Arequipa, Peru

Country # 27! Our final country in our year plus journey around the world. It has been so many things - fun, humbling, enlightening and life changing. I was trying to post this while waiting to board our flight back to the States at the Lima airport but the poor connection did not allow me to. Instead, I'm blogging from lovely Houston, TX. Yes, back in the States! It's a strange feeling...we're excited and anxious to be back. Both Paul and I have never been unemployed for so long...so the search for jobs will begin shortly and it will be back to life, back to reality. Thanks for being a part of our adventure for the past 14 months, we hope you enjoyed the posts (and photos!). I'll be posting all about our Peru adventures in the next week or so.

Onto our first stop in Peru - Arequipa. We flew from Santiago de Chile to Lima on January 24 with an 8 hour layover before finally arriving in Arequipa around 6pm. It was another long travel day.

Pretty

Arequipa is a cute town but since it is at about 4000 meters, it reminded me of our time in Lhasa where I had major altitude sickness. I was pretty miserable but at least that means we've ruled out living anywhere that isn't at sea level.

Volcan Misti from Mirador Carmen Alto

Panoramic of Volcan Chachani and Volcan Misti

Our guide took this photo for us

This is a statue of a typical local mountain man wearing all sorts of trinkets

Another view of Volcan ChaChani

We then headed to Plaza Yanahuara (which means black short pants).

Cool streets

Nice door

Nice archway

You can see Volcan Misti through this arch

Another view

Cute area

The church in Yanahuara

Palm trees around the square

We also walked through the local market (San Camilo) where you can find just about anything.

Fruits

Dehydrated potatoes that can last up to 8 years

Fish

All the parts of a pig

Flowers

We then walked over to La Compania and cloisters.

La Compania and cloisters

Construction began in 1677

Puma styled gargoyles to drain rain 

All the carvings have meaning - from bottom to top, it represents the life cycle

We tried some cheese ice cream

It wasn't really cheese though - they just call it that. It was good! Sprinkles of cinnamon on top.

Inside the church

The lighting was very cool

Spotlights everywhere

Paul in the spotlight

Another cool door

Outside the church

Plaza de Armas with a view of Volcan Misti

There was a band playing in the plaza

Panoramic

Nice architecture

Paul is being abused by the puma

Exploring the area

Basilica Cathedral of Arequipa (not open until 5pm)

Nice door!

Alley way

This door was pretty cool too because of the door handle

It's a soldier

We rested a bit before continuing to walk the neighborhood. We decided to check out Mundo Alpaca for some soft goods. They have a store and a small exhibit to walk through.

Narrow streets that you share with cars

Mundo Alpaca had some animals for us to looks at - this is a llama

Baby alpaca

Pointing to the dirty animals

This baby alpaca looks like an old man

A little scary

Maaaaaaaahhhhh

How they dye the wool

Cool machines to clean, separate and who knows what to the wool

We then got a closer look at Basilica Cathedral of Arequipa when it opened at 5pm.

Belgian Pipe Organ donated in 1870

Inside the cathedral

One of the main attractions is the pulpit

Only known image of the devil inside of a church. He is at the foot of the pulpit symbolizing God's word is above evil.

Cool shot from the other end of the cathedral

Looking up

Another angle

Diagonal

I like this shot

We then headed to a bar to get a view of the city

This was our view

Paul was impressed and you know how hard it is to impress this guy

The clouds moved away long enough for me to get a quick picture

Looking down at the Plaza de Armas

Sunset

Close up

Too bad the cell towers are in the way 

Purple skies

All lit up