The French Invasion!

August 9th, 2010: Being in Arequipa for over a week, it is time to move on. This city is the second largest city in Peru coming in at about 1,000,000 Peruvians, about 1,500,000 dogs and about 20,000 French tourists which I think is also home to the most spectacular plaza to date (Plaza de Armas).

My activities were quite basic during my visit here ranging from seeing a billion churches, a few museums and even a brief visit to see the world renown Ice Princess – which scientist claim to have been extremely beautiful when she was alive but really…how can you tell with skin that looks like leather from her extended stay in a brick of ice?

One of the best parts of my visit to Arequipa was the visits to the untouched areas by tourist as my friend and I would shoot ourselves far into going to the countryside and slums making our way back by foot…until we were too tired or it was too late to go on.

The visit to the local watering hole was not too bad either giving me an opportunity to improve on my bar tricks after one whole entire beer that I would milk like a cats teat during the night as we listened to live music.

I leave for Cuzco tonight with my French friend, Cecil. I am hoping that on the 10 hour night bus she will have a moment to again try to teach me a little French so that I can attempt to communicate with the hoards of French travelers I am meeting along the way in their native tongue. France has seemed to have peacefully and stealthily invaded Peru without the Peruvian intelligence even knowing about it. Soon, they will take arms and claim that Peru belongs to France. At least if this happens, travelers can be assured french fries will continue to be a staple in the Peruvian diet.