AREQUIPA

We arrived here at morning at 7:30am and went straight to our hotel, Tierrasur. Luckily, they had our rooms ready for us so we checked in early and slept for a few hours. Arequipa is gorgeous... a big, clean city, very pretty. The sky is bright blue and you can see the volcanoes everywhere you turn. Jared hadn't felt well all day - he felt like he was getting a cold and we all had headaches from the altitude (it’s over 8,000 feet). Oh! And there are hardly any tourists here, which is really cool.

The entire city is made of the local volcanic rock, sillar, which is white. Gorgeous Spanish architecture everywhere you turn.

The main touristy thing we saw was Santa Catalina Monastery. For an unknown reason, it was closed to the public for four centuries and now everyone can see it. Inside is a little colonial town with streets, fountains and houses. The buildings are painted vibrant color (orange, bright blue, white) and you could spend hours there. We took countless photos.

We were thinking of seening the famous Juanita mummy at the Museo Satuarios Andinos but decided against it - we were still pretty tired from the long bus ride and we spent a lot of time at the convent.

We did manage to find some energy to do some shopping here, which was very fortunate because it is much cheaper than Cusco or Lima. We got some great alpaca stuff. Even better was Fundo del Fierro – a market behind the old prison on Plaza San Francisco, up past the convent. It’s completely meant for tourists yet not many tourists are there. A nativity I was told was 100 soles at the convent was 5 soles – the same exact nativity. Peruvians are amazing craftsmen.

We never bartered for prices – everything we were quoted was so affordable and inexpensive and I never felt I was getting ripped off.

We ate at ZigZag Creperie near the Convent. Really good crepes.

I get stared at everywhere here because I’m taller than everyone (5’10”), including men, and of course, the blonde hair. Children in particular stare at me.

There’s a big parade and festival today and the streets are lined with chalk shavings. The plaza is gorgeous as it is, with its beautiful church and fountain, but the street art makes it even more festive.