This morning, I realized how different it is to cook eggs here in Arequipa compared to Singapore. Usually, it takes about 5 minutes of boiling water for the eggs to be the middle of soft and hard boiled eggs.
Here in Arequipa (2380 meters above sea level), things take a lot longer to cook.
My eggs turned out to be the consistency of Yakun’s 10% boiled eggs. It was gross. I had to boil the eggs for a longer time before they were soft boiled.
I love my eggs hard boiled though so I’ll need to figure out how long I need to cook them.
Street harassment: How men and women handle it differently
At my language school, we have two different teachers in the morning, each for 2 hours of lesson.
At the end of my classes, I asked the teachers how I should handle street harassment here in Arequipa. I’ve had a problem of random men (it’s always men) on the streets calling out pseudo Chinese such as, “Ching Chong.”
I sometimes imagine saying to the , “Are you talking to me, then you’d better say it to my face. A–hole!” But the most I’ve done was this.
My teachers couldn’t help with this problem.
My male teacher did tell me to say something offensive but suggested that I ask my female teacher how to respond. Despite how angry I am, I would not use the word though.
My female teacher told me to ignore it and just continue on with my life.
How would you respond to racist street harassment?
The only time I’ve ever gotten a manicure was part of a free event by some sanitary napkin company. My nails were painted a pearly pink.
While I liked my shiny nails, I’ve never found the time or money to visit a manicurist since then.
Today, my school mate N suggested that we visit a manicurist and that the price in Arequipa is a lot lower than overseas.
We went to a little alley that led into a courtyard a few blocks away from the hostel. The manicurists in one of the shops weren’t doing much when we went in.
I chose to do a plain manicure for 10 soles but N convinced me to get something fancy. I flipped through the samples and found one that I liked.
It was a white-background with blue lines like in an exercise book and doodles. I heart it very much.
YQ gets her nail painted
The cost of the nail art was 20 soles (S$10) but it felt like a lot more work than that price. There was so much preparation: filing, cuticle pushing, painting the white base, painting the lines, painting the actual doodles. (You see what a noob I am at nailcare.)
The result was awesome. It looks like I am carrying exercise books on my nails.
My nails look like an exercise book. I love them!
Maybe I should have asked them to draw on the different past tense in Spanish, that would be very useful in class.
Throughout the manicure session, I felt something like guilt. Here I was with sweaty palms and my nails being painted with art. Am I exploiting the cheap labor of Peru or is this a fair trade?
Some things are best left unsolved.
Arequipa at night
Here is a photo of Arequipa at night to distract us all.
I’m only taking the usual four hours of Spanish lessons this week. This means that I have a really long lunch time.
For today’s lunch, my schoolmate N brought me and her teacher to a picanteria (local restaurant) near where I used to stay.
La Capitana, Arequipa, Peru
The picanteria felt like it was a long taxi ride away.
On the taxi, the teacher (who’s my age) told us about a bachelorette party her friend had. The friends were thinking of whether they should hire male strippers because the bride-to-be is religious.
The restaurant was packed with people having lunch. There were a mix of people from all walks of life. People in office wear and people in “dressed down” wear all share tables in this midsized restaurant.
Walls of La Capitana
We shared a jar of chicha, a deep purple drink made of fermented corn. It’s an acquired taste and I prefer Fanta Grape (which I hate) over chicha.
My meal was chicharron which reminded me a lot of 烧肉 which is Chinese roasted pork.
Pork at La Capitana
After lunch, we walked back to the city center. I dropped off my laundry at one of the laundry places. I have to admit that I have not used a washing machine for the past 3 months. I’ve always washed my laundry by hand.
Laundry here is quite cheap. The place I went to charges 3 soles (S$1.50) per kilogram. My bag of dirty clothes were 2kg.
Visiting the Confucius Institute in Arequipa
I also headed to the Confucius Institute which is just down the road from the hostel.
They had a small museum with very Chinese things.
Small museum at Confucius Institute in Arequipa
My favorite display was the little porcelain figurines of past emperors and empress. I looked among the mini men to find the only female emperor in Chinese history.
One morning when I was walking to school, I saw a large tour bus advertising Mundo Alpaca (Alpaca World). Several days later, I saw a brochure for the place and figured out where the location is and decided to visit.
I had imagined Mundo Alpaca to be a big safari filled with frolicking alpacas. I imagined being able to pet one or two wooly alpacas.
Mundo Alpaca is at the end of Santa Catalina street so it’s really easy to find.
The place consists of a large shop with alpaca-derived products. I didn’t look at any of the clothes because my main mission was ALPACAS!
