Blah the ride from Puno to Arequipa (less than 150km as the condor flies) took 7 hours, so there goes my day. All the fun hostels were full by the time I got here so I made a reservation for tomorrow and got a boring one for tonight. I look like a freak anyway because I had a lens problem on the bus and my right eye is all red now.

Anyway Arequipa rocks. It's widely considered Peru's most beautiful city and cultural capital, and just walking around a bit here immediately gave me the impression of a very lively, modern city. I'll be using this as a base for a 3-day trek through the Colca Cañon, the deepest in the world, and perhaps a 2-day climb up the 5820m El Misti volcano, which should be easier than Huayna Potosi. If I don't do the climb (depends on finding a group before I'm unacclimatised) I'll just hang around here until it's time to go to my last three destinations: Nazca (to see the lines from a plane), Ica (to go sandboarding) and Pisco (to go to the Isla Ballestas nature reserve).