Saying goodbye to the girls this morning was not easy. I am useless at goodbyes at the best of times and at airports even worse. So having to leave the girls to fly all that way home and me being left here was hard. The last six weeks have often not been easy and there was lots of moaning and lots of disagreements but we were in it together and we will have lots of experiences and adventures to look back on. I think we all feel as though we have been here a lifetime, we all agreed it was the longest six weeks ever but all agreed we would really miss one another.
So the girls left and I waited a couple of hours for my plane. I did make the mistake of watching the girl's plane take off and disappear into the distance which caused the use of a wad of tissues! My flight to Arequipa was good. It took an hour and again flew over the Andes so I had my nose pressed up to the window for the whole journey. The landing was a bit scary as it is a city nestled in the mountains the plane has to fly through the mountains and make a sudden descent, I was gripping onto my seat!
Arequipa is about 2,300 meters above sea level and a really pretty town. Very clean, full of beautiful architecture. It feels safe and relaxed. I have chosen a good hostel, 'The Penguin Hostel', it is bright and cheerful and full of pictures of penguins (not entirely sure about this, just presume the owner has a thing about penguins!) The owner is Dutch (not Icelandic as one would imagine!) and has a wealth of information about travelling, so we chatted through my options for the next month and I am very excited! Tomorrow I may go rafting and the day after take a two day trip to Colca canyon. With the canyon trip you travel up to 4,900 meters and I will see how I am with that altitude before making any decisions about Bolivia.
For now I am going to relax and have an early night as I have had very little sleep the last couple of days and then wake up to a lovely spring morning in the mountains (I hope!)
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