I found the alpacas at the end of the path. It wasn’t a large safari of alpacas but a midsized pen with alpacas, llamas and even other camelids.
The animals were mostly sitting around doing nothing, except the two baby alpacas which were nibbling at the grass.
The white baby alpaca stopped grazing to look at me (or maybe it was a stare down, I didn’t know enough alpaca body language).
Baby alpaca at Mundo AlpacaBrown baby alpaca I call Coffee.
I didn’t dare pet any of the animals in case they chomp my hands off. There were one or two animals which sat in a dignified way, looking down on me. Others look at me a bit like dumb sheeps (not that I’ve seen any sheeps or their IQ test results).
Llamas or alpacas?
I headed into the exhibition area where there were a few bags of alpaca and llama wool. As I read the description of the different animals, I heard a strange grunting outside.
I rushed out and tried to find what was wrong. Then I realized that one of the white large llama was sitting on top of the other brown llama. It was quite disturbing to see the two animals mating.
Llama sex in the background.
Very soon, the brown alpaca shook itself, causing the white llama to fall off it. Then the brown llama walked away, leaving the large white llama standing there looking at nothing.
I was tired of Alpaca World really soon and headed off for lunch. At lunch, I had llama steak wrapped in crepe. Oops.
More alpaca photos can be found on my Facebook page. Click on the link for more squee!
Another cute event that happened on Sunday was a parade in the city center. There were men marching in suits. But the most adorable were the little boys leading the marches of their groups.
View of the inside of San Camilo market in Arequipa
It’s Saturday and I have no class! (Although I still need to get on with memorizing my verbs, never mind that for a moment.) I checked out San Camilo a little past lunch time.
The market is very near the city center. Like many other buildings in South America (OK, maybe just this other one in Arica), it was designed by Gustave Eiffel.
From the outside, the market doesn’t look that impressive. It’s kind looks like Kuala Lumpur’s central market. But the inside is something I’ve not seen before.
Tall metal poles support the metal roofs and sunlight pours in from the side. I have a feeling the inside of the market is modern.
For me, the most impressive part of the market was the fruit stall lane. The fruits were stacked really high on a sloped display.
At the market, I ate ceviche and drank mix fruit juice. I’ll leave the food entry for one of the #FoodFriday but you can check out the photos in my Chinese blog.
Juice stalls at San Camilo marketOfficial scale in the market. Reminds me of ancient Rome.
Other important news
I’ve moved out of my host family’s place. I’ve discovered that I’m not very good at host families.
Yes, it’s a good chance for language practice but only if I’m willing to talk. Most of the time, I’m more willing to sit in front of my computer.
Taxi in Arequipa
Today was moving day. I called one of the taxi companies in my broken Spanish for a cab. The cab never came.
In the end, the host-sister helped me call for one and shared what the usual price of a taxi ride is.
My room at the hostel has 3 beds, enough for 7 people and all that for me. That is just AWESOME. I’ve also made myself at home, which is I’ve made a mess of the room. Just in one day!
It’s hard to appreciate the weekend when I’m not working. But taking classes reminded me WEEKENDS, although my weekends will be filled with memorizing the different past tenses.
This morning, I took a combi to school. My host mom told me to take the bus heading to BOLIVAR SUCRE. I got on one with not as much people.
The ride to school was about 20 minutes faster than what it would take for me to walk. I should have started taking the bus earlier. Dang.
School time flew by. The classes at EDEAQ are one-on-one, which I realize are more efficient than small group classes. If you are thinking about learning Spanish for a cheaper price in South America, do consider coming to Arequipa.
After class, I headed to a posh restaurant which Foursquare kept insisting I go. Chicha is a posh restaurant with a slight sticker shock, although it’s still cheaper than restaurants in the same level as in Singapore.
Chica Arequipa
The bill came up to be about S$35 but it did include really fresh sae urchin and a beautiful queso helado (or “cheese ice cream”).
I took another combi back to my neighborhood. This time, I sat in the back so I could take a photo of the back of the head of the passengers.
Inside a combi in Arequipa
Being on the bus meant that I couldn’t see the alpacas up close. I did see them from my seat. They have been moved to another section of the park to graze.
I went to the cinema again to see if the Superman movie was really taken off screening. It was. I had a choice of World War Z or Despicable Me 2. I chose to walk away.
After a nap back in the house (or should I say, some websurfing on my phone on the bed), I head out to the Japanese food and ceviche bar recommended on Tripadvisor.
Unfortunately, my “three plate” dish was served in tall cocktail glasses. It was too posh for me, although it was yummy.
