It's a Good Thing We Liked Arequipa...

because we got stuck there! If you read this blog consistently, you may remember mention of transportation strikes when we were in Lima. This week, transportation workers decided to strike country-wide for two days and two nights, blocking all major roads. We were scheduled to take a bus to Puno on Tuesday night to visit Lake Titicaca, but that was canceled. Then we were scheduled to take a bus to Cusco on Wednesday night, which was canceled. Finally, last night we got a bus and are now in Cusco. We checked out of and into our hostel in Arequipa three different times! And the bus that we finally did take from Arequipa to Cusco kept stopping throughout the night because it wasn't running right. So what was supposed to be a ten hour bus ride turned into a fourteen hour one, mainly on bumpy dirt roads. And did I mention it was a 2 story bus and we were in the very front seats on the top of the bus, so you could see the bus sway as it swerved across the windy mountain roads. I saw my life flash before my eyes a few times. On top of that, it was literally freezing on the bus, because there was no heat and it took on the outside temperature. But now we are in Cusco, so hopefully someday soon we will get to visit Machu Picchu. Unfortunately, we had to bypass Lake Titicaca due to time restraints and the strikes. That is just part of the journey!

The protests in Arequipa:



A little more of Arequipa's beauty: