One month!

It’s been one month since I left the U.S. To be honest, it feels like much, much, muuuch longer than that! Ohio feels like a lifetime away.

I am in Arequipa now and it really is a very, very beautiful city. It feels more European than Peruvian. And the weather is absolutely gorgeous! Absolutely every single foreigner here (no exaggeration, I’d say 98%) is traveling in a couple though. Of course, this makes me miss Oscar a LOT and it also makes it very difficult to meet people. Every solo traveler I have met has been a guy that was leaving the next morning to go on some trek or another (I will be going on a three day trek to Colca Canyon tomorrow myself).

In fact, I met a Colombian couple that has been traveling down from Colombia all the way to Buenos Aires and is on their way back up again, and they couldn’t believe I was traveling alone. They said I was the first female solo traveler they’d met on their entire trip! In Argentina I met plenty of girls alone, but since then I realize I don’t think I have met any. They are all either with their boyfriend or with a friend or two. I wouldn’t have been opposed to that kind of travel at all, but I couldn’t find anyone to come with me! People tend to rave about the benefits of solo travel, and while there are many, there are also a lot of benefits you miss out on. Having done both, I have to say that in the end I would choose traveling with a good friend over traveling alone.

But more on that, and Arequipa, later. Right now I have to go find a company to do my trek with tomorrow!