Throughout the night activity continued on the highway with more and more vehicles arriving and joining the line waiting for the road to be opened.
At 5:00 am there was a knock on the door of the Tiger. Two men speaking only Spanish wanted my help with something. Eventually I lent them the chain I use to lock the spare fuel containers onto the rear carrier and my shovel and accompanied them back to their vehicle. They had driven off the side of the road onto the soft earth and were bogged. I worked with them and many other passersby for about 2 hours but did not succeed in getting them out of the mud.
Getting up so early gave me the opportunity to watch the antics in the line of vehicles waiting for the road to open; and antics they were. Buses and trucks outnumbered cars at least 10 to 1, so there was diesel smoke everywhere. The bus drivers seem to be especially impatient, many of them drove down the wrong side of the road passing the 2-3 miles of waiting trucks thereby completely blocking the road and making for total chaos when the protesters finally let some vehicles come from the other direction.
About 8:00 we joined the line that was now moving slowly in fits and starts. After about an hour we crawled up to the blockade to find piles of rocks on the road and a number of burning tires, effectively turning the highway into a one lane road. But we were through and on our way to Arequipa. A little past the blockade we noticed about 80 police officers in riot control gear and what looked like expended tear gas canisters on the side of the road.
What a weird experience.
We found the Hostal Mercedes without any trouble and then walked the short distance to the main square, and then a little further to a famous convent, the Monestario De Santa Catelina an elaborate complex of buildings that has been a convent since the early 1500's. We spent an hour or so with a guide getting the feeling of the place.
After that Nina went to a museum to see a famous mummy of a 12 year old girl that had been sacrificed on a nearby mountain. I stayed in a Peruvian equivalent of Starbucks and had a large coffee while I waited for Nina; the place was full of gringos.
Camping
We camped the night at Hostal Las Mercedes in Arequipa. This is a very nice establishment in a well maintained old building. It also has camping facilities and tonight there was a Tucan Travel expedition truck also parked here with 28 passengers all set up in tents. In addition there was room for 2 or 3 overlander vehicles. Using the Peru routable map from map2center.com and the GPS coordinates we came right to the front gate without any trouble.
