to do or not to do

so at the risk of angering the traveler gods, we have decided to not do the colca canyon trek.

well, it all started in huacachina. a few things happened. first: we saw our first sunlight in a number of days. for whatever meteorological reason, most of the entire coast of peru is a desert and it is also foggy and chilly for about 10 months of the year. the two months not chilly are not the months we are here, if you were wondering. so, as weve traveled and enjoyed coastal peru, it has not been because of the weather. then, we arrived at ica and its nearby desert oasis town of huacachina. this, though part of the coastal desert, was exremely hot and sunny. also, the main feature of this area are its giant sand dunes. for whatever reason, the dunes surrounding the oasis are larger than any other dunes in any other area. surrounding the oasis is one paved road, and lining that paved road are a number of restaurants and shops to buy traditional peruvian clothing, and hotels. out of the back door of any of these establishments, you can begin walking up the dunes. so, also lining the streets are people calling out to you to rent sand boards (snowboards that you use on the sand). this is the main activity of huacachina, and being what it is:

a) sanboarding
b) in the desert and therefore brutally hot
c) you need to get up to get down, and climbing the sides of sand dunes is not a quick process

this main activity of huacachina is generally over within a couple of hours at the most. leaving 22 left in the day. what then?
well, unlike many other places weve been in peru, or ecuador for that matter, huacachina has a very active sit-in-a-hammock-at-the-side-of-a-pool-and-read-a-book culture. this we did for a few days. and although a person cannot do this forever (they say), it was ice to do for a couple of days. nice enough that it got in our blood a bit.

the next thing that happened was that we met a few people who had been to arequipa before coming to huacachina who gave us the report on the colca canyon trek. they told us that it is actually 6 hours from arequipa, that you have to begin walking at 1 am on one day, then, the next day you begin walking at 3 am. this to get to the area where you can see condors by the appropriate time. condors are cool, but the timing of the whole thing isnt. in fact, we heard a number of reports from people that the colca canyon trek wasnt as much of an enjoyable experience as it could have been, so, sitting by the side of the pool soaking our feet, anna and i decided not to do the colca canyon trek. we decided that we have, and will do a great number of treks during our time here, and that when all is said and done, our having been in south america and enjoyed it will not hinge on whether or not we have done the colca canyon trek - or any one activity for that matter.

the traveler thing of doing more seeing more and then talking about it can be addictive, but we resisted... that is the moral of that...

instead we have come to arequipa just to enjoy the city, which we have very much. it is called the white city because all of the architecture of the colonial center is built with white stone. its interesting. also, there are lots of good restaurants. our first night here, we tried out a good steakhouse. we are in the more steaky parts of the world now, being so close to chile, wihch is close to argentina (where there is good steak!), so we gave it a shot. the steaks were amazing and large and only about $10, which completely blew our budget, but is still a good deal for what we got. the only weird thing about it was that on the bill was a sliverware charge. now, i understand if a restaurant wants to charde a bit for service or whatever and include it in the bill, but to do so under the guise of a silverware charge seemed a bit silly. if for nothing else then that i would have been more than happy to eat with my hands like usual.
anyway, the next day, i ate what has to be considered the second best ceviche ive ever had.
and, last night, i ate alpaca. yes, alpaca - the cute little animals that we make sweaters out of. i ate one. it was good. tasted like deer. tough. but not tough enough for my teeth...

so we are still in arequipa and we are about to go see this museum that has a mummy in it. im not entirely sure of the history of the mummy, and really, im not really entirely sure of where the museum is. see, we have been looking for the museum all morning, having consulted lonely planet (by the way, im having huge issues with lonely planet. i suspect the writers of that book weild way too much influence over the minds of unsuspecting travelers - and in turn over the countries they write about , but perhaps that is another issue for another day), people, hotel staff, etc. the museum still hasnt shown itself. for a break we decided to come in and do internet, thus spawning this - my latest blog entry.

oh, and by the way, if you were wondering - sandboarding was fun and arequipa is beautiful surrounded by glacial mountians and a volcano on one side, and desert on the other. both are immidiately visible...