Arequipa

---

The White City

We´re living it up in Arequipa. The hotel room is spacious with comfy bed and a hot shower and its only $30 per night, including breakfast. That should help get the budget back on track.

But the budget was forgotten at ¨Crepisimo¨the crepe restaurant where we just had dinner YUM !!!

Arequipa is over 400 years old with many beautiful old buildings. So far, we´ve been into 2 churches and a convent, which is very risky behaviour considering the city has been wrecked several times over the centuries by earthquakes and its shadowed by a huge volcano. So far no mishaps.

As cities go (Arequipa is Peru´s 2nd largest city) we are enjoying the city centre. Our hotel is just half a block from the main plaza which houses the Cathedral which dates from 1656 and all within 3 or so blocks we have more churches, monestaries, shops and restaurants.

We spent a happy 3 hours wandering around the Santa Catalina Convent Ä City within A City¨and the attached photos tell the tale better than we can.

Since we have been away we have seen and been in, our fair share of taxis but we are constantly amused by the antics of the taxis here in Arequipa. For every 1 private car we estimate that there are 10 taxis, mainly tiny yellow models of Daewoo or Suzuki that we have never seen with brightly lit advertising signs on top. They speed around the cobblestone streets, ignoring any road markings, signs or rules and the horns are used at the slightest hold-up or even to warn, we don´t know who, that they are approaching.

It is 10pm and just down the road is some bloke in a green Santa Clause suit either singing the praises of a local restaurant or is a religious fanatic - we haven´t worked out which !! PS - he was back on the street bright and early and the whole thing is still a mystery.

Off on a 3 day Colca Canyon trip and then to Cuzco so will post another update in a week or so.

Ciao.

---