No title can describe this

Friday 16th May

Today was a free day in Arequipa. It is a really nice town, in the centre at least. Obviously on foot it is hard to venture out to the suburbs. Actually most of the group went on a reality tour (also called a slum tour) which enabled them to see the real poverty in the city. They seemed to enjoy it, but I cried off the tour citing the cold which I have had for a few days as an excuse. Nothing to do with the fact that it was quite a late night last night.

Anyway while they were away Sara and I took in some sights, bumped into Fiona again, had some coffee and found an Alpaca museum, which was really good. It showed us all the parts involved in making the various Alpaca clothing we have seen, and also showed us some Vicuna wool. This wool is so expensive that a scarf costs $600. Its the first time I have seen scarves locked in display cases like jewelry.

After the Alpaca museum, we went for a really good lunch in a rooftop terrace restaurant overlooking the square. It was a pretty spectacular setting with the Cathedral and mountains providing a dramatic backdrop.

After lunch it was off to see Juanita. She is a frozen mummy, a girl of about 14 who had been sacrificed by the Incas 500 years ago. She had been found not too far from Arequipa and is probably the most famous inhabitant. It was a good museum tour, and we had the campest museum tour guide showing us around. We ran into our stalkers, Fiona and Ail, again.

After doing a small amount of shopping (for a party we were having the next night) we headed back to the hotel and had some drinks on the lawn. I had a few beers and was fine until I went up to the room to get something or other. When I get there who do I find but Jono and the 2 local slappers all on his bed (not naked but getting there). I was pretty shocked and left again in a hurry - for the rum the rest of them were drinking. Of course as I left so quickly I forgot something, so I had to head back. This time the lights were off and one of them was now in my bed (please no jokes about joining in - they were barely 18). At that point I got fairly annoyed. His own bed is one thing but mine is another.

At this point it all got a bit messy. Somehow our tour leader got wind of this, and decided it was a security risk for my stuff to be in that room with those girls, so she got the hotel staff to evict them. To be honest I was never worried for my stuff too much (although in hindsight I probably should have been), I was just wondering where I was going to be able to sleep later. Luckily there were spare beds in some of the other rooms so I was able to bunk there for the night.

Now all this was before dinner, not after. After my beers I did start hitting the rum, so by the time dinner came along I was well drunk. Hence I had no idea what I had for dinner (although I have since been told by others). It was a messy end to the night, worse for my new room mates as due to my drunkenness and cold I did snore a bit.

I'm not trying to excuse my drunkenness, but of all the freaky things that have happened on this trip, this has to be the weirdest, hence I did have to have a few drinks to calm down.