Our 14-hour bus ride to Arequipa was _a lot_ more manageable than the 21-hour ride to Cusco. Plus, our 2nd-story front-seat view of the road ahead made it feel like we were flying (very very slowly) over the mountain roads.
Arequipa is know as “la ciudad blanca” (the white city) because so many of the buildings are made from a white volcanic stone that comes from the active volcano that overlooks the city. You can see the white stone in this representative shot of a street a few blocks from the Plaza de Armas.
Here is a shot of the active "El Misti" volcano we took on one of our walks. The large vase sculpture in the lower left is one we've seen in many places all over the city.
There are actually three mountains overlooking the city (I seem to remember our cab driver mentioning they were all volcanoes, but only El Misti is active). This is a shot of Jen reading two steps from the door of our room ($9 a night!) with a shot of one of the other mountains.
Of all the cities we've been in so far, Arequipa is our favorite. In our 45 minute walk out and around the city center, we passed through several beautiful parks and plazas.
The Plaza de Armas is almost as touristic as its counterpart in Cusco (though with far fewer and less aggressive hawkers), but outside its very limited area we got the feeling of being in a vibrant, colorful city with an active life of its own. Here's a shot of the Plaza de Armas, followed by a shot of another, smaller plaza about a 25 minute walk away.
We only spent a day and a half in Arequipa before going hiking in the Colca Canyon (more about this in the next post), but now we're back and have been spending a very relaxing 3 days here before our return to Lima. There's a wide variety of delicious and cheap restaurants and many short and beautiful walks to take from our hostel. It's been a great place to recover from the hike!
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