Arequipa, Peru

So after traveling from Lima to Paracas, Paracas to Ica and Ica to here. We are currently in Arequipa. We have been town hopping south south and south.

Paracas: We were here for 4 hours and went on a boat tour to the Ballestas Islands and saw billions of birds, sea lions, penguins and more. The cutest and my favorite were the penguins. I´m pretty sure I will be able to put up the video soon!
im on a boat!




penguins

sea lions

Ica: We were here for 1 night. An amazing Oasis in the middle of a sand desert! SO shocking to see this in the middle of Peru. Seriously, beautiful to see an oasis lake in between mountains of sand. Kevin attempted to go sand boarding. I dont know what happened, but in combination with lack of time and a half broken board Kevin failed. He exchanged the board and failed again. I watched and took video :)We left this town at 830 pm for a 12 hour bus ride to Ica. The nice thing is we booked the overnight bus ride so we saved on what money we potentially would have paid on a night´s stay at any given hostel. We slept for the majority of the bus ride but often had dreams the bus was maneuvering around a turn and flew off a cliff (as this is what it felt like) Yes we did fork over more money for the included bathroom on the luxury bus. The video that played on the bus declared a list of given rules the bus had like always fastening your seatbelt. it also CLEARLY states and repeats: "Ürination only in the toilets." hilarious. People sadly did not follow the rules. Because the bus was so turbulent and bumpy when I got into the bathroom there was urine everywhere. I´ll stop the story there.
Kevin and I luckily laughed pretty hard at all the human extrements we were submitted to in the back of the bus. Luckily we made light of it and after maybe 1 hour and the bus attendant literally spraying air freshener we were able to fall asleep with our nose hairs burning. hahaha
here are pictures of Ica

this is the main oasis


this is a shot from our room of the pool and the sand mountain behind!!


Arequipa: Hot here, nice "southern california" weather. and it´s supposed to be winter right now. crazy.
Right when we got off the bus (used the ground bathroom and took forever to fight for our bags) We went out to the taxi area. There were four taxi driver men looking for customers. OUT WE CAME. the one closest to us and by order the one who was SUPPOSED to take us. Saw us. Turned around. A fellow taxi driver says "those are your customers" (in spanish) This man, as he turns away from us says "No me gusta" which means he didnt like us. Man.... Kevin and I laughed the whole taxi ride and tipped him, for actually taking us. hahaha
We are currently staying at Koala Hostel in Arequipa and it´s nice here. We got here so early this morning after our 12 hour bus ride we were in time for the complimentary breakfast. which is always nice. Nap we go.