Today is departure day for Arequipa. Somehow it seems to take all day to get to Arequipa, despite it being a one hour flight. Lima domestic airport is an eye-opener. Every domestic passenger has pay a departure tax of $US6, and there is a queue consisting of possibly every domestic passenger departing on every domestic flight in the next two hours that snakes for roughly 500m. So don’t cut arriving at the airport too finely, as even though the queue moves quickly, it still adds 30 minutes to everything prior to going through security screening.
Arequipa is the second largest city in Peru, with about 1.2 million inhabitants. It is called the White City, and I have heard 2 different explanations as to why that is so. One is the building material used in the 16th century Hispanic architecture, sourced from the local volcanoes, which is a greyish white stone. The other is that the Spanish conquistadores who founded the city were ‘white’ faces in comparison to the natives. Nonetheless, it is an easily navigable city in comparison to Lima, and I use my usual technique of turning right instead of left, spend two hours completely lost, and decide that I really like this city. It reminds me of Salta in north-western Argentina, with the same type of architecture, just with a few volcanoes thrown in for good measure. At 2300m plus, I have broken the golden rule of moving from sea level to altitude by traipsing around the streets of Arequipa for 90 minutes longer than intended, and I suspect within a 6 block radius of the Casa Andina Private Collection hotel. But I think I know where I am now.
Despite getting lost, I have now achieved a couple of the ‘must do’ things that the people I have met so far have have advised: tried ceviche (Peruvian fish speciality); eaten corn and sesame icecream (actually quite nice, although I couldn’t find any sesame in it); and found La Iberica, the specialist sweets vendor in Arequipa, who are famous for their toffees, chocolate and marizpan. A small box toffees and a small box of truffles costs the grand total of 20 soles, or about $US6.
