Introduciton to beautiful, historical Arequipa

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I arrived in Arequipa very early in the morning. I took a quick nap in the hostel and then teamed up with a Danish guy over breakfast to have a walk around town. Arequipa is much nicer than Lima. It is the second largest city in Peru, and has a beautiful historical section of town with colonial buildings, narrow alleys, and relaxing cafes and shops. I felt instantly more at home!

We wandered around the city and than sat down to a set lunch, which included soup, a main entree, dessert, and lemonade. It was tasty! Unfortunately, little did I know that it would give me food poisoning that night. Noooo. It wasn't the worst bout of food poisoning I've ever had, but it knocked me out for 2 days. Thankfully, my hostel had a pretty little garden area with hammocks, so I was content to organize/edit photos, write in my blog, and watch episodes of "Scandal." Hey...we do what we do to feel better :)


I finally felt better enough to go on a free walking tour. It was so much better than the tour in Lima! We wandered through narrow streets that I never would have found on my own, and entered a few places as well. We learned about alpaca and llama fur just like we did in Lima, but this time it was located at a small educational center and we were able to see a woman sorting the colors of the wool, to touch the wool ourselves, and to see charts that explained the differences.

There was also a indigenous woman working on weaving a tapestry. It is painstaking work, as she sits there for 8 hours a day and works on one scarf for a month! I was happy to pay 1 sole (30 cents) for a picture.  The tour also took us ta chocolateria (yay!), a church, several plazas, and a fancy restaurant where we tried some pork with the local spices. The tour ended just around sunset, so we had really nice views of the buildings at twilight. All in all, a great free tour!

Thought I wasn't able to do much, I made some interesting friends at the hostel and had some great conversations. Once I was finally feeling better, I signed up to do a trip to Colca Canyon.




Plaza de Armas at sunset. 


Pretty little alleyway.

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