Peru: Arequipa 2013

Arequipa
Arequipa was our last stop on this big adventure. By the time we got here we were getting a little tired so we spent a lot of time at the main plaza reading, writing in our travel journals and people watching. Honestly, I'm glad we did it that way. We did make sure to go on at least one adventure and visit some museums as well.

There were pigeons everywhere in the main plaza and it was hilarious to watch all of the little kids feeding the birds (ok, who just started singing Marry Poppins right there?) and chasing after them. We even watched one little girl grab a pigeon and hold on to it as it tried to fly away. The perimeter of the plaza was lined with benches and they were filled with locals just sitting and enjoying their day. People selling birdseed, popcorn and ice cream would walk around the plaza and there were artists sketching as well.

Another area of the main plaza

These peaks around Arequipa are the pride and joy of the Peruvians in Arequipa. Anytime we would talk to people they would always be sure to ask if we had seen the peaks.

Santa Catalina Monastery
The Santa Catalina was a monastery for nuns built in the about 1580. The nuns that resided here came from the highest classes of families in Spain. It was a very "ritzy" monastery. Today it is mostly a museum but there are still sections of the monastery where nuns still reside and live. Krista and I loved visiting this Monastery; the colors were vibrant and the decor was quaint. We felt as if we were in Europe while walking through it. The monastery was amazing because it was it's own small city within its walls. It had streets and courtyards and the rooms were like small loft apartments.

Walking through the monastery

The streets

A well in one of the many kitchens.

One of the rooms

River Rafting!
We went river rafting on a river, Rio Chili, near Arequipa. We were a little nervous about doing this because a week before we had met people, who had been in Arequipa, and they told us that it had snowed while they were there. Our reaction... "Whaaaat?!" As we were driving to the river one of the guides told me that the river's name was Rio Chili and then he said that Chili means cold and I thought to myself, "Yeah, it means cold in english too!" It ended up being a really warm day and we wore wet suits on the trip. This was a blast and we were both really glad we did it. We booked the trip through PeruAdventuersTours.

Just going down the river: I'm in the back on the left.

High Fives

Did I say how much fun this was... because it was!

Our Group

Cliff Jumping halfway down the river

Colca Canyon
Our last day in Arequipa we went to Colca Canyon. Colca Canyon is one of the deepest canyons in the world; about double the "deepness" of the Grand Canyon. We had to get up at 2am for this tour... ouch. We didn't get to see the deepest part of the canyon, which we were really bummed about (I mean that was our purpose in going there), so I guess we'll have to go back again and make sure to get a tour that takes you to the deepest part of the canyon.

This was the opening of the canyon.

A church in Colca Canyon

The biggest attraction in Colca Canyon is the "Flight of the Condors." (I kept saying the Flight of the Conchords) This is where large condors fly around the canyon but the cool thing is that they catch the wind and in a large circular motion they just float down into the canyon.

Krista just taking a break in the Canyon

We stopped to take a picture with these Alpacas. A few minutes before this picture a man had his picture taken next to them and the mom alpaca spit on him. When Krista walked over to them to take a picture they started to walk towards her and, not wanting to get spit on, she started to run away... this was the picture she got.

These were some Vicunas (I talked about them in the Puno/Lake Titicaca post) at a national reserve on our way back from Colca Canyon.

We found this is Colca Canyon and I got really excited. Anyone who has traveled with me knows that we're looking for restrooms quite frequently.

Food on this trip

This is what we called our "poor man's" lunch while in Peru. Whenever we had to pack a lunch for the day we would buy bread rolls and peach juice.

This was super cheap meal in Peru but it was very filling and delicious. It was your choice of meat, veggies, rice and french fries stir fried together.

Ok, I was obsessed with these bread rolls in Peru. They were generally pretty fresh and SUPER cheap. I could buy 4 of these for the equivalent of 30 US cents. Each day I would buy a bundle... but as the trip went on I would increase how many I bought. I think buy the time we got to Arequipa I was up to at least 8 rolls a day.

Friends
While we were traveling in Peru we made a friend every day. Here are a few we made in Arequipa OR who we had met earlier in the trip and caught up to us in Arequipa.

Ted the Dog!

Ted made our top three friends we made while in Peru (The first being Elaine in the Amazon and Wellington in Aguas Calientes). There are stray dogs everywhere in Peru, though there usually are in 3rd world countries. I always avoid them because they're dirty and have fleas and I'm sure other deseases. Well Ted found us hanging out in a town square and he just came over and started staring at me. I told him no and tried to shoo him away but he just laid down at my feet, as you can see in the picture above, and stayed there (if you look closely in the picture, you'll see that I'm not too sure how I feel about this.). We started to joke about Ted and named him (obviously) and started to take a liking to him. For the remainder of that day he followed us around everywhere we went (I felt like we had a little guard dog). When we would go into a store or a restaurant he would just wait patiently outside for us. I actually was really sad we had to leave him at the end of the night.

Ted and Krista in the Main Plaza

Lori and Larry

We met Lori and Larry on the train to Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu) and we kept running into them everywhere we went on our trip after that. They were a couple from California who have moved to Ecuador for their retirement. This was the last time we saw them it was when we decided to better get a picture with them.

Mike from Northern California

We met Mike on the Inca Express Bus from Cuzco to Puno and pretty much saw him everyday of our trip after that. We started to meet up at the end of our days for dinner.

Getting Back to Cuzco
We took a "red-eye" bus from Arequipa back to Cuzco. In this picture we were really excited about the bus because it had reclining seats with a foot rest and comfy blankets. When we made it to Cuzco we were ready to get off that bus. All night long the air conditioning and heater would alternate like crazy. We spent the entire night going through hot and cold flashes (magnified by a billion).