Arequipa!

This weekend we took a little trip to Arequipa, Peru’s second largest city. On Wednesday evening, we boarded a cruz del sur suite bus, which had large leather seats that folded all the way down. We got served a meal that was pretty tasty (chicken and rice, surprise surprise) watched Happy Gilmore then pushed our seats back and went to sleep at around midnight. The sleep was not perfect and it was fragmented, but it was sufficient. In the morning, we were served breakfast and they showed the movie August Rush and we arrived in Arequipa around noon, 16 hours later! We took a taxi into the center of the city and found a hostel that was recommended to us. We checked in, dropped our stuff and headed out to check out the town. Arequipa is a beautiful city. It was very sunny and warm. All the buildings are beautiful. The city is surrounded by mountains and volcanoes that can be seen from almost anywhere, and there is a beautiful river streaming just a few blocks away from the plaza de armas. The cathedral and plaza are the most beautiful I have seen in Peru. The plaza has a lot of greenery and the façade of the cathedral was just beautiful. I took a million and one pictures.

The four of us traveling were me, Leah, Jessa and Zach and we met up with our half Peruvian and half Swiss friend Jorge who is also studying abroad in Lima at Zach’s university for most of our time in Arequipa. Jorge gave us a little feel of the nightlife but we still ended up headin to bed fairly early.

Friday

We got up the next morning to go rafting! We were all a little nervous and not sure what to expect, but at the end of the trip, we all concluded that it was easily our favorite thing we did in Arequipa! It was a ton of fun, and a lot less frightening than I thought. Our guide really knew his stuff and I was never worried once we started going down river. We also got out and got to jump into the river from the top of this giant rock. That was quite scary, but once I jumped, I just wanted to keep jumping! He let me and leah go twice, but then we had to continue the rafting! Once we finished and got home and showered and rested up a bit, we went grocery shopping to buy ingredients to cook some traditional Arequipena food! Lucky for us, Jorge is an awesome host, and invited us to his home to make rocoto relleno, papas en ocopa sauce and cheese fondue (which really is his Switzerland half coming out but we enjoyed it anyways!) His aunt, uncle and cousin joined us for dinner and helped us realize that our rocoto relleno was far too spicy, but I think the experience was still a ton of fun for everyone!

Saturday

The next day I got to visit the cathedral. Inside was nothing spectacular or out of the ordinary besides the beautiful organ. During the tour, I learned that this cathedral has been damaged by three major earthquakes and one major fire. That was enough of an explication to me why it was a little more simple inside! There were a few little museum rooms as well that had some really beautiful artifacts from the cathedral. The museum rooms, the organ and the view from the roof of the cathedral were plenty to make this my favorite cathedral visit in Peru!

That afternoon, Jorge took me to eat at his favorite traditional restaurant while the others wanted some down time and we ate chupe de camarones (soup with crawfish) and rocoto relleno (because the ones we cooked were basically inedible) and of course, we had a pisco sour. The meal was delicious and it was great to get to talk to Jorge some more. He is a pretty interesting guy and makes all of us feel bad about ourselves with his multi-language abilities!

Sunday

We decided we wanted to take advantage of all the sunshine, so the girls headed to the pool. Jorge got us into the club where his family had membership, and we spent a few hours reading and talking and lounging in the sunshine.

We had a splendid lunch, spent some more time exploring the city then headed to the train station around 7pm to head home for another along nighttime bus ride!