Machu Picchu train tix booked/ More baby alpacas! [YQrtw Day 102 Jul 20]

Location: Arequipa, Peru

This morning at about 6am, my neighbors were getting out of bed and the floorboards squeaked like crazy. I fell back to sleep much later and woke up for breakfast after 9am.

I tested out the 0% lactose evaporated milk I bought from the supermarket. I made lactose-less kopi C and it tasted well. I’ll write a full report for next Friday. Stay tuned!

After breakfast, I decided that I need to start planning my trip to Machu Picchu. I only have 2 weeks left in Peru and I don’t want to screw up my main reason here in South America.

I talked to the little travel table at the hostel. The guy quoted a US$270 package from Cusco to MP and back. He also said it’s quite easy to book the tickets myself.

So I started checking out the sites for trains to Machu Picchu’s nearby town–Aguas Calientes–and the tickets for the site.

I was a tiny bit disappointed to find out that the combination of Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu were all sold out until September. (Don’t worry, there are still tickets to MP.)

Booking train tickets were a bit tough too. The original date that I plan to go did not have cheap return train tickets so I pushed everything to one day later.

For now, I have my return train tickets from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes but not the entrance tickets to Machu Picchu because I needed to pay the entrance fee at a bank. I plan to buy the entrance tickets when I get to Aguas Calientes.

Baby Alpacas again!

After the tiring ticket buying, I set off to take the bus to the supermarket near where I used to stay with my homestay family. I walked all the way down Santa Catalina and realized that I was only 500 meters away from the cute baby alpacas.

My feet decided to carry me to Mundo Alpaca.

I was not sure how Milk (the white baby alpaca) escaped from the pen but it was calmly grazing and eating the tips of the flowers when I spotted it. I never got to pet it because it kept running away.

I saw baby Coffee (the brown baby alpaca) resting its neck on a bigger alpaca which I hope is its mom. They were so cute.

The baby alpaca snuggled against its mother and it was so adorable~~

At Mundo Alpaca, there’s also loads of sheared alpaca wool. I snuck away one pinch of it. Shhh!

After Mundo Alpaca, I walked back to the main street for the bus. Luckily, I found one which had an empty front seat.

The traffic on the main avenue was quite bad and the bus crawled until I reached my stop.

View of Arequipa from the inside of a combi.

After having a ceviche at a restaurant recommended b one of the teachers, I headed to the supermarket where I couldn’t find cheap cotton pads. Can you imagine, one cotton pad here costs S$0.35. That’s quite expensive!

I was hungry for something else so I stopped by the supermarket cooked food area. I was horrified to find out that the lady reheated my chicken drumstick in the microwave on a Styrofoam plate.

After the meal, it was time to head back to the city center. It took a long time before I found a relatively empty bus (meaning it’s not crammed from the front to the back with human bodies) and I got on.

A quick summary of the rest of the day: quick walk to the market; watch Batman Return in Spanish; have dinner; head back and blog.

See you tomorrow!

More days in Arequipa/ Dolls in Basilica Cathedral of Arequipa [YQrtw Day 101 Jul 19]

Location: Arequipa, Peru

I’ve decided to extend my stay in Arequipa to Monday. One of the main reason is that I really really dislike the act of travelling (getting from Point A to Point B) so I want to delay my 10-hour bus ride from Arequipa to Cusco.

Today was the last day of Spanish class. Both my teachers gave me farewell gifts–a book of coupons and a box of chocolates. That was really sweet of them.

In the evening, I visited the Basilica Cathedral of Arequipa which only opens at 7am and 5pm. The church has a wooden “devil” crushed under something heavy.

The devil in the Basilica Cathedral of Arequipa

The basilica also has a few dolls dressed up in lavish dresses and some with beads of tears on their face.

Other interesting photos for the day were:

Slightly creepy manequins for wedding dresses

I’ll leave you with a few photos of the sights in Arequipa from earlier in the afternoon.

Arequipa's municipal theater — Arequipa’s municipal theater

#FoodFriday: Cooking instant noodles in a hostel

Welcome to YQtravelling’s FoodFriday–the day of the week when I show off some of the lovely eats I had while travelling.

Today’s post is a special feature where I teach you how to cook instant noodles in a hostel. Let’s get cooking.

