for my second attempt to get to Colca canyon – another 2am rise. Enroute I came across someone giving a concert in a square and decided to sit a while and listen to his dulcet tones. There was a whole history to this type of concert and I really wished I could remember the details from the guide but like my navigation skills, my memory skills are even more poorly developed.

It was getting late and I had been advised that it wasn’t safe to be alone in the street after dark so I regrettably left as I knew once I was in the hostel that would be me for the night.

A lovely wee friendly face was waiting behind the big wooden door.

Nite

😘