It's Peru, Baby.

Triumphant with Tito's UK visa and our two tickets to London in hand, we're off on honeymoon proper! In fact, we've started already, we arrived in Arequipa just an hour ago, after a 14 hour overnight bus journey. Arequipa looks lovely, it's an old city and many of the buildings are constructed from an attractive white stone - volcanic ash from El Misti - the impressive snow-capped mountain which overlooks the city. This feels like the 'real Peru' to me - the picture postcard ideal (which roughn'ready Chiclayo certainly is not!). In the bus station when we arrived there was a woman wearing the traditional embroidered skirts and felt hat, when we got out of taxi in central Arequipa there were two kids with a fluffy baby llama, etc, etc. We are looking forward to exploring here, then Puno (Lake Titicaca) , and then Cuzco and Machu Picchu. We're doing it budget stylee - all buses and backpacks; we like the independence. Packages are ridiculously overpriced anyway - they claim to be for three days or whatever, but your last day involves nothing but a rushed brekky and being whisked to the airport. The bus travel is really not too bad either - you can take the 'bus-cama' option (bed-bus) which is quite comfortable and eliminates the need to pay for a hotel for the night! OK, I'd better go and start exploration of the city, and we're just dying to lunch on the famous jumbo shrimp!