After an overnight bus ride from Cuzco, we arrived early Wednesday morning in Arequipa, a city that exists for no reason other than lots of people live there. This is not a tourist leap off point or the big city or anything else. Its just a place in Peru, and I´m diggin´ the crap out of that.
Here, we´ve eaten really well for ridiculously small amounts of money. We´ve had papas rellenas, salteñas, empanadas, churros rolled in sugar and filled with dulce de leche, mini apple pies, a quinoa and soy milk drink, chicharonnes de pollo, salchipapas, lomo saltado, tallarin saltado, chaufa, and this genius hot dog-cheese-waffle amalgamation that deserves a prize for world peace. There are pollo a la brasa places on every other street corner. They love fruit. They´re selling prickly pear fruit on the street corners (The same one, Brett). The huge-ass central market has an entire section dedicated to the potato. They love pastries and fresh bread. There are cake shops everywhere (Why are these so frickin´ expensive in the US and so cheap and plentiful everywhere else?). There are Chinese places everywhere, but the only Chinese thing about them is maybe the chaufa (fried rice). They have a chicharroneria here. Meaning, there is a place dedicated to the creation of deep fried chicken bits. Also, I think its safe to say that Peru loves ice cream more than any other nation on the planet. To use the Yakov Smirnoff, what a country!
We´re staying at Casa De Avila (B-, good breakfast, pricey). In the morning, I hear a really long train and the sounds of recess from all sides. I´ll never forget the sound of Delhi. There was this grilled chicken guy on the corner below our hostel room that would call out some variation on Ryu´s Hadouken. In Lima, we´d hear Arequipa, Arequipa, Arequipa! from the combi hawkers all day long and now we´ve got Llamadas, llamadas, llamadas! from the cell phone people on the street.
We´ve spent the past few days roaming the city marvelling at all the cool things Baltimore doesn´t have.
I´m writing from an internet cafe where one hour costs 80 centimos (about 29 cents US). Though this is clearly an awesome deal, its seasoned with the fact that it smells like they´ve been burning Old Dog Piss brand incense here every day since 1997.
Later this afternoon, we´re taking the overnight Cruz Del Sur bus to Ica. I´m eager to see if we´ll be videotaped like last time.
Here, we´ve eaten really well for ridiculously small amounts of money. We´ve had papas rellenas, salteñas, empanadas, churros rolled in sugar and filled with dulce de leche, mini apple pies, a quinoa and soy milk drink, chicharonnes de pollo, salchipapas, lomo saltado, tallarin saltado, chaufa, and this genius hot dog-cheese-waffle amalgamation that deserves a prize for world peace. There are pollo a la brasa places on every other street corner. They love fruit. They´re selling prickly pear fruit on the street corners (The same one, Brett). The huge-ass central market has an entire section dedicated to the potato. They love pastries and fresh bread. There are cake shops everywhere (Why are these so frickin´ expensive in the US and so cheap and plentiful everywhere else?). There are Chinese places everywhere, but the only Chinese thing about them is maybe the chaufa (fried rice). They have a chicharroneria here. Meaning, there is a place dedicated to the creation of deep fried chicken bits. Also, I think its safe to say that Peru loves ice cream more than any other nation on the planet. To use the Yakov Smirnoff, what a country!
We´re staying at Casa De Avila (B-, good breakfast, pricey). In the morning, I hear a really long train and the sounds of recess from all sides. I´ll never forget the sound of Delhi. There was this grilled chicken guy on the corner below our hostel room that would call out some variation on Ryu´s Hadouken. In Lima, we´d hear Arequipa, Arequipa, Arequipa! from the combi hawkers all day long and now we´ve got Llamadas, llamadas, llamadas! from the cell phone people on the street.
We´ve spent the past few days roaming the city marvelling at all the cool things Baltimore doesn´t have.
I´m writing from an internet cafe where one hour costs 80 centimos (about 29 cents US). Though this is clearly an awesome deal, its seasoned with the fact that it smells like they´ve been burning Old Dog Piss brand incense here every day since 1997.
Later this afternoon, we´re taking the overnight Cruz Del Sur bus to Ica. I´m eager to see if we´ll be videotaped like last time.
2 comments:
When we were kids we would sneak up along side the Coke Truck shown in the picture and swipe soda while the truck was stopped or moving slow.
Guys,
As I sit here at my desk, I am extremely jealous! That sounds like a great place to spend a few days.
-J&M
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