We had planned a leisurely start to the day, however we had news that drivers in Cusco were going on strike. As we had seen on the way to Cusco when people go on strike, they blockade the road with rocks so we were afraid that we would not be able to get to the airport to catch our 2:45 pm flight. So we were up & ready to go by 6:00am. As we were about to head out the door, news came through that the strike had been called off so it was back to plan A.We spent the next few hours catching up on news, Skyping friends (including a NZ friend who was up at 2:00am & saw that we were online) & then wandered back through the city for a leisurely coffee & brunch at Jack's, which had become our favorite coffee place during our time in Cusco. It was run by Jane an Australian lady! This proved rather expensive as Corinne spotted some jewellery that she liked. To get to Araquipa we had to go via Lima which meant 2 flights effectively going via 2 sides of a triangle. Our first impressions of Lima were not good. There was thick smog hanging over the airport & we couldn't see much further. To make matters worse we had very little time to get to the next plane & we had to go out of the terminal & back in, have our hand luggage scanned again, only to be directed back to the gate next to the one we had arrived at. Not very efficient! We arrived at Aquipa after dark so dropped our bags & headed out to get a meal via the central square. Our first impressions of Arequipa are of a much more modern city than the ones we have visited so far & a very elegant town with many buildings built from white volcanic rock. We then prepared for another early start in the morning.
On our website you will find galleries of our photos plus blogs for some of our travels. You can follow our blog for our current trip to North Africa (Morocco, Tunisia & Algeria) HERE.