Tacna and Arequipa

I met up with Rachael in Arica, and after showing her my interesting living situation, we set out for Tacna, Peru.  I had forgotten how crazy the markets here are, with people constantly calling out what products they are selling, and carts, children, trash, sacks, cars, people, and everything else crowding the streets.  After finding a decent place to stay for the night, we set out to the market for some lunch and shopping.  Later that afternoon we went to the movies, which is the first time I've done that in about a year.  We saw Divergent, dubbed in Spanish, and I was pleasantly surprised by how well I understood everything!  I rarely have trouble understanding people, but often the radio and tv can be diffucult.  I guess seeing it in a theater with proper sound techonology as opposed to on a bus or in a noisy restaurant makes a big difference!  The next morning we did a little more shopping, and then headed off to Arequipa.

I had forgotten what it's like to be in a big city in a poor country, with having to ask police to help you flag a safe taxi, and being restricted to a small area that is deemed safe for tourists.  If you need to ask for directions it's best to go in a pharmacy, or other store where people are well-paid, and never let someone show you where someplace is, because the possibility of ending up in an alley or basement, missing a few articles of clothing or some valuable items, is relatively high.  The first day there we went to the plaza to see what tours or excursions we could do.  After scouting out a few agencies to see which one seemed the least sketchy, we booked a rafting trip for Sunday, and an overnight trekking trip to the Colca Canyon for Monday to Tuesday.

The rafting was fun, and it was my first time doing it, but we had been told the rapids were class 2, 3, and up to 4.  Turns out they were mainly class 1 and 2, with one little class 3.  Oh well.  After that we did a very good walking tour of the safe, tourist part of Arequipa.  Many places here have free walking tours that students studying tourism lead so they can practice speaking English and dealing with foreigners.  They are often quite informative and intersting, and well-worth a small tip at the end.  On the way back from the Colca Canyon we stopped at some hotsprings, which felt really nice after the trek.  I'm still pretty sore from the trek, although it's getting better.  Yesterday I came to Puno, at Lake Titicaca, but I'll write a post about that after seeing the floating islands and doing other interesting things here.

I think tomorrow night I'll start the trip back to San Ignacio.  I had been planning on spending a little more time in Peru, but I'm just tired of traveling around constantly and being worried about my things getting stolen and seeing and doing such touristy things, even though many of them are really fun and interesting.  I much prefer spending longer periods of time in one place and getting to know the people and town and feeling at home.  Too bad it didn't work out for me to stay in Arica a little longer, but I'm really excited to see everyone in San Ignacio again, and I'm also really looking forward to coming back to the US!