Arequipa, Peru

I've been in Arequipa for about two weeks. It's a beautiful colonial city nestled within the Andes mountains in Southern Peru. It's Peru's second-largest city, Lima being the first. It's really one of the most spectacular places I've ever been to in my life. According to my Spanish teacher, the city was founded in ancient times by a group of Incans who wandered over from Cuzco. The name of the city is comprised of the Quechan words "ari" and "quipay" which mean, literally, "yes, let's stay here". And looking around, I can see why. Everywhere you turn, there are mountains, the weather during the day is sunny and a perfect seventy-something degrees. The climate is somewhat similar to Arizona, dry and not too humid.

I arrived in Arequipa after an 18 hour bus ride from Lima. The bus ride was awesome-- refer to my post about South American buses for more details.

I signed up for Spanish classes in Arequipa, so I hung out there for two weeks. The view was amazing, here's one of my favorite pictures-- it's taken from my hostel room window.

I arrived at an opportune moment for the city, as it was just celebrating its 471st birthday. The entire city was besides itself in revelry, check out some pictures from the parade or "procession" below:

A jubilant celebration to welcome me to a beautiful city was too good to be true. I ventured outside to snap a few pictures and to observe the celebration, but I soon got stuck in the mob, along with a few other travelers. It was exactly like being stuck in a mosh pit-- except instead of concert-goers, we were surrounded by families, including babies and little old ladies. And boy, are there a lot of babies in Peru-- adorable ones. And little old ladies, equally adorable. We snaked our way through the crowd back to the hostel, but we were literally stuck inside for the rest of the celebration, which from the sounds of it, continued into the wee hours of the morning. Perhaps what I appreciate the most about Arequipa, in comparison to other cities in the developing world, is that the city is kept stringently clean. I went out for an early morning jog the following morning to find the streets hosed clean of party remnants, food, libations, and other yucky stuff.

More about Arequipa to come soon-- it's hard to find a place with fast enough internet to upload my gigantic files of pictures...