Arequipa

We took a bus from Ica to Arequipa. The bus was late by about an hour, but this is very typical in Peru. We asked if there was wifi at the bus station in Ica, because Jason and I had about seven hours to kill an he has his iphone that we use to keep up with the world, but the lady said no there was not wifi. So, we walked around town for awhile sitting in the Plaza de Arams, ate lunch and went to an internet cafe. We leave the internet cafe with an hour before the bus arrived and just for the sake of it Jason takes out his iphone and what do you know there is wifi!! It was so funny, and very Peruvian.
We rode on the second story of the double decker bus in the very front so we could watch traffic, the roads and scenary. It was like a rollar coaster! The driver was passing milk and fuel trucks on an up hill and sometimes with blind turns, he tailgated every car and would speed up and hit the breaks. It was quite the experience. We did arrive to Arequipa safe at about 9 am we walked into the bus terminal and we were bombarded by taxi drivers.
We walked up to an information stand and the lady had hostels that she was recomendeing. After much debate (between Jason and I, as to what would be most efficiant a) to walk around and look for a hostel in town with our stuff on our backs or b) just take what she had) and hageling (between the lady and I on room prices) we decided to go to a hostel that she recomended. We thought she would call an book the room and we would show up. But oh no, she packed up her entire stand and went with us from the bus terminal in a taxi to the hostel. It was the strangest thing. Clearly she is making commission on booking rooms or why else would she pack up her entire stand and leave.
Our hostel is nice it has a real bed. By that I mean it is not made of carboard, hay/cotton mix or a foam pad. It has a bathroom and there is wifi and bread and butter with instant coffee in the morning.
We planned on staying for three days, but on the third night our plan was derailed by some shady chicken that Jason ate. He had a food poisoning and was feeling terriable that night and yesterday. Today we took it slow hung out in the plaza, had lunch, ran into friends from PSF and chated with two local girls for a minute, then decided to go get some cake. The cake was good but not what I was expecting. The layers were crumbly cookie and cool whip, alternating, very interesting.
We plan on going to Colca Canyon tomorrow (Friday) and staying for around a week in the canyon and then heading to Chivay where there are hot springs for a day. The bus ride to Colca Canyon is six hours so we are leaving on the 6am bus and arriving at noon. After Colca we plan to come back to Arequipa for a day and then either hike Mt. Misti or head South to Chile. We decided it would be wiser to go as far South as we can get before winter hits.

Food here in Arequipa is good, because there are lots of choices, I am still really tired of rice. We think Jason got sick, because we ate around 9:30pm, the food was probably cooked at five and sat around for four hours and was then reheated when we arrived. He had chicken and I did not, but other then that we ate the same thing, I was totally fine. The resturants here are not like resturants in the USA they are just the front of people´s homes (well not all, not the nice expensive ones, which we are trying to avoid) but most.