Me llama Elianita. Y tu?

We moved out of our swanky tourist hostel in Arequipa for a less expensive hostal down the road, swapping our quiet 4th floor room and balcony overlooking the city with breakfast in the morning, for an equally great view, and a room that matches it´s rate (i.e. small). With a few extra bucks in our pockets we were able to grab a nice dinner on Saturday night, and head over to the sprawling sports club ´Club Internacional´ on Sunday for a day by the pool in the warm mountain sun.
Arequipa is sunny most of the year, and the wind blows down the mountains around noon clearing the air of deisel and pollution, making the mornings fresh and crisp. We were the only gringos at the club, which boasts several enormous soccer fields, a pool area, food stands, basketball courts, racquet balls courts..it´s fancy! We just sat by the pool, watching the families try to stay out of the glaring mountain sun, Peruvian kids playing the same pool games American ones do, listening to cheers erupting from the soccer field, men drinking beer after a tennis game.
Staying smack in the center of the ´area touristica´ of Arequipa, it´s is hard to get a real read on the poverty level of the city. It thrives off the tourists that pass through here on trekking tours and the majority of street kids and poor are driven off by the policia touristica (yes, really). The sports club is yet another retreat for those with expendable income.
When we got home we decided to sign up for a Spanish class that we´ve been dying to do. For not too much money you get one-on-one lessons with a native spanish instructor 4 hours a day for a week. We had just committed ourselves to one more week in the city, but, hey, it´s worth it to learn Spanish! We need some practice. I decided that we needed a room with a bathroom if we were going to stay for another week, so I put in a request with the front desk man, who had nothing available that day.
Then it came. Read no further if you don´t want to hear the gory details of travelling and eating in South America.
2 days after a particularly inexpensive lunch (Here you can get a menu Criollo which includes a starter, second course, and drinks - usually chicha, a sweet watery drink made from maiz- for between $1 and $4) We tried a $1 Menu Criollo, and exactly 2 days later i was running down the hallway stairs for the toilet at 3 in the morning.
No worries, just travellers diarhea, but having to run outside to the bathrom at night isn´t ideal. Our hostel guy told us the next day that he had a room for us with a bathroom, but with our first day of class starting at 3, we wouldn´t be back until 7:30pm. ´No worries´he tells us. We come back at 7:30, and the Pèruvian woman who works there, a small black haired woman with silver front teeth was manning reception. ´We are changing rooms tonght. Do you have the key?¨we ask. ´No theres nothing, you waited too long we had to rent it out,¨was her response.
I have diarhea, I´ve ben learning Spanish for 4 hours, and damnit I want a room with a bathroom. She´s been cleaning rooms all day, and is manning the front desk alone, and damnit...not only is our room taken, but she doesn´t really give a sh*.
I´m mad, and tired, so I sit in bed reading and vowing ot find another hostal the next day while B gets dinner. In the morng we both wake up late, B was hit by the travellers bug, and he´s just as interested in having our own bathroom as me. I walk downstairs right past the hostel guy who promised us a room, he stops me and asks what happened with the room...´´It was taken!´ No worries, he has a room up top with a bathroom , and he´ll give it to us for the same price as the other room. Now he´s talking.
So today is a new day. We had a great breakfast, got an awesome room, and in a few hours I´ll be heading off to Spanish lessons with Betty and Juliana.
Not too shabby a life down here.