Last month, I showed you how to cook a steak in a hostel. Today, I want to show you how to cook instant noodles in a hostel.

OK, I caved in and ate instant noodles in my hostel in Arequipa, Peru. The result wasn’t that good but if you need to eat, you need to eat.

For this recipe, you will need

One instant noodle
One egg
Some vegetable
Pot with cover
Water

Step 1: Boil some water in the pot

Get the water to a boil to cook the noodles.

Step 2: Cook the noodles

Cook the noodles.

I don’t time my cooking and wait for the noodles to disintegrate from brick of noodles.

Take out the separated noodles and put them into a bowl.

Step 3: Make the soup with new pot of water

Pour out the noodle water and wash the pot.

Boil another pot of water but don’t use too much because you don’t want thin soup. While you wait for the water to boil, put the seasoning into the water.

I usually use part of the seasoning, pinching one corner of the packet so those seasoning do not fall into the soup. This results in disgustingly underseasoned noodles but that’s how I roll.

Step 4: Cook the vegetable and egg

If you have more vegetable than water, cook your veggies in batch. Blanch your veggies until they turn a darker shade. Take the veggies out into the bowl.

When you have your last batch of veggies, you can crack the egg into the soup. Break up the egg if you want floating pieces of eggs or leave it untouched.

Step 5: Serve

When the egg is cooked to your preference, pour the soup into your bowl of noodles.

Do you have any secret recipe for yummy instant noodles? Share them in the comments.

A piece of Spain in Santa Catalina Monastery [YQrtw Day 100 Jul 18]

Location: Arequipa, Peru

Santa Catalina Monastery is one of the most important sights in Arequipa. The monastery is known as a city-in-a-city because the nuns were quite self sufficient.

The entrance fee is 35 soles (S$17.50) which is quite expensive for Peruvian price. One of the tour guides in the monastery approached me and said the usual rate for a 1-hour guided tour is 20 soles (S$10).

With a guide, you will know more about the history of the monastery and hear interesting stories.

Back when the monastery started, it was a period when the people in Arequipa followed Spanish customs and sent their second child into the church. “To pray for the whole family,” said my guide.

It was an honor to go into church and become a nun. The girls who entered the church were from upper class family. The families were able to afford building houses for their daughters which is why there are separated houses–complete with a bedroom, a kitchen and a servant’s room for the smallest houses.

The custom of having servants for the nuns stopped when one of the Pope Pius required the nuns to live together and share a same kitchen so they can understand how the poor live.

Now, there are still nuns staying in the monastery but they live in a separate section, called “New Monastery”. They make cookies, soap and perfumed rosaries which are sold in a small shop in the old monastery.

View from Santa Catalina's top — View from Santa Catalina’s top

At the end of the tour, we reach the paintings hall where religious painting by the Cusco School are displayed.

I hate street harassment/ To market for healthy fruit juice [YQrtw Day 99 Jul 17]

Location: Arequipa, Peru

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?

Another trip to Mercado de San Camilo

A schoolmate, T, recommended the super healthy juice made out of soursop. So I went to the market with N and we both had a glass of the powerful juice.

I later discover that soursop is in the same family as custard apples. Custard apples were part of my childhood, glad to see its family here in Peru.

I got a cute manicure in Arequipa [YQrtw Day 98 Jul 16]

Location: Arequipa, Peru

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.

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.

Here is a photo of Arequipa at night to distract us all.

Eating at a traditional picanteria [YQrtw Day 97 Jul 15]

Location: Arequipa, Peru

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.

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.

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.

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.

This little piggy went to San Camilo Market in Arequipa [YQrtw Day 95 Jul 13]

Location: Arequipa, Peru

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.

[Fruit stall photo source: Foursquare]

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.

Official 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.

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!

How was your weekend?

It’s Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday [YQrtw Day 94 Jul 12]

Location: Arequipa, Peru

[The headline is a from Rebecca Black’s Friday. ]

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.

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.

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.

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.

I didn’t want to end up looking like a Oompa-Loompa so I bought two cleansing products. Both cost about S$8 each.

I took a combi in Arequipa today! [YQrtw Day 93 Jul 11]

Location: Arequipa, Peru

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.