The day that would never end

As Kiah and I were blissfully stretched out and sleeping in our warm beds, I was jolted awake by a 4.9 earthquake. I laid on the top bunk of our bunk bed thinking "Oh shit, if this is a big earthquake, I don't know how I will get down fast enough." (Also....bunk beds have stairs.....I could not walk down stairs fast enough after Machu Picchu let alone go down a ladder from a bed during an earthquake). After the shaking had stopped, I asked Kiah, "Are you ok?" Kiah responded with "Yeah. Why?" And I said "Did you feel the earthquake?" And Kiah responded with, "Oh yeah, I thought it was part of my dream."   And I said "Oh, ok, well good night." Word on the street, is that Peru averages about a reasonably sized earthquake about every other week. That might have been good advice to be found in all of our reading. We learned about the wet and dry seasons, safety, money, electricity, voltages, verified by visa but NOTHING about earthquakes. Good news was, we were both able to go back to sleep. 

We awoke at 7 because we did not know if our tour would pick us up at the hostel or if we had to go to the travel agency. Supposedly, the night before we were supposed to contact the travel agency to make sure everything was in order. We got to the hostel late and they were closed. We tried multiple phone numbers but no success. So we decided to wake up at 7 to try and contact the agency to see if they would pick us up or if we had to go there. We had to either be at the travel agency at 8 or they would pick us up between 8:00a.m.-8:30a.m. The lady at the front desk was very sweet and called all the numbers (4 different phone numbers-work and cell) on our voucher and was still not able to get a response. She called all the numbers 3 times, 7:30, 8:00, and about 8:15. AND Googled more numbers to try and contact the agency. At 8:25 she tried calling different agencies to try and find a phone number that would connect her to someone at our travel agency. At 8:29, Kiah comes in and tells me that they are here to pick us up. We grabbed our stuff and hopped in the bus. 

The rest of our day, has been pretty uneventful, considering how eventful the rest of our trip has been. We were in a bus, driving around the country side, seeing llamas and alpacas, and rocks, and vacunas. On the bright side, we learned the difference between llamas and alpacas-Llamas are bigger, and can be different colors and they have bigger ears. Alpacas are white, and have smaller ears and are just smaller in size. And now, we all know the difference between alpacas and llamas. You're welcome. We also learned why Arequipa is known as the White City. 1) The stones that they use to build the city are made of ash from the 3 volcanoes that surround the city. 2) The snow that covers the volcanoes around the city. 3) When the Spanish arrived, they were the only ones living in the Arequipa city center=The White City. 

We arrived in Chivay, at about 1 and is the smallest town we have seen so far. We walked the area that had tourists and as we ventured out a little farther, Kiah started to get stared at by the locals. The Mormons that walked by us, fit in more than Kiah did. We then went to get a piece of chocolate cake and head back to our cold, leaky, internet-less hostel. We played cards, read and ate dinner. Kiah contemplated painting her nails and she hasn't done that since she was 12 and I thought about reorganizing my suitcase. We are now back in the hostel wasting time before going to bed because we aren't sure we could sleep through the night if we go to bed at 9:45. 

Hopefully, tomorrow will be more eventful.