Taxis,Hostels, and Parks

So, it´s only been two days since our last post, but so much has happened to us!!



We made it to our hostel in Miraflores after a crazy taxi ride through the city. Everyone drives like it´s their own road here, and we quickly learnt that pedestrians better watch themselves! Our taxi driver was super nice and played American music for us...even "Party in the USA". (Shoutout to Braidy).



Once we made it to our hostel, we decided to walk around the city. We went to the beach, a park with all of these cool bull sculptures and some markets. When we got back to our hostel, we were serenaded by our host Omero, turns out music is a great way to hang out without needing to know a lot of spanish! Luckily, almost everyone could speak a little english and also help us with our spanish... which, we are proud to report is getting better by the day! Also, we taught them a very important word in english...awesome. Roughly tranlated to ¨lo maximo¨ en espanol. The folks at our hostel were interesting, we met a Brazilian doctor, two swedish backpackers, Italian students, and Argentinians on vacation. They were all really lo maximo. They gave us really good travleing advice (We think we are now going to volunteer in an animal reserve in Bolivia there might be Pumas there, that´s Aijah booya) and it was fun listening to music and hanging out on the porch with the evening noise of the city in the background. Let´s just say..... that night we didnt get a lot of sleep....sharing a room with 6 guys was eventful...not sure how we ended up there.. oh the life of a CHEAP hosteler...haha (don´t worry moms¨;))



The next day we took the longest bus ride to date....16 hours to Arequipa, which is where we are now. The bus was actually really fun. While waiting we met the nicest guy ever in this park. We (aka Jo) talked to him for a good fifteen minutes in Spanish.. holla! While Aly stared and smiled... but still looked good doing it! We also shared a pastel de manzana with one of our new friends on the bus. Everyone has been so nice to us here, and we quickly learnt that smiling and making friends, regardless of our lack of spanish skills goes a long way.



We managed to sleep on the bus pretty well.... (aka Aly) Jo on the other hand is not very good at staying still for 16 hours.... woops my bad. !! Aly has promised me benadryl for the next ride though. We hghly recommend CIAL to anyone who travels across SA! They are the bomb. We also got food...which was AWESOME and delicious... including this sweet pudding stuff that we... I mean Jo, couldn´t stop eating.



Today upon our arrival in Arequipa, we took a taxi (don´t worry D, he was super friendly), also for a much lower price, we are learning! OUr hostel, is super cute, colorful, and definitely more chill then the previous one we stayed at. The roof is awesome, and we plan on hanging out there later tonight. Everything is so extreme and beautiful in the city, it´s awesome. We saw lots of churches today and amazing architecture. We spent some time in the city center and watched kids feed pigeons. Also, we went to another park and watched some of the best street performers ever. Sometimes people think that violence is funny....especially in the park. I guess slapstick comedy is the best comparison. We also met a new friend named Johnny who showed us around the park and told us he has dreams of coming to the states.



We love it here so far. Tomorrow we are going to travel to Colca Canyon which is the largest canyon in the world, take that grand canyon! We will be spending one night in this little town called Chivay and then trek to a volcanoe the following day. We are super excited to see what Colca has to offer! We will for sure report back on Colca and trekking (which Jo is super excited for and Aly has decided due to the altitude Jo may have to carry her or rent a mule!)



We love you Guys and know we are loved! Thanks for reading our blogging and checking in on our travels! Until then Adventure is out there! Hasta Luego!