Arequipa- New Years Day.

By -
 New Years day the streets of Arequipa were pretty empty, I think most of the city was resting after an explosive night of partying. We walked down to the Plaza to see if anything was going on. The first thing we saw after arriving at Plaza de Armas was a protest. We have seen a lot of protests here in Peru (we saw one in Lima, and at least 3 or 4 in Cusco maybe more). I did not snap a picture as I am not sure what the rules are about taking photos when police are around. A lady at the plaza we were chatting with explained that Peru is having a lot of issues with a corrupt congress, and that was the reason of the protest.

After the protesters passed, we walked over to the mercado San Camilo. Arequipa is such a big, and modern city that shopping here does not feel a lot different than going over to Safeway or Superstore. We were missing the colors, and maybe not so much the smells of the Mercados we saw in Cusco, and San Camilo was a lot like Mercado San Pedro in Cusco. In a way, I wish we were closer to the historic center so we can shop there instead of TOTTUS. Although TOTTUS (a large food store, very similar to Superstore) is much more convenient, for example the meat is refrigerated, and there are no dogs nearby, lol.

Terran and Wyatt checking out el Mercado San Camilo


We are still working up the courage to eat at the Mercado. The food always looks tasty, but we have heard different opinions regarding eating street food here in Peru. What do you think? to eat or not to eat?

Arequipa is actually very famous here in Peru for it's architecture, and it is known as the white City "La Ciudad Blanca." Since there was hardly anyone around on New Years day it was a bit easier to just explore. There are some really beautiful buildings here.I love looking at different types of architecture. I remember when I lived in Paris during my LDS mission, I wanted to take a picture of every building I saw, Arequipa has many beautiful building made in a Neoclassical style. Here are a few pictures we snapped on New Years Day:

This car totally reminded me of the car from Harry Potter and the Chamber of secrets

The car was right outside the Santa Catalina Monastery.


Terran and Maija close to the Plaza

Below are some pictures of the Cloisters of La iglesia de la compania de Jesus (a cool Jesuit church here in Arequipa):

Beautiful detail stone work

I am in love with colonial style buildings.

Stone work detail

Cool art work displayed in the cloisters

I will make these two into art lovers, even if it the last thing I do! ;)

Another view of the cloister

Comments

  1. P. A. S.January 18, 2019 at 5:07 PM

    To eat or not to eat?! Always: eat ;) although, I understand the hesitancy. I'd say you get sick when you're scared... But also, I think having been there a while, your bodies are probably almost adjusted to Peruvian foods... I'd say you should/ could go for it soon. I'd also probably still be a little picky about it though... maybe something you saw them cook?(still fresh)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jacqueline Morante LamaJanuary 25, 2019 at 6:55 AM

    I second Patricia's idea.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Urubamba!

By -
Image
Monday morning we said good bye to our nice home in Cusco, and headed to Urubamba. We walked down to the paradero, and took a "colectivo" (a large 20 person van), paid our 6 soles/per person, and rode for about an hour and a half to the town of Urubamba. According to Wikipedia, Urubamaba or Urupampa in the Quechua spelling means "flat land of spiders"....poor Maija.  (We didn't tell her yet... she can wait until we leave or she reads this blog post to find out). The Sacred Valley is much warmer than Cusco, and is full of flowers. A beautiful little town
Read more

Monasterio de Santa Catalina: A city within a city.

By -
Image
For our last Saturday here in Arequipa we decided to visit the Santa Catalina Convent. The convent is located in the historic center of Arequipa and it is considered the most important and impressive colonial structure in the city. Constructed from Sillar, a white volcanic stone quarried locally, the convent was founded in 1579, and is truly a city within a city. The nuns constructed private cells within the convent where they could lead isolated lives, protected by high walls sheltering them from the surrounding city. Most museums, or tourist sites here in Peru encourage you to have a guide, normally we prefer to do it without one, but this structure was so large, and with so much history, that I am glad we opted to have a guide show us the place. One of the many alleys within the Convent. Each street within the convent is named after a Spanish city, I think this one might have been Malaga.
Read more

Maija's Pain From Rainbow Mountain 2018

By -
Image
 So, after I went to Rainbow Mountain on Saturday, I have a few things to say about it.Pretty, and painful. If you wanted to do it while you are in Cusco, I would suggest it only if you are a strong hiker, and if you are an intermediate hiker, I would suggest getting to the first summit and sucking on Coca leaves. Maybe get help from horses, it pays off with the view at the first summit. My dad made it to the 2nd summit. The hike down is easy and it has a good view. You see a valley with random alpacas dotting the green grass. The alpacas are fairly tame, but will still run away if you approach them too fast.  Some fun facts about this Mountain are: 1. Another name for Rainbow Mountain is Vinicunca. 2. When you are on the first summit of the Mountain  you are closer to the Mount Everest summit than you are to Calgary. 3.There is snow on a mountain close to Vinicunca.  The roads on the second half of the way there are the scariest roads ever. And we were in a bus. A BIG bus.
Read more