Arequipa, Peru
Tuesday August 27, 2019
Our first full day in Peru has been awesome. Arequipa is a beautiful but small city at around 2000m elevation. The landscape is very much like a desert, but in the city, there’s still quite a bit of greenery around. It’s cold at night but the day is even hotter than Toronto at the moment.
We flew to Montreal first and then to Lima. Our flights were slightly delayed but nothing too serious - a friend of mine on an earlier flight to Peru had her plane cancelled because of mechanical problems! As usual, I managed to doze off for a decent amount of time. We arrived just after midnight at Jorge Chavez Airport and had to wait a few hours before our domestic flight from Lima to Arequipa.
We took a taxi from the airport to our Airbnb and after resting a bit and sorting out our luggage, we went to a nearby market, Mercado San Camilo. I love these kinds of places, it’s full of amazing produce and you really get to see the kind of foods that locals eat. It was great to see an abundance of potatoes and quinoa, two foods that originated in Peru. Fruit selection is pretty standard - mangoes, star fruit, apples, pears, strawberries - but we got to have some cherimoya which I’ve had before, but my friends hadn’t. We got some delicious stuffed peppers, chicken and pork from a lovely lady who was very patient with our lack of Spanish.
We left the market and went to the central square, the Plaza de Armas. It was bustling with activity, lots of tourists and locals who had gathered for some sporting event. We walked on to the Santa Catalina monastery but didn’t go in, and continued to Mundo Alpaca, an alpaca and llama farm where we got to feed these adorable animals and see some of the traditional weaving techniques.
We spent some time getting some groceries and a SIM card for definitely not Pokémon related activities before heading up the hill to the Yanahuara Plaza, which has an amazing lookout over the city. We had a late lunch at a boujie restaurant where we sampled plenty of Peruvian dishes like cerviche, alpaca and adobo.
We also managed to get sample some queso helato, which is the famous Arequipeno ice cream. It’s delicious and creamy, with a hint of cinnamon, and on a hot day, super refreshing.
We went home early since none of us really got a good sleep the night before, and I was up early to meet up with Ants and Jo, who were coincidentally arriving from Cusco. So good to see them after all these years, and in Peru, of all places, even if our meeting was short!
Language has definitely been a struggle here, but my rudimentary Spanish has been enough to pull us through. It’s good that French and Spanish are so similar, so I can understand recognise some words like fresa (strawberry) and ovino (sheep), as well as how to count.
I’m now on the bus to Puno, and we’re circling around some mountains that are 6000m above sea level. The terrain is fascinating, and we’ve spotted some wild alpacas!
Posted by Jeremy at 2:16am on Tuesday August 27, 2019 :: 0 comments :: 