September 14, 2017
We all woke up bright and early so we could eat breakfast before heading out. We walked out and headed to some sort of petting zoo close to the hotel. We learned about the animals and of course took photos. We also learned about the farming and had time to walk around the facility to take photos.
 |
| ALPACAS! |
 |
| So cuteee! |
 |
| The location of all the animals was super beautiful! |
Courtney (American) and I decided we want to try and take a selfie with one of the animals, so we headed to one we thought would approach us. We were warned by Nadja to not take it with this particular animal, as we had been told it was aggressive (meaning it would spit) but Courtney shrugged it off and said it would make a great memory. She ended up eating those words because as soon as she turned around to make sure the animal was behind her, it spit all over her (and the spit was green and yellow). I was super close as well but I didn’t recieve a bath in spit, thank goodness. I also couldn’t do anything but laugh for a solid 5 minutes until I pulled it together. After I got it together, we left for our next destination, the Plaza De Armas Arequipa.
 |
| No question between John Deere and Case in Arequipa. |
 |
| Arches are super common in Arequipa because they withstand the constant earthquakes! |
 |
| Little nook of the petting zoo! |
Upon our arrival, we went to a beautiful church and a different secluded place with tourists.
 |
| Outside the church! |
 |
| Inside the church |
 |
| One of the many paintings inside the church. |
 |
| Fountain in our secluded tourist place. |
 |
| One of the many beautiful arcs |
Afterwards, Sabrina, Macie, Jessica (Brazil), and Anna all went and got ice cream from across the street. We then accidentally got separated from our groups, so we just joined a different colored group. After taking some more pictures, we headed back to the buses to go get lunch.
After lunch, we all headed back to the Plaza de Armas Arequipa and were able to roam around wherever we wanted for around 2 hours. We took tons of photos, bought more Queso Helado, and bought tourist stuff. I didn’t buy too much (there are cheaper places to buy things on our tour) but I did buy some bracelets for myself. I decided I would buy a bracelet wherever we go, so by the end, I will have an armful of Perú. After buying stuff, Tiia and I separated from the rest of the group to go explore Arequipa and walked around taking pictures…
 |
| Inside the Plaza |
 |
| More queso helado :) |
 |
| This lady really wanted a photo with me (her face says it all) |
 |
| My first bracelets for my collection! |
Afterwards, we returned back the group, took some more group photos, and then headed to our final destination for the day, one of the colleges in Arequipa. This particular college has an attraction that draws many tourists to Arequipa “La nina de hecho” or The girl of ice. We watched a short informational video about her first, before we got to tour the museum. Eventually we got to see the mummy, although we couldn’t take any pictures (our phones and cameras had been taken and locked up). After seeing the famous mummy we left the museum, and headed back to the hotel. Here we had pizza and celebrated the second birthday of the trip by singing happy birthday in every language and eating cake.
September 15, 2017
We woke up early in Arequipa, grabbed our suitcases, and made our way to the lobby to meet the other students. My roommates and I handed over our four key cards, and thought we were in the clear, until the man at the front desk ended up telling us we had to wait. It ended up that he was told by housekeeping that someone in our room had taken 2 bottles of water out of the fridge. We ended up waiting for a long time, trying to explain that we hadn’t even opened the refrigerator until this morning to check and make sure we hadn’t left anything. The desk ended up telling us to go and sit while they handled other exchange students. During this time I went and talked to Charo to explain the situation. Henry then went to talk to the front desk and got the situation resolved. Afterwards, we hopped on the bus and headed to our next destination, Colca.
The drive to Colca was around 4 hours, and the views were incredible. As we drove, the altitude was significantly increasing, and many students began to feel sick. We stopped at a rest stop where I bought a hat made out of Alpaca fur and got some tea with Colca leaves in it just to be safe. Many students didn’t care for the taste, but I personally found the taste of the leaves enjoyable (kinda like green tea).
Eventually we arrived at our amazing resort. Once we dragged our luggage down the steps, we all took in the view and filled out forms with information. The hotel staff came out and served us all some kind of fruit tea, which was not only delicious, it had ice! To most people this might not sound like a big deal, but in Perú, the drinks are either served room temperature, warm, or hot. While in my host family I put my drinks in the fridge (which they find a little strange), I don’t have ice to put in my drinks. So, needless to say, the tea was the best I had tasted in a while.
 |
| Hotel View! |
After we were served our drinks and had heard all the rules, we headed to our rooms with our roommates. I ended up rooming with Nina (Germany). The hotel room was super nice with a really nice bathroom and hard wooden floors that creaked. We had two beds and a cute little balcony overlooking the amazing views.
After we settled in our rooms, we all got changed and headed to the hot springs that the hotel offered. Three were hot and one was cold. We all spent our time swimming around and talking. After being on the bus for several hours, the hot springs were just what the exchange students needed. After a while Leonora (Switzerland) and I decided we were going to be a little crazy and jump into the river next to the hot springs. After asking a hotel employee if it was okay, we both made walked on the rocks into the river. It was far from warm, but it was bearable. We clung on to rocks and felt the current pass us by. Eventually we got out after Henry told us to get out (we didn’t have shoes).
After we were done with the hot springs, most of the students took showers and ate dinner fairly quickly so that we could all get some sleep for the next day.
No comments:
Post a Comment