Waking up and slowly coming to the realization we had made it to
Arequipa, it hit us how lucky we were that we safely made it and were back on
track to making our return flight to the states, and perhaps most of all that
we weren't stuck in Puno for another day.
We decided to take one of the free walking tours offered by the city of
Arequipa in the morning to get a decent overview of the city and the layout,
and then make our way around on our own. The walking tour was actually
surprisingly informational, especially compared to the other tours such as the
Sacred Valley and the Machu Picchu tour. Meeting in the Plaza del Armas, our
guide took us around there explaining some of the history with the Spanish
invasion, and reconstruction from the many earthquakes they've had. Then
visited a church nearby where he provided his own interpretation of the
symmetric stonework/designs; walked through a small school with some great
cloisters where we tried some queso helado (not cheese flavored but just same
process to make cheese). We then visited the museum where Juanita (Peru's
most famous mummified remains - a 14yr old girl who was sacrificed to the gods
to prevent further volcano eruptions), a Colca Canyon info session; walked
across the oldest bridge in Arequipa; randomly wondered through the oldest
hotel in Arequipa and then the oldest road; went to a baby alpaca store
and learned the difference from real baby alpaca to synthetic (I only took away
that it felt very similar but was 10x more expensive); went to a cafe with the
"worlds best coffee," which is made with Tunki coffee (and thus began
the start of my collection of various coffee bags from countries I've visited,
much to Emma's chagrin); went to this organic chocolate shop which seemed to be
run by gringos but offered great variations of chocolate ranging from chocolate
tea to chocolate coffee and well just numerous chocolate bars; they also
offered micro brew beers from all over Peru, and some smashing deserts; then
lastly we visited a restaurant where they taught us how to make Pisco Sours and
we got to taste some.
There concludes a ridiculous run-on sentence but perhaps the shortest
way to give an overview of all the sights we saw without delving into wordy
transitions and unnecessary details.
We departed the tour group and decided to tour the Santa Catalina
Monastery. This monastery was incredibly impressive just by its sheer size. The
infrastructure was literally a city within a city, with over 20,000 sq. meters
of buildings. This was perhaps the largest thing I've stepped foot into. Not
only was it massive, but it was astonishingly beautiful, with walls brightly
colored red with adjacent walls in other sections that were a bright sea blue.
There are only 25 nuns who live here now, but at its height the monastery was
home to nearly 500 nuns. Our guide, Carmen, was such an incredibly sweet Peruvian
who gave a great informational tour and laughed along with Emma at my
unnecessary picture taking.
Overall, we thoroughly loved Arequipa. This was perhaps mostly due to
the fact that it had an extremely European feel to it. It's called the
"White City" as the Spaniards who conquered and settled it made all
the walls out of white stones. The streets were mostly cobblestone and close
together with a European flow to it. There weren't an overwhelming amount of
street vendors shoving their products at you as you walked by; the streets were
remarkably clean, the stores were also very clean and modernized, and just
overall there was an obvious sense of more wealth here, as if the Peruvian
mafia had their headquarters here. For those seeking the European charm in
South America, Arequipa is a great place to go to get your kick.
At this point in our trip we both were starting to miss our typical
cuisine we are used to back in the States - well primarily just missing that
sweet magnificent godlike strings that of pasta. We swung by a cafe close to
the center of town where we indulged upon some surprisingly delicious pasta
carbonara. Of course the heavy cream and bacon/egged dish knocked us off our
feet, quite literally as we were exhausted after, so we trekked back to the
hostel where we took a quick siesta.
^Pisaq Rudolpho at it again having some Pisco Sours during our Siesta
With our engines refueled we set off to explore one of the local
markets. One has to tred carefully when exploring the local markets as one
aisle may contain that exact souvenir you’ve been seeking for our mothers (i.e
– see picture below!); or run the risk of exposure to salmonella, parasites,
and other pathogens from the profusely potent and just simply revolting meats
and fish that appear to have been sitting out all day long. The latter was what
we encountered the majority of the time exploring this market; thus we chose to
high-tail it out of there and refresh our souls with some queso helado.
We followed this up by repaying a visit to the Chocolate shop we had
visited earlier that day on the tour. As mentioned, they had a great selection
of local craft brews from various breweries around Peru. For those of you who
know me (and those random folk who somehow stumbled upon this blog through the
keywords “peru craft beer”) know that there is very little else that puts as
big of a smile on my face than a genuinely wicked craft brew. It was quite a
lovely and quaint experience as we had our own little table nooked into the
corner of the balcony overlooking a decent amount of the city; along with
sharing a couple of local beers and a chocolate cake – this was an absolutely
glorious way to kick off the conclusion phase of our journeys.
From there we headed back to the hotel, but with a little pitstop at the
local Starbuckeria. Much to Emma’s chagrin, I had made the executive decision
to start my own coffee bean collection from various nations I visit. I already
had bought a bag of Fair-Trade coffee from that really nifty coffeteria we
stopped on the tour; and typically I wouldn’t dare to think to stop at Starbucks
for a bag to add to this collection, but the bag was really debonair…..it had a
really adorable macaw on it contrasting with a very simple white back. Amidst
Emma’s rolling of the eyes; I was quite smitten with this find.
For dinner; looking back I’m surprised I suggested this idea being the
last evening in Peru; but we decided to get Ramen noodles from the local
grocery store. At this point we were just extremely tired of eating out at
restaurants every meal of the day – it had nothing really to do with the
Peruvian cuisine (although that as well was getting slightly tiresome as they
tend to use very similar spices in most of their dishes); we just simply wanted
a fast easy meal where we could nom away at our own pace. This actually was
perfect considering one of the most enjoyable and cultural aspects of traveling
tends to occur when you’re hanging out in the hostels mingling with other
foreigners. Having private rooms opposed to the classical dormitory living; and
also the fact that most of the hostels we had been staying at weren’t atypical
of European rowdy hostels; this was the first one we actually got to hang out a
bit. I don’t recall Ramen ever tasting that darn good, but
gosh-golly-willackers, that certainly hit the spot. This sacred stryofoam cup
of steaming sodium encrusted noodle soup; along with enjoying the company of a
table full of Germans, Israelis, and I believe Australians? (all of whom were
stranded here past their intended departure date due to the strike) – made for
such a fascinating and refreshing evening.
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