Peru!

After San Pedro, the group split up. Some went back the the US, some to Santiago. This is when Laura and I (proud 1/2 Minnesotans:) started the next part of the trip. We bused from San Pedro to Arica, about 11 hours north. Arica is the northernmost city in Chile and, in our opinion, fome. This may be due to the fact that we stayed at an elder hostel thanks to a crazy German/Italian lady that wanted to share a taxi with us...long story.

Oh, and we also made the mistake of eating spoiled soy burgers sold by kind-hearted Hare Krishna's on the street. They were cheap and we'd had good veggie burgers in San Pedro. Not the case here. About two hours later and we both felt awful. I'll spare the details but let's just say we were glad to leave Arica the next morning.

From Arica we crossed the border into Peru. We arrived in Tacna (a bit flaite), changed our money, ate more soda crackers and boarded a bus headed for Arequipa. Seven hours later we arrived in Arequipa. Once again, we had a trifling time finding a hostel and after walking up and down the streets with our huge bags on a nice police officer led us to a no-name, no sign hostel. Sketchy! We were tired and agreed we'd spend just one night there. I think we both tried to ignore the lack of other travelers and semi-silky mustard colored sheets...

After the first night, things started looking up. Arequipa is a beautiful city. Colorful, good food, inexpensive, very historical and colonial. Like San Pedro, it's also very touristy. Laura and I had a fun time sitting in the plaza, wandering the streets, journaling, and discussing the various differences between Peru and Chile.

We both agreed that Arequipa felt more like "true South America." But I have a hard time with that phrase because all of South America is true South America. It's all on the map, right? Chile is often criticized in terms of lacking culture. My host dad once said that Chile has no culture at all. I disagree. Chile has culture, it just happens to be extremely influenced by America. There are enormous malls, American restaurants, to-go coffee shops and many English words have found their way into everyday speech. For example, "after office," "happy hour," "sale," "pitcher" (of beer), "sandwich," and on and on. There is a new verb young people use, "cachar," taken from English. "To catch/understand/get it." It's similar to our, "ya know?" Also, there are reality shows, morning news shows and "Activia," the weight-loss yogurt, is extremely popular. All of this wasn't here a decade ago, according to my host dad.

In contrast, Peru (or what I saw of it), did not look or feel as much like the US. Because of this, people are eager to say it is more "authentic" South America. I suppose that is true, but sadly, it may just be a matter of time. In fact, one morning we passed a cafe entitled, "Vanilla Coffee," and the logo was a direct knock-off of Starbucks.