Achieving an Arequipa Acquaintance

Max, our landlord at our Bed & Breakfast, is originally from Switzerland (Peruvian wife), and he met us at the Arequipa airport to take us to our new abode.  Our present intent is not to remain here for our entire stay in Arequipa.  We shall see.  We receive our breakfast, and we have been taking our dinners here.  Max is a hobby chef, and makes great meals, so if we leave, we'll definitely miss his cooking.  Overall, our current experience has been good.   Internet connection has had some problems, but currently seems stable. The B&B is a bit out of the central district as we have found that some taxi drivers cannot recognize our location.

The locals have been stating that the weather has been too rainy, and our first two days featured cloudy weather, but yesterday was sunny with temperature in the low seventies. So yesterday was when we had breakfast on our terrace with the following views.

 Our breakfast is served and note the background.

This breakfast view is of Chachani with an elevation of 19931 feet.  This morning we watched the farmers work two of the fields. Note the fields are terraced!  More on that later.  The city of Arequipa has an elevation between 7600 and 7700 feet, and we have been careful not to be too strenuous during our first days here so that we don't suffer from altitude sickness.  We think we are now acclimatized.

This view is of El Misti with an elevation of 19110 feet.  Of the adjacent volcanoes, it is the one that most recently erupted (1700s).  Misti is considered a unique volcano as the cone has not collapsed into itself. There is a third volcano called Pichu Pichu that is to the south of us, but it is difficult to take a good picture facing into the sun.  This trio of volcanoes is well known when Arequipa is portrayed.


We have walked to the central district, and the area has much to explore.

 We had lunch in balcony restaurant and took these pictures of Plaza de Armas (Plaza of the Armed Forces) which is the main square of Arequipa.  In the above picture you see the cathedral made from volcanic rock (sillar) and the rock, and the resulting buildings are noted for their whiteness.  Below you see the active lunch crowd.

We have also become familiar with the Chili River (Rio Chili) which travels through Arequipa from North to South and receives its water from the mountains.  We have found that the farmers use the waters extensively.

Rio Chili

Yesterday we took a tour of the city (a bus tour with an English speaking guide), and the tour was over four hours long.  The results of that tour will be addressed in other blog postings.


That's it from Arequipa, Peru today!