Mother knows best
I called mom on LINE in the evening. She asked if I had been making any friends. I told her I haven’t because I don’t mind being alone.
“Then why bother travelling if you’re not meeting anyone?” she asked.
“Mom, I’m travelling for my own sake. It’s not about making friends,” I said.
When dad took over the phone, he said that I should head back home if I’m not making any new friends. (I’ve come to think that he means that travelling along is not good. I’ve been on the road alone for 3 months, isn’t that proof that all is well?)
It’s a wonder how people who raised me does not understand why I do not go around becoming buddies with everyone. It’s not that I’m a bitch who’s “not here to make friends“, but I really like “Me Time”. If I happen to chat with people and enjoy their company, then it’s good.
Skincare bought in Arequipa
At this stage of travelling, I’ve either almost used up my skincare creams or lost some while packing. In Arequipa, I realized that my skin has turned from oil-combination to slightly dry so I needed new skincare products anyway.
Unfortunately, skin care products in Peru is not that cheap. These two tiny pots of Pond’s cost about S$8 with the anti-aging being slightly more expensive.
Face cream in adorable pots
I have been using the Garnier BB cream I bought in Greece. The cream is tinted and is supposed to give me a golden tanned look. Unfortunately, I have an orange face instead which clashes badly with the white sunblock I have for the rest of the body.
Another bad thing about the tinted BB cream is that my makeup remover wipes cannot really get them off. I usually end up sleeping in Orange Face and slather on another layer the next morning.
A clean face is a happy face.
I didn’t want to end up looking like a Oompa-Loompa so I bought two cleansing products. Both cost about S$8 each.
Today’s highlight was my 5 minute bus ride in a combi (mini bus). I wanted to take the bus yesterday but I was daunted by the crowd so I ended up walking to the cinema and missing the Superman movie.
I love taking public transport to save money since taxis are multiple times more expensive than the bus. Plus, I’m very allergic to dishonest taxi drivers.
The combi system reminds me more of buses back home in Kota Kinabalu because it seems to be an unruly system.
The buses have signs of destination in large signs on their windshields. The bus conductor hangs out of the door, yelling different destinations. (Back home, the conductors yell, “Keh keh. Keh keh.“)
One of the reason I finally dared to take the bus was because I realized that “SAGA” was the name of the department store near where I am staying. I won’t get lost if I hop on buses with that destination.
So I walked to the corner of San Francisco street and waited by the wall while other locals eye me curiously.
Many buses with “SAGA” on their windshields stopped in front of me. However, I didn’t want to go on them because the buses were packed almost to the brim with people.
The size of the bus I took was similar to this, but with less people.
Finally, a slightly larger bus came and it looked like not much people were inside. I walked to the bus conductor hanging out of the door and said, “Saga?”
She ushered me into the bus. Even though it was a larger bus, there weren’t a lot of seats. Almost all of the seats were taken. I stood awkwardly at the empty space in front of the seats.
I didn’t take my camera out and take photos of people in there. I didn’t want to be the traveller who treats other people as photo opportunities.
I then saw a seat between the driver and a school kid. I went to the front and plonked myself in the tiny seat. The street that I normally walk past didn’t look much different from higher up in the seat.
Then the boy had to get off the bus so I went back to the empty space and stared either out of the window or at my feet. It would be awkward looking at the passengers, some of whom were gawking at me.
When we were nearing my stop, the bus conductor repeated, “Saga. Saga.” I think it was to notify me that my stop was near.
As I got off, I passed 1 sole (S$0.50) and the lady gave me back 20 cents (10 Singapore cents) in change.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was my first–and unlikely last–combi ride.
Totally unrelated photo of an alpaca resting:
Alpaca in Arequipa, pretending to be caterpillar
PS Mom convinced me to stay in Arequipa for another week for Spanish class. I’ll be heading to Machu Picchu later in the month. However I won’t be continuing my homestay because the walk to school is really time consuming. And I don’t feel like talk to people in the later part of the evening.
While I love taking Spanish lessons, I cannot help but feel that time learning Spanish in schools is sucking time I can use for sightseeing.
My posts on school days lack excitement because the most exciting thing in the day is getting answers right when I blindly guess my answers.
Today, I learned past tense and imperative verbs in class. The conjugation of past tense drove me crazy and I felt that my brain would blow up.
I planned to watch Man of Steel today after class. However, the class ended quite late (to make up for yesterday’s lunch) and I couldn’t find the right minibus to board.
I reached the cinema too late for the Superman movie. The ticket guy said I was more than 30 minutes late so I cannot enter the cinema. In the end, I chose to watch Monster University instead.
