Getting started in Peru!

I am in Peru with my friends!!!! I had a really nice time in Iquique, very simple. I worked all day and then walked along the beach during my midday breaks. It was nice. On Friday I got picked up at 5am to go to the Iquique airport for my first flight to Santiago. Then I hung out in the airport lounge and ate some tasty food. My second flight was from Santiago to Lima. The lounge in Lima was not as good but they had some fruit and dessert. My flight to Arequipa from Lima got a bit delayed but nothing horrible. Then I got to Arequipa and took an Uber to the AirBnB to meet my friends! It ended up being about 19 hours of travel but so worth it. We all talked for a while, and it was really nice. 
On Saturday we got up and went to this super cute cafe called Oso (which means bear in Spanish). Then we went to Santa Catalina Monastery which has been around since 1579. It used to house 500 people and girls would go there at age 12 to be students first and then eventually become nuns. It was really interesting and a really beautiful space! We then went to a market that was full of food and goods. We got queso helado (cheese ice cream) that was thin sheets of crystal-like ice cream. It was pretty tasty. We also got a bunch of snacks to try. Some really good potato chips and corn nuts! Then we went back to the AirBnB and ended up chit chatting for 3 hours until dinner. This was so different for me. I have not just chit chatted for hours with my friends in a long time. I really enjoyed it. Then we went to dinner which was delicious, and we went to a couple of different places for drinks. It was a busy, full day and I enjoyed it.
We slept in today and then went to a traditional Peruvian restaurant. It was so incredibly delicious. We went for this adobo soup that is popular in Arequipa but they were no longer serving it. So we got a couple different dishes to share. That is one wonderful thing about eating with other people; you can try so many different things. We got a platter of fried cheese, flattened fried potato, and then friend mashed potato filled with cheese. We also got this egg salad-esque dish that also had some green lima beans in it. Our third dish was a cheese and veggie salad. And the others all got a duck stew. It seemed interesting! After lunch, we waddled to a viewpoint to see the Misti volcano. Then we walked back to our AirBnB stopping at the grocery store for some food. So far Arequipa has been really nice. It feels more similar to Nicaragua than to Chile and Argentina. I am excited for the rest of our time here as well as our next stop in Puno. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My first blog post!

Hello everyone (everyone might just be my mom and dad)! I decided that I wanted to start blogging because I am starting a really big solo adventure and I want to document what is happening. Currently I am sitting in the Dallas Fort Worth airport and I’m in a “luxury lounge”. I got a travel credit card and one of the perks is that I get access to lounges in a bunch of different airports. It seems really cool to me because I get free food and a place to relax. It’s pretty busy but no one is talking to me so that’s nice.  I was dropped off at the Grand Junction airport this morning at 4am to start this journey. I am going to make it to San Jose, Costa Rica this evening around 6pm. I can’t stop getting overwhelmed by waves of sadness and fear. It’s getting better as the day goes on but I keep thinking about the rest of my day and getting to where I need to be as well as what the next couple of months could look like for me. I keep telling myself that everything will be okay because it ...
Read more

I made it!

Image
I have safely arrived in Costa Rica and I am now in the place where I will be staying for the next month.  Yesterday after being in the DFW airport for 6.5 hours, I finally boarded my plane to get to San Jose. The middle seat next to me was open which was incredible, so I didn't have to feel super smooshed. The flight was 4.5 hours and when we arrived in San Jose it was very rainy and dark. I wasn't expecting it to be so dark at 6pm but it was so we will have to see if that is the norm or if it was because of the storm. Getting off the plane and through customs was so easy! If you know anything about my trip to Ireland last fall you know that I have a lot of anxiety associated with customs, so I am very grateful that it was so simple. I grabbed a taxi from the airport, and I really did not care how much it was going to cost because I needed the ease of that taxi. I got dropped off outside of my hostel and the whole block was pitch black. There had been a power outage I guess be...
Read more

Figuring some things out

Image
Yesterday after I did my blog post I really did not do too much. I do not want to stress myself out or do anything too crazy, so I really just spent yesterday hanging out. I talked to my parents, grandma, and Grace and this time I didn't cry at all during the phone calls. Since it was a Sunday, I wasn't sure what the hours of different places would be so I decided to do a late lunch/ early dinner so I would be able to eat somewhere. I went to a cafe that was about a 5-minute walk from where I am staying. They had a full menu as well as a bunch of sweets and coffee options. I wanted to get something like fajitas, but they didn't have any vegetarian options, so I ordered "una hamburguesa vegetariana." I sat there and waited for my food and while I am waiting another table came in and they order some cute coffee drinks and some pastries and then out comes this huge burger with fries with a huge steak knife coming out of it. I felt like such an embarrassing American f...
Read more