Another gorgious shorts and tshirts day. Lots of sunscreen. The sun is up so early, we couldn't sleep past 5 am. The sun is directly overhead most of the day, it is funny to see our shadows directly beneath us. And funny to have the sun coming in all 4 sides of the car at once. It gets dark at 5:30 pm, and cool in the evenings (sweater cool).
This morning our new guide Miguel picked us up at 8:30 am for a tour of the city. We have a nice 13 seater van, and a driver named Angelo. We'll be in this one for the next few days, yippee!
We started at Santa Catalina Monastery which was built in 1579 and is still functioning today, although now there are only 24 nuns living there. The oldest is 100 and the youngest is 33. At its heyday, it was considered a privelege to send your daughter there, and there was a $20,000 dowry to enter. The eldest child was reserved for marriage, and the second child was expected to go into the priesthood or nunnery. They were not allowed to smile, look in a mirror, or talk (vow of silence) once they were inside the monastery. The monastery was huge, and was built like a miniature city, with several courtyards and labelled streets.
Miguel took us to 2 other churches which were not as interesting, and to a lookout with a view of the nearby mountains, which are 6400 meters (21,000 feet) high, and a dormant volcano, Misti. This volcano is only 2 km from city center, and a lot of squatters have built shacks at the base. It's all part of the Ring of Fire. Apparently the city has an average of 15 tremors a day. We didn't feel one, very disappointing. Maybe we just didn't notice with all the noise and movement of people around us.
Miguel dropped us off at the city center for the afternoon. There is a large central square, and a huge crowd of squatters was having a loud demonstration because they want the government to bring electricity and water out to the shacks they have put up on land that doesn't belong to them.
We found a cute alleyway where we had lunch, and we spent the afternoon going from one shop to another, it was quite a bit of fun. Frankie got all her Christmas shopping done for her family. We bought a doll for our mantel from 3 weathered ladies sitting on the sidewalk. Down the street was another weathered lady with a hawk (?), and for a few dollars we could put the hawk on our shoulders and take pictures. We bought alpaca sweaters for ourselves, they are surprisingly warm for their light thickness. We have no room for any of this stuff in our suitcases.
We had made reservations at a restaurant where they have a balcony about 7 stories high, and overlooks the church and city square. Everything was lit up so pretty at night. They gave us ponchos to wear while we ate our meal. We had a lot to choose from on the menu, and Frankie ordered alpaca, which tasted a lot like veal.
Arequipa is the third largest city in Peru but we are told the 2nd most important because of all the trade that happens here. We are only 300 km from Bolivia. Arequipa itself is quite high in elevation, about 2400 meters. The next week and a half will be with high elevations until we get back to Lima.
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