I was about 10 minutes late for Monster University but thankfully Pixar likes putting cute short films in the beginning so I didn’t miss the actual movie.
Movie ticket in Arequipa, Peru
As I watched the movie, I was delighted to find that they actually change the language of the opening credits and even the words inside the movie into Spanish. I’ve never seen that in other languages.
I didn’t understand 98 percent of the conversation but the movie was just fine without fully understanding the language. (I miss Boo a lot though.)
The rest of the evening was uneventful. I had a dinner of chicken and fries and headed back to the house for homework and Internet.
Since I was picked up from my homestay to school yesterday, today was the first day that I walked to school. Classes start at 9:10am so I started myself walked 45 minutes earlier.
Traffic in Arequipa seems to be quite bad almost all the time. Maybe it’s because of the tiny roads and excessive number of taxis zooming around.
All looks calm on this side of the road in Arequipa in the morning.
The day was sunny but cool when I started my walk. I chose to wear flip flops today because my shoes didn’t have a good grip of the smooth stone pavements in the town center.
I immediately regretted wearing flip flops when I got out of the house. The weather was too cold for my toes to be exposed! As I walked down the road, I noticed that everyone wore covered shoes. The schoolgirls even had knee-length socks as part of their uniform.
“Combi”, Arequipa’s mini buses.
The side of the road which I walked on had less traffic since it was the road out of town. However, the opposite side which had traffic heading into town had a really bad traffic jam. It seemed to me that walking was much faster than being stuck forever in the one-way lane.
Things don’t look so good on the other side.Morning traffic at Olvalvo Grau roundabout in Arequipa. Look deeper into the photo to see the traffic jam.
Near the roundabout, the two alpacas which I saw yesterday where still there. Instead of grazing, they were just sitting around, glaring at people looking at them.
Morning traffic on Puento Grau in Arequipa. (Do you see the alpaca?)
I finally reached my language school after half an hour of walking. I’m actually quite thankful that most of my path were in the shade so I didn’t have to worry about UV rays.
At school, I learned new grammar and learned that I’ve forgotten many new vocabulary.
In the afternoon, there was an Arabic cooking session by one of the students. I got to see how baba ghanoush is made in real life! The food was good and we ended with pancakes slathered with jam from Germany.
Arabic food in Arequipa
By the time I walked back to my homestay, the sun was setting so I didn’t get an eyeful of sun.
I went to the Arequipa HQ of mobile operator Movistar to purchase a new SIM card. However, the employee said I could not buy a new SIM with my foreign passport. I was very annoyed about it so I went to its competitor, Claro, to buy a new SIM.
[The internet at my homestay couldn’t connect last evening so I couldn’t upload this post until today!]
Although today’s main event was my 5-hour long Spanish classes (with breaks in between), I thought you would be more interested in reading about eating alpacas for lunch. I’ll get to school talk soon.
After class, I headed to a restaurant which my teacher recommended. The place didn’t have the Menu of the Day at 2:30pm so I chose something a la carte.
The most interesting items seemed to involve alpaca so I ordered one that was drenched in sweet pepper sauce with some ravioli.
Alpaca steak tastes like gamey beef steak
The texture of alpaca is a bit like beef–slightly tough. However, the taste is very different from beef.
My dish of alpaca tasted a little like not-so-well prepared mutton. Or as someone on Facebook corrected me, it tasted “gamey” not “smelly”.
Alpaca is definitely not on my list of Best Meats to Eat (TM) and is probably down at the bottom somewhere with crocodile meat.
After my meal, as I walked back to my home stay, I saw two alpacas grazing casually by the roadside. That’s insane!
Cute alapacas grazing
Back to school!
I’m taking Spanish classes again in Arequipa. Lessons and accommodation here is definitely cheaper than Buenos Aires. Plus, I get to have one-to-one lessons instead of group lessons.
I was supposed to walk to school (2 freaking miles!) today but the school coordinator and her husband picked me up from my homestay place instead. The morning traffic in Arequipa looked horrible from my view in the car.
I had two different teachers for my lessons. For the first 2 hours, I had Senorita R, the next 2 with Senor J and the last 1 hour with R again.
I think I spoke more broken Spanish in these 5 hours than the whole 1 month and a week that I’ve been in South America. Most of the time, I spoke like this: “I loves to eats Japan food.” “I have a journalist.” or something grammatically, vocabularly incorrect.
Of course it’s all about learning and I’m learning a lot. In fact, I felt like I was learning too much after 2 hours but got into the groove by the 5th hour. I hope that by the end of the week, I’ll be rather good at Spanish. Hopefully.
YQtravelling 