The White City

Arequipa and the Misti Volcano
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It took 5 hours to get to Arequipa from Chivay. We drove through desert and swamp land, and also through the crater of an extinct volcano.

In Arequipa we stayed at La Casa de mi Abuela (the house of my grandmother) which was a sprawling complex of buildings with lots of beautiful gardens and birds in cages and a pool even. We were definitely spoilt. And the breakfast was great, served on a balcony in the gardens.

Arequipa is surrounded by volcanoes. El Misti is the most obvious on the skyline. There is lots to see in Arequipa. We have listed the sights separately under `Things to do`. We had 2 whole days and we made good use of them.

San Augustin church
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The Plaza de Armas is beautiful with palm trees and lots of seats. As with Cusco it gets very well used. But unlike Cusco we were not bothered a lot. In fact, only one boy asked us if we wanted our shoes shined. The only big bother was around the plaza where the balcony restaurants tout for you custom. We didn´t bother with any of them, preferring the more local restaurants off the plaza. Rae has some chicha (corn beer) in a chinese restaurant.

While exploring the local market we noticed stairs leading down to an arcade full of hairdressers. Pieter wanted a haircut so off we went. We chose a shop with a nice looking lady. She made Pieter pick the hairstyle he wanted from a poster of 80´s haircuts. She was very careful, took at least half an hour. A lady sitting next to Rae was telling her to be careful with her bag. She showed us the pocket in her corset where she keeps her cash. It cost 2.50 Soles (less than US $1).

Arequipa and the Misti Volcano
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We had a really interesting meal one night with some of the girls. We went to the `Ribs Cafe`on Alvares Thomas, just off the plaza. It was recommended by the Lonely Planet. We had lots of different flavoured ribs: wine, orange, barbecue and, the best of all, chocolate. They also do great Sangria.