Arequipa

Arequipa

We arrived in Arequipa the second largest city in Peru around midday on the 19th of October by bus. This was the longest bus ride thus far for us at about 13 hours! They have a very large bus terminal here, actually much better than anything else we have seen. This will make it easy to find tickets to carry on to Cuzco. We chose a very nice Hostal, in the downtown district, just off the Plaza de Armes. The Plaza is a very large square that people are always gathered around, usually with a fountain in the middle. Arequipa is a very colonial town and the architecture reflects this beautifully. We immediately fell in love with this town. We are at 2350m here and will spend a couple of days to acclimate ourselves a bit before we continue on to Cuzco, which sits at 3326m. We all seem to be doing well with the altitude, keep your fingers crossed because we shall ascend even higher in the next week as we hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. The weather here is gorgeous around 80*F, with blue skies silhouetting the Volcano El Misti. First night in Arequipa was the night to try some more traditional Peruvian food. We ate Cuy (ginuea pig), rocotto rellono (hot pepper stuffed with meat rice and vegetables), adobo, and tortilla con camarones ( fresh water prawn omelet). This was truly a magnificent meal and way beyond our set budget, but we needed to try the local foods. We visited the Monasterio de Santa Catalina on the 20th. Built in 1580, this was and is a convent that housed novice and fully initiated nuns for several centuries. The entire complex covers over 20,000 sq meters and is considered a city in and of itself. It is absolutely gorgeous with walls painted beautiful shades of orange (my favorite color), blue, yellow and red. We hired a guide to show us through this maze of a complex and we were with her for close to 2hrs. We took some fabulous photos and hopefully will soon be able to resize and download some soon.

Cheers~ Karen