We get to stay in Arequipa for one more day, and yay! We didn’t have to get up at any certain time today! I still woke up a little after 5:00… 🙄

We went to the hotel breakfast when it started about 7:30, and then had a nice chill morning in our room. After a bit, we went out for a good long walk. I’d found a blog with some cool things to see around town that we hadn’t already seen. 

We started near our hotel – the Alpaca Museum (Mundo Alpaca) was cool! And FREE! We got to feed some llamas and alpacas and learn a little bit about how they make the textiles out of the fur and the history of them. We actually crossed the river and went up to a viewpoint over the city. It was alright – damned clouds blocked the view of the volcano. 

We kept going, seeing a few cool churches and such. When we made it back to the Plaza de Armas, we found some lunch at a place called Las Gringas. Hilarious. And NOT Mexican food as you might expect. 

After lunch we went to one of the markets and wandered for a minute, then went to the grocery store to get water and some snacks for tomorrow’s bus ride. 

We had a chill afternoon back in our room, then went for dinner. 

It was my intent to go to a rooftop bar for sunset and dinner, but the drinks weren’t awesome and the food was expensive… The sunset was pretty at least. We cut our losses and went to Museo del Pisco for actual dinner. The drinks there were awesome, but their dinner menu was way smaller than what was online. We had some ceviche (NOT the best we’ve had), and decided to go back to one of the little bars near our hotel for something else. 

The beer was good at the little place, but onion rings and smothered potatoes somehow took an hour to come out. We ate, went back to the hotel, packed up the last of our crap, and went to bed. 

The next day was our last pretty early morning! We were up and out the door by a little after 5:00 am, waiting for our ride from Peru Hop. At about 5:30, a guy came down the alley yelling my name, we walked a bit, waited a couple minutes, and loaded onto a van that took us to our big bus. 

We took off, and after about an hour, we stopped at a little place on the side of the highway for breakfast – I had some olive stuffed bread that was delicious! The coffee… Well… It was alright. 

Back on the bus, we continued our ride. At one point, I thought I saw some water, and  Matt joked that it was a mirage. We turned right, and there was the Pacific Ocean in all its glory! WOW! 

The road got fun about then, winding its way along the cliff line, up and over ridges up on cliffs that looked like we were going to get dropped in the ocean… But it was BEAUTIFUL!!! Ocean on one side, desert on the other. It was spectacular. 

Lunch was, literally, on the beach. In the sand, at a table under an umbrella, I had grilled chicken and rice and veggies and avocado… Yum. 

A while later, we stopped again to check out the Nasca Lines. Those are these super cool etchings into the sides of hills in the desert that have been there for thousands of years. There was a super rickety observation tower that we climbed anyway, and took a bunch of pictures of the drawings. 

Back on the bus, we finally got to Huacachina. Our hotel was a three minute walk from our drop off point, and we checked in, dropped our stuff, and headed out for a walk and dinner. 

The place was cool! Tiny, but cool. The oasis is just a little pond with a walkway that goes around most of it. The far end put you at the bottom of the dunes, which you have to pay for, so we didn’t go. Plus, it was already dark…

We went to a little place for dinner that had good pisco sours and ceviche. We were amazed at how lively the place was at night, even in the off season. 

After dinner we went back to the hotel and went to bed.

Here’s the video: