Arequipa

After returning from the Colca Canyon we have had a few days to enjoy Arequipa city, a cozy base for us to spend Christmas. We stayed at the Los Andes Bed and Breakfast which is a stones throw from the Plaza de Armas, and we really enjoyed it for the friendly atmosphere and great communal spaces.

Arequipa is known as the "White City", because many of the buildings in the historic centre are constructed of Sillar, a white volcanic stone. It makes for a beautiful effect, especially as in the main plaza there are palm trees and you can see the Volcanoes in the distance. The sunsets are a stunning pink and orange, probably because of the residual volcanic ash in the area from the previous eruptions.

The local Santa Catalina Monastery is a must see, even though by local standards it is quite expensive to enter. It was built by a rich widow to very high standards of luxury, and closed to the public for 391 years before being opened just recently after restoration from earthquake damage to help with local tourism. Those nuns really lived in style!

We enjoyed the local cuisine, and Ben decided to be adventurous and try the local

specialty, Cuy. Cuy is the Spanish word for Giunea Pig, so it took quite some daring, especially since the preparation appears to consist of dropping the whole body into a deep fryer and then transferring it straight onto the plate. Ugghh. Ben did a brave job of trying to not waste the plate, and Patricia took a very small bite just to say she had eaten Cuy. The rest of the dinner was spent trying to ignore the head of the Cuy by hiding it under a bed of lettuce!




The day of the 24th was spent grocery shopping in preparation for our big Xmas meal we planned for the 25th, since most things in town are closed that day. That night, we went shopping for Christmas gifts, took a quick tour inside the cathedral to see the ceremonies and had a nice dinner out. The big attraction this night was the incredible midnight fireworks display let loose by the locals in every neighborhood of the city. We´ve never seen a city explode in celebration like Arequipa did during that memorable hour.

On Christmas day we opened our presents in our room, complete with improvised festive Peruvian decorations. You can see we are now the height of South American fashion!






The rest of the day was spent cooking and drinking from brunch around 10am to dinner around 10pm and all shared with new friends at the hostel. We planned an ambitious Christmas dinner with all the typical dishes including an apple crumble to top it off, which became a huge challenge as the hostel ran out of gas for the stove just after lunch and the oven never worked in the first place! The entire meal was cooked on a two-burner electric hot plate (Chicken with gravy, apricot sausage stuffing, corn on the cob, steamed brocolli, buttery squash, cashew raisin rice)! The dinner reviews were solid and we lasted through all the merriment until our bellies could take no more.

A great cap to a memorable trip in Arequipa.