Arequipa, Barranco and then NYC

Arequipa rocked, the highlight of the trip for sure. It was a real city, without a culture of people trying to cater to outsiders, even though there were endless tour companies offering trips to Colca Canyon, the deepest canyon in the world, and the two volcanoes, Misti and Chachani. We got there Monday morning at 1am and on the cab ride from the bus station felt the energy of the city, people outside, bars and discos rolling, couples making out. Tuesday we went to the old nunnery, Santa Catalina, about 400 years old, a small city in itself, lots of beautiful narrow brightly painted streets and open air courtyards and quarters. We then saw the famous ice princess mummy, Juanita, who has her own museum - she was found about ten years ago after a volcano melted some ice on top of a 6500 meter mountain, perfectly preserved, and the museum was dedicated to the sacrificial act during which she was killed and buried and the many artifacts that were found with her. Yeah we saw her - she was small and brown and very dried out - pretty eerie.

Tuesday afternoon there was the parade for the anniversary of the town, and then the all night festivities - I've never seen anything like that, every citizen of the town on the streets, in the plaza de armas and all around it, until about 3 or 4 am, and a huge number of them until 7 or so. All were friends, lots of sharing bottles in the street, straight up citywide revelry all night long.

The earthquake wasn't cause for any real anxiety in Arequipa, but we of course realized it was much bigger on the coast, and had our families and friends asking about our safety the next couple days. I went on a two-day trek to the volcano Chachani, which was cold and pretty hard, but beautiful - we were at 19,500 feet, I've definitely never been that high. I went with three Irish folks, a married couple and another girl who's staying in Peru til November, and who might work at the Museo - I was lucky to be with them, they were great people and perfect to trudge through the altitude and strenuous climbs with. We met up later with Maya for dinnner at Johnny Coyote's, a knockoff Johnny Rocket's, red circle logo and all.

We flew out the next morning to Lima, stored our bags and went to meet Tammy Leyland of the tour agency Crooked Trails (www.crookedtrails.com) at her apartment in Barranca. Louisa had recommended that we speak to her - she had been involved in a similar doc on responsible tourism. We talked for awhile about our experiences, our respective docs, her agency and its goals - then we interviewed her for about an hour. She was perfect, a great way to end our filming - she clearly distinguished between community-based and eco tourism, and had a great perspective on tourism in Peru, with lots of specific stories of impact and responses.

We then went to an outdoor food and artesenal market in Barranco, the coolest hood in Lima - had one last plate of ceviche (raw fish much fresher and tastier than sushi) and one last drink of two kinds of chicha, one purple, one beige - bought souvenirs, took some more pictures, reminisced, then got a taxi to the airport for the huge hassle of flying home. We got to NYC, sans mochillas, at around 11 am and booked it home. Now we log the tapes and find a Spanish speaking editor. Buen Viaje.