2 days somehow became 1

Yesterday feels like 2 days ago. That´s all I can say after the 16 hour bus ride that took us from Lima to Arequipa.

Our last day in Lima was nothing short of amazing. I have decided that Sunday is my new favorite South American day. On our last day in Lima, Emily and I woke up early and headed into Lima Centro. We got there early (around 10) and the streets seemed to be just waking up. We could see shop vendors and restaurants getting ready to open, people on ther way to church, even the streets, normaly clogged with cars to the point of choking seemed to be a little more open. As we walked along the streets we decided to randomly go into a fe churchs that had opened their doors for Sunday. They were beautiful and moving to say the least. Old Spanish style archecture with high walls and ornatley decorated statutes of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, everything was bright and beautiful, the saints on the walls were staring back at us. It made me realize how powerful belief is, it almost made me want to believe, I can see how people can be moved.

Continuing along one of the streets we ran into a colorful procession. People dressed in traditional Andean clothing complete with musical insturmetns and masks made to mock were in front of a church practicing a religious ceremony. They had a statue of the virgin Mary and child dressed in the Andean garb and the people were doing a dance and playing music around the altar. All of a sudden the altar was loaded into the back of a flatbed truck and the colorful people were leaving. After that, Emily and I went to the Plaza de Armas and walked into a ceremony that could best be described as ¨gun waltzing¨. The national guards/armsmen were doing very traditional dances and there was an army band that played a mixture of om-pa-pa music and stuff that I could dance to. It was too much fun, I do have video footage but it probably won´t be up until I get back home. (I forgot my USB cord)

Flash foreward (a few hours) to the epic bus ride. The bus was nice for the first 4 hours, then it started to get ridiculous. The first few hours of the ride there was still sunlight and we were able to see the countryside/coastline. It was a humbling bus ride to say the least. I have never seen poverty in my life like I did on that bus ride. It was an interesting and distressing sight. Shanty-towns on the beach, falling apart walls, dirt roads; it made me think to say the least. But I´m not going to put those thoughs here, too private, this is too public for something so deeply embedded in my brain now.

There was bingo on the bus ride, which was fun for the first round, sleeping was impossible and when I finally did sleep, something kept waking me up. but I guess that is part of the territory when you embark on a 16 hour bus ride. All that behind me, we are now in Arequipa. This city feels as though it is more of a traditional, larger South American town. But I´ve only been here a few hours and can´t really make a good judgement.

But I can say, altitude sickness is LAME. I feel hungover but without the benefit of being drunk the night before. My body hates me, the air is thin and I smell more exhaust than anything else. But depite that, I´m sure tomorrow will be better because my body will be used to everything by then...or at least I´m hoping.

As a farewell I will say that YES I tried the guinea pig today and it was...interesting. More on that later. Now time for REAL food!