Dry Bones

The cemetery was wicked-It was smack bang in the middle of the desert and very windy but it was well laid out and we got to see lots of mummies set in the graves which were a little freaky but it was interesting and the guides (we chose not to commit ourselves to one but kind of flitted between them) were knowledgeable. On the way back we went to see the Nascan aqueducts which was also really cool. A canal comes down from the mountains and another one from the river and they meet and the water is channeled for irrigation. There are loads of aqueducts in the form of pebbled spirals which you can go down and which the locals use to enter the channels and clean them. A young boy from the local village showed us around and he was very sweet-the pebbles in the spirals are not cemented so they can apparently withstand earthquakes more easily. We were later told by a guy on our bus that neither the cemetery nor the aqueducts are real-just tourist gimmicks. The bones were pretty real though and either way, we had a good day.

And so once again we found ourselves waiting for the night-bus, onwards to Arequipa. We used a different bus company, paid twice the price we usually pay for the same distance thinking we were paying for comfort and it was about a quarter of the usual quality-not even a blanket and the so called "semi-beds" were no more than your usual reclining seats. Erica and I had prime seats right next to the toilets which was nice. Time to find a new bus company methinks.

On a happier note, Arequipa is a great city with a very laid back feel. After breakfast we managed to catch the second half of England´s victory against Austria (yay!) and sample the local brew, Ariquipeña which is /well/ nice, coming in only second to the cusqueña-Peru´s best beer. (We have had to resort to drinking beer for breakfast cos its impossible to get a decent cup of tea in this country) Proof of this lies in the fact that we haven´t reached Cusco yet but it is everywhere. The dark beer is also really good although a little sweet. Ari and I decided to sample the Arequipa night scene last night-having been informed that there are no salsa clubs in Arequipa (what?) we settled for some great Machu Picchu cocktails, not sure what´s in them but they look like traffic lights and when you stir them they look like pond water, or worse. Ari taught me a little too late the ancient Incan drinking method of whisking the straw up through the colours-Ill know for next time though. We ended up in some night club where a Jack Daniels and coke cost us $5 and at that point decided to call it a night. Managed to get up eventually the next day but I´ll hand over to Erica who was far more productive...