Arequipa

I slept well enough on the bus to not need a nap after getting to Arequipa, so after cleaning up, headed out to a cafe that our group leader had told us about - they provided free phone calls to North America! After my breakfast, I called your mom and talked to her for a bit (Oma and Opa were in Alberta, so I couldn't call them).

I met D in the hotel lobby and decided to spend the day exploring with him and C. Arequipa sits at 7600 ft above sea level, so we used the day to acclimatize to the altitude. The city was built from a very light coloured volcanic rock, so the older buildings dazzle in the sun, giving the city its nickname, "the White City". Our first stop was to see a frozen Inca girl who was sacrificed to one of the volcanoes surrounding the city - "Juanita".

After walking around the main square, we went into the Santa Catalina Monastery. It was a lot larger than we expected, but beautifully decorated and very colourful.

We had a light lunch at a French Crepery, then found a grocery store and bought some water and snacks for our ride the next day. I also picked up some postcards, stamps, and some more cash. We visited a few more colonial style churches, had coffee on a terrace overlooking the main plaza, then returned to the hotel to met the rest of the group for supper. That night, most of us tried alpaca steaks. The restaurant cooked them perfectly - alpaca is a very lean meat, but they managed to keep it tender and moist. It was delicious!