we had hours to kill...We went to the internet cafe, uploaded the pics and blog, Piril started reading the book "Araf"...We thought the best idea was to sit at the reception area of our hotel. There was a lady there in her 50s, thought she was pretty "trendy" and she watched maybe 3-4 soaps one after another without leaving her eyes even one second!!! I was pretty sure that she was gonna come and visit me in my dream as a nightmare!!!!Finally the time has come, the bus arrived half an hour late (luckily), it was full of other gringos...The road was very winding but it was comfortable after all. 
As soon as we arrived in Arequipa, we felt the waves of elegance. The terminal was called "Terrapuerto", it was clean and modern...We took a taxi for 4 soles for our hotel. It was 8 in the morning...We had booked the hotel from hostelbookers, from the pictures it looked pretty gloomy but it came out to be in a great area of Arequipa. The owner lady, (Paquita) in her late 50s, very warmly greeted us and let us check in that early in the morning. We showered, changed our clothes and went out to explore the city. The city is obviously very colonial, the main square was surrounded by beautiful buildings, the Cathedral 
and different churches, the streets were narrow and resembled pretty much Andalucia, Spain. It was the Kurban Holiday in Turkey, so we called our families, walked around the park, went to a very nice shopping arcade area and had pizza and sandwich...Our next stop was Santa Catalina Convent. The convent is almost like a city within a city, it was founded in the 16th C and had all the Spanish characteristics of colonial architecture. 
We had a guide, Nursy, who explained us very well about the convent. I guess it was the most beatiful convent I have ever seen...While we were walking around, we met Angel, who is a driver guide and had a deal with him for a half day tour for 30 soles (10 USD). He looked a good and smart guy and the price
looked right, so we had the deal. He was going to come and pick us up from the hotel the next day...We went to a cafe overlooking the Plaza de Armas, had nice cafe and after checking out the internet, came back to our room. Upon refreshing a little bit, we decided to go to the Turkish restaurant that we read on Lonely Planet Guide for dinner. They became a chain actually, 3 restaurants and two bars all around Arequipa.(no raki at the bar!!!) There was a Turkish Gentleman there, who was born and raised in Bulgaria, 
but moved to Turkey after 1989, his son had met a Peruvian in Germany and they all moved to Peru 8 years ago!!! He was a nice guy, though did not appear much Turkish to us...Piril tried a "Patlicanli Urfa" which was supposed to be Urfa Kebab with eggplant, but it came out something totally odd! I had a mixed salad, which was not Turkish at all, but at least I was not disappointed...We paid 35 soles for the whole great meal(!!!) and thought again that the man 
was not Turkish, because he did not even make a discount, let alone getting the meal for courtesy for us!!(guess not every day a Turkish person is visiting his shop). They did not have anything coming from Turkey, there was no meze, no raki, no yoghurt...nada..So, we rated the place 2 out of 10 and came back to our hotel to crash!!!
The next morning, we had a classic breakfast at our colonial courtyarded hotel and started exploring the city. We went to Mercado, walked the narrow streets of Arequipa, did a little bit of shopping etc...It was nice to walk around freely, without worrying about anything...The people looked pretty nice, they were much more smiling and welcoming, they 
looked much more educated. Even the lady at the hotel got our bus tickets for Cusco at no additional service cost!!!We decided that Arequipa was our favorite city...At 2 pm, we came back to our hotel for our tour with Angel. He had a nice Hyundai minibus and we were the only clients!!! He showed us different parts of Arequpa, 
we even saw a baby alpaca, a great view of the city, a colonial house which was the mansion of the founder of Arequipa...At the end of the tour, he probably wanted to have a drink with us, but we just ignored him and went to the internet cafe to upload the photos...We had not realized how quickly the time has passed, 
we just rushed back to the hotel, got our backpacks and took a taxi...Our bus for Cusco was leaving at 8:30 pm and we were there at 8:25!!! Well, guess either my being a sagittarius or Murphy decided to make a favor for us, we had made it!!! The Cruz del Sur bus the same quality ever, but the road was horrible. It really was the most horrible road we have taken so far, it had unbelievable curves, 
it got really cold (though the heating was pretty good)and I bet it was not paved!!! We jumped on the bus, woke up every hour, listened to IPOD and went back to sleep on and off...A long day was waiting for us, so I fainted at the end...
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