mas Arequipa!

Still in Arequipa, still loving it..
The last two weeks have really been about me and Helard hanging out together, learning more about eachother, and me getting to know his crazy friends and Arequipa itself. He and a few of his mates love cycling, including doing all sorts of weird stunts, and I go with them sometimes, being a rude girl on my less hightech borrowed bicycle, though I give the stunts a miss.. haha

We´ve mostly stayed in the city, apart from a short visit to Quequeña, a small town outside Arequipa in the hills. This week we´re planning to go to the Cotahuasi Canyon on a 4 day trip, seeing the Canyon and some other sights near, a bit like described here: http://www.condorjourneys-adventures.com/peru_cotahuasitrek.asp

It´s also been fantastic to link up with my London girly Ulli, who has been in Arequipa for nearly 4 months, also in love with an Arequipeño, although she met hers here! It´s been great fun trekking the city together, without the boys, so we could spend time at our leisure in wool shops, drink expensive coffee in gringo coffee bars, and ofcourse, gossip about the boys! Have a look at her blog to see how she´s been getting on, and for some pictures of Arequipa to feed your imagination: http://lonelyplanet.mytripjournal.com/ulli

Before I left, everyone asked me what I thought I would miss from London-Europe, and the only thing I could think of was.. a good curry! Definitely in Arequipa there are no curry restaurants, only some chinese, but to be honest, the Peruvian dishes are so delicious that I´m not quite missing my chicken tikka. Arequipa has it´s own special pepper called rocoto to keep you warm inside, and pollo a la brasa.. ooh la la, I revel in the fact that I´m not vegetarian!

What I do miss a bit is my friends (hugs to all), and capoeira... which I both will try to find a new over here as well as hold on to what I had before.

Hugs,

Elise

PS: Also check out Eleanors blog who falls in both categories of friend and capoeira, and who is still living it up in Brasil! Beijos! eleanorbrasil.blogspot.com

hermoso peru

I still can´t quite believe it, but I´m here, and everything is wonderful. The flights from London-Madrid were fine, apart from the fact that I lost/broke the 2 most important parts of my berimbau in transit..
Being reunited with Helard was and is dreamily wonderful and strangely easy after 2 months apart. You will all see soon when I develop the pictures of us together, both with smiles a mile wide!

We spent a few days in Lima where I landed, hanging out with some of Helard´s family who live just outside Lima in Callao, and who were amazing, so sweet and welcoming.
The best Lima moment has to be when we were sitting at the beach enjoying the view, chatting away, when suddenly a really big wave came and soaked us from top to toe! Menos mal that it´s still very warm and we just laughed our heads off!

We got to Arequipa yesterday, and I´ve already fallen in love with the surrounding mountains, getting used to the crazy traffic (you need to see it to believe it.. really) and the slang. It´s also been very interesting to arrive just before the general elections, all over the walls, hills and wherever possible are pictures and slogans of people going for the presidency or to enter the congress. The voting happens tomorrow, which is very strictly compulsory, if people don´t vote, the fine is about 140 soles (about 30 pounds, which is a lot for people here) and they even block all your financial transactions until you pay. Also, since last night, ¨la ley seca¨ (the dry law) started, which means it is illegal to sell alcohol and all bars are closed, until elections are over! Obviously though, like with most laws here, there are ways around it...

Will put some pictures on next time, warm hugs to all,

Elise