Merry Christmas

We arrived safely in Arequipa after a week in Bolivia and a week in the north of Chile to celebrate Christmas in a familiar and beloved environment. Unlike many other places, the city managed to create a Christmas atmosphere in the city center with Christmas trees, lights, and decorations - as well as possible in nearly 30 degrees. However, there is no contemplative atmosphere in South America around the holidays. Shrill music, lots of bling in all colors, hustle and bustle, and noise - just like always. On December 24th, there was still a lot of activity on the streets and in the department stores until late in the evening, where every effort was made to sell the last gift. This atmosphere culminated in a contemplative midnight fireworks display, during which the entire city seemed to shoot firecrackers and rockets. On December 25th, the colorful and cheerful atmosphere continued. Traditional singing and shouting procession at the main square rounded off the festivities. We found it very interesting to experience, but for next year, we prefer the contemplative Christmas celebration with our loved ones.

We took a detour of over 20 hours by bus not only because of the great city. Especially the opportunity to celebrate Christmas with friends from home was too tempting. So we met Kati again on December 23rd. In addition, we were delighted to have her visit (brother, mother, and girlfriend) and promptly decided to follow the St. Pöltner tradition called "Weihnachtskoll" on the day before Christmas Eve. So we spent a fun evening in a Peruvian-Austrian manner and made the clubs in Arequipa unsafe until the early morning hours. 

Fortunately, we had enough time to recover and were fit again by the afternoon of December 24th. We spent the time until then at the Plaza de Armas with a leisurely walk in shorts, flip-flops, and a delicious ice cream. 

In the evening, we were both spoiled with a delicious dinner and a small Christmas tree was also procured for this festive occasion. As usual, we then went on with full stomachs to the present distribution. To conclude the beautiful Christmas celebration with our "replacement family", we played various funny games and exchanged stories about our Christmas traditions. Before going to bed (the four had an early morning flight to Cusco on the 25th), we watched the fireworks display that covered the entire city from our room.

On Christmas Day, we happened to see the procession at the main square with peculiar costumes and even more peculiar singing. After that, we took a nice walk in a well-visited park before returning to the apartment. It was very nice that, even though the host and her family were no longer there, we got a key and were allowed to make ourselves comfortable until the 29th of December. We spent the remaining days quite comfortably with eating leftovers, listening to music, playing various card games, writing blog posts, taking walks, and watching TV. Really beautiful Christmas days - just as it should be :)

Today the journey continues... First by bus to the south of Peru, then across the border to Chile, and from Arica (the northernmost airport) to Punta Arenas (the southernmost airport). It's hard to believe that even after 2 flights with a total flight time of 6 hours, you can still be in the same country - Chile with its gigantic north-south expanse makes it possible. If you were to transfer the length of this country to a European map, the country would extend from the North Cape to the African north coast.

We are really looking forward to Patagonia and are curious to see what this part of the continent has to offer and what adventures await us. As always, we will let you know in our blog.

Have a good start to the new year :)

Feliz ano nuevo y hasta pronto!

Martina and Jürgen