19th Sept - Arequipa

Up v early to find a cafe with wifi so that I could listen to the All-Ireland final - found a place eventually and heard Micheál commentating for last time on All-Ireland final day. It was quite sad really. Even sadder was Cork winning. Nightmare scenario!

Went out to have a look around Arequipa and pottered around. Nice city - the Plaza de Armas is really class. All white, marble (or granite, I don't know which!) very grand, lovely place to while away an afternoon. No time for that though, I had a Peru Primera Liga to attend. Local crowd Melgar were playing vs worst team in the league. So went along, noticed that the crowd looked a little small - turned out to be around 4,000 or so in a 50,000 seater! With a running track around it. Atmosphere pretty much zero, and the standard of ball was v poor, but a 3-3 draw and a couple of reds meant it was exciting at least!

Came back from match and went to see the sunset over the plaza de armas. Got chatting to possibly the gayest man ever (Malaysian but he like soooo lived in Bangkok for years. No shit sweetheart) which got a bit tedious after a while. He takes a nice photo though and luckily he left before the sun actually set, sharing a romantic sunset with honeymooners is one thing, sharing a rooftop vista with this lad quite another!

Plaza de Armas, Arequipa with El Misti in the background

Then I went to book my trip to Colca Canyon - the reason most people come to Arequipa. Intended to do the 3 day trip but turns out the 2 day was over the same route but more challenging so plumped for that instead. It means a 3 am start, but look, has to be done - all part of it!