Killing Time

I have 2.5 hours before my bus leaves, so I´m sitting here in an internet cafe where they are playing-and I´m not kidding about this- The Best of Michael Bolton. I said I loved you but I lied...

I finished up with Arequipa today, and thus Peru. My first mission this morning was to find a highly recommended bookstore in order to exchange my last read with a new one. I had a big debate over whether or not I wanted to take Jeffrey Eugenides´ Middlesex (which I´ve been meaning to read for sometime, as I am a big fan of The Virgin Suicides) or Sophie Kinsella´s Shopaholic Takes Manhattan. In the end, the Shopaholic won out, for practical reasons: It was smaller and will fit into my bag much easier.

Afterwards, I toured another monastery, this a working one, with nuns sequestered behind the walls. Again, I had a solo tour. English is apparently a dying language. According to my guide, these nuns are quite the singers and bakers. People come to the worship services to hear them sing (from behind a curtain of course) and you can buy their baked goods at the shop.

Following the monastery, I hiked to an outer neighborhood of the city. In this particular neighborhood was a lovely, palm-tree lined Plaza, with a view of the city and the snow-covered mountains beyond. I still don´t get how it´s possible to have palm trees and snow in the same picture, but here in Arequipa, it´s possible. The plaza also had a church, which I very much wanted to go into, but was unable due to multiple weddings. One right after the other. I couldn´t crash either, on account of my traveling clothes, which sadly, can never double for wedding clothes. One of the brides had a very noticeable baby bump. Scandal!

Following a tour of a colonial mansion, I had finished my sightseeing for the day by mid-afternoon. With several hours before my departure, I decided to take in a movie (aren´t cinemas awesome?! And in Peru, seeing a new movie at the cinema only costs $3!) The only movie that wasn´t dubbed in Spanish- and don´t get me started on how much I despise dubbed movies/TV- was Sex and the City. (I will find Mamma Mia somewhere!) I was able to see a low-quality bootlegged version in Cusco, and I was a bit disappointed. There was too much squealing, the clothes were hideous (that was a bird in her hair!), and it was just too long. But on a second viewing, it seemed better. But this could also be because I missed the first 20 minutes, so it didn´t seem so long.

So now I think I´ll just take an evening walk around the Plaza and enjoy my last hours in Peru. See you in Chile!