Peru so far

Leaving Chile and entering Peru was completly uneventful! The fact that we emptied each of our four bags of any sort of fruit, vegetable (you know, like nuts), candies etc...did not ake one bit of difference, as they didn't even look. We got into a cab with 2 other Chilean people and gave our cab driver all of our paper work and passports...this is done everyday from the bus stations so we felt quite comfortable. After a few minutes, he returned with some handouts and a ticket and off we went to the border into Peru. Once there, we got out of the cab on the Chile side to get our exit stamp and then walked over to the Peru side to get our entrance stamp. It was very well organized and took no longer than about 30 minutes in total. Then we zoomed off to the lovely shit hole of Tacna the Tijuana, Mexico of Peru. We arrived there at 9:00am, but it was 11:00am in Chile...I swear it felt like a whole day had passed with this time change. And then it began...back to bargaining and haggling and being ripped off. It started with a taxi driver, but luckily we found the oldest man ever and he was sweet and honest so we knew what the price from the bus station to our hostel cost and this came in handy the next day when our other taxi driver tried to overcharge us by triple what the ride cost...I wasn't having any of that...back to India style.
We were so jetlagged from the overnight bus ride the previous night that when we got to our hostel, which was a hotel room with cable TV, we just passed out until 4:00pm. We woke up starving and had to leave the hotel to find food...no easy task in this place. We wandered around aimlessly and finally stopped at the least disgusting place we could find to order a sandwich, though we both did NOT want sandwiches. I ordered for Al and myself and I think my Spanish vocabualry is a bit rusty, as she got a chicken, apple and honey half sandwich on white bread with mayonaise drizzled on the top. She literally stared at it for ages not knowing what to do. I think the shop owner had never had travellers in her shop before because all of the employees came to help prepare this half sandwich delight and subsequently watch Alex eat it in the hopes of garnering some positive reinforcement of some sort. I kicked her under the table and she took a big bite and managed to give a shaky 'thumbs up' to the lady who was so happy and excited and just proud of herself and her sandwich...it was terrible, but Al, being the good sport that she is and truly into the cultural spirit of travel, ate the whole thing. Funny how I managed to order myself a tuna, tomato and avocado delight so when I gave a thumbs up I meant it. Sorry Al.
We bought some fruit from the local insane woman with one working eye at the fruit stand and some psateries from the bread shop so there would be NO reason to leave our hotel for the rest of the night and the next morning, as Tacna gets a bit rowdy when the sun goes down. We scurried back to our room and flipped on the TV to watch all 8 English channels all night long. It seriously was heaven. We left the next day immediately after check out heading for Arequipa, as we are meeting some friends in Cusco to hike MAchu Pichu together in a few days so the race is on to get there in time. The bus ride offered spectaclar views of the empty desert through Peru, but there was NO toilet on board and we are drinking tons of water to help acclimatize better that our gooches were aching. That's New Zealand talk...translaton - we really needed to pee badly! We did stop a few times, but we didn't know how long we had so Al ran into the toilet and I stood at the steering wheel so when the bus driver was trying to leave without her, I would not allow it. Needless to say, we weren't very popular on this bus ride.
At one point, we stopped at some random police check point where some uniformed men got onto the bus and started going through people's luggage. They also emptied the luggage from below the bus to search it all. Apparently, from what I can gather with my minimal Spanish, some women were trying to smuggle some artifacts in their luggage illeagally and they were hauled off into 'la oficina' where they disappeared for hours. I swear I suffered PTSD when this happened from the nut incident. They returned later and I am sure just paid off the officers who were probably tipped off by the driver and so the cycle of corruption continues and on our merry way we went.
It was dark when we arrived at Arequipa and it is always scary to arrive in a new foreign place in the dark...I don't care what other travellers say...they are lying. You don't know what will happen, where you are, where to go, so it is always important to have a plan, which we did. So we got off the bus, got our luggage, found a seat in the bus station and I went to every single bus company to find the cheapest and best bus to take our overnight to Cusco on the 12th. Found one, purchased it and off we went to barter with the cabbies...my favourite. Honestly, it did not take long to slip back into my India ways...Al too...and we were haggling over $1 or less. I am not ashamed, as those $1's add up! We eventually found a taxi driver with a giant mole on the tip of his nose that I could not stop starring at, but he took us to a cheap, empty hostel for the amount we agreed upon and we were safe and sound...and he was very nice.
In the hostel, which has no heating, we had the entire 5-person dorm room to ourselves and tonight too. The plug outlet situation is dire and there is this one extension cord wth dozens of plugs in it and some tape holding it together and no sooner had I mentioned that it looked like a fire hazard...POP...the lights were out, as the socket was blown. On the bright side, it is super cheap and the breakfast is killer with eggs, bread and jam, pancakes, juice and tea and it's included. We spent the day today touring all around Arequipa, which is the second largest city in Peru and boy does it show. There are hundreds of taxis and thousands of people running around everywhere. We pretty much walked the entire circumfrence and middle bits stopping to look at more churches, cheap shops selling panchos and socks (Al got a pancho for Machu Pichu and I got some wooly socks for London), some other random free places that Lonely Planet tells you to go that were a bit shit and the best to see a mummified child named Juanita who was sacrificed 500 years ago and preserved in the glacier ice on the summit of Mount Ampato. Funnily enough, when we got there we were told that Juanita was not on display, but not to worry as another child who was sacrificed was on display instead named Saralita. How many children were sacrificed on that mountain?
We rounded out our day with a 'must try when in Arequipa'...queso helado, which translates to cheese ice cream. It isn't relly cheese as such, but more of a creamy sorbet with cinnamon. Interesting and tasty, but super sugary and not for everyday consumption. The food here has been challenging for us in general and we had a dire lunch so we went to a groccery store for our staples, as mentioned in "How to pack for an overnight bus ride" and returned to the hostel for the night.
Tomorrow we will round out our tour of Arequipa, unfortunately missing the Colca Canyon due to lack of funds and time, and then getting ready for our overnight to Cusco and the acclimitization we must endure during our 4 day hike through and around Machu Pichu. Check out this link for details of this amazing jungle trek at: http://www.holistichealingcusco.com/2010/06/inca-jungle-trail-4d-3n.html