¨vacation¨ mode

ten days. it´s taken me ten days to finally figure out that i´m on vacation. i´ve been in arequipa for four days now and i think i could get use to this place. cool mornings hanging out in a hammock with my journal and a book. hot, sunny days. three-course lunches at a nearby restaurant for six soles (that´s like, $2.50CDN!). good food is easy to find and not necessarily pricey. everything i need is within walking distance (except for a job). buses aren´t that scary. people are friendly and helpful. i´m always outside unless i´m in a store or in my room. i like this place.

so i didn´t think i´d be posting photos all that often but i did the most vacation-y thing tonight and it´s just made me quite happy. i walked over to the main plaza and headed up to a rooftop restaurant. ordered fresh papaya juice, ceviche, had my journal, a book and my camera with me and i waited for the sun to go down.

that made me happy. and i realized that i spent an hour and a half doing absolutely nothing productive and just enjoyed the sunset, papaya juice, ceviche and teresa time. i didn´t feel like i wasted time. i´m on vacation. i´m allowed to do stuff that just makes me happy. heck, i need to do more stuff that makes me smile like that when i´m back in canada - i just need to remember that. so yeah, i finally realize that i´m on vacation and i wanted to share that realization. that´s all.

i leave tomorrow morning to do a three day bike trip around the colca canyons with a hike down to the bottom and back up in the middle. i think i´ve adjusted to the altitude alright now but it has been a while since i´ve done a long bike ride - so please think happy thoughts for me and send well wishes my way. i should be alright - we have a van that´ll be with us. and really, we´re just biking the downhill parts and driving the uphill parts. so yeah, it should be alright.

i´m back in arequipa monday night and got a bus ticket for tuesday morning to take me to puno (peru). i´ve heard some interesting stories about crossing the peru/bolivian border but i do want to cross over and see lake titicaca from copacabana (bolivia) as i´ve heard that it´s MUCH nicer than from the peruvian side. we´ll see how that works out. it´s looking like i might be able to cross into bolivia with an australian couple but i might be heading back into peru alone. or maybe i´ll meet people in copacabana who are headed into peru. eh, it´ll sort itself out when it needs to be sorted out.

i think i´m going to miss arequipa...