After our fabulous experience with giant condors in the Colca Canyon, we headed to the "White City" of Arequipa for a few days. Arequipa is in southern Peru and is known as the White City, because it's built out of sillar, a local whitish stone produced by volcanic activity.
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| Hostel Bubamara in sillar stone, Arequipa, Peru |
Happily for us, our accommodation in Arequipa, Hostal Bubamara, was in a building made completely of white sillar stone, and it was right in the centre of Arequipa.
But getting there seemed to take ages. We took a local bus from Chivay in the Colca Canyon which was ok, but entering Arequipa, it was so very slow as it wended its way through some very poor and
shambolic looking neighbourhoods.
At that time, we found it difficult to believe that Arequipa was going to live up to its reputation as a beautiful white city.
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| Marg on the terrace at Hostal Bubamara, Arequipa, Peru |
However, Hostal Bubamara proved to be lovely. The breakfast area was on the rooftop with spectacular views to the snow-capped mountains surrounding the city, the service was wonderful, and our room was really spacious with a seating area for relaxation - the best room in the house!
And....now that we were in the centre of Arequipa, we found that it was a beautiful city, and that its reputation seemed accurate. We soon unpacked and went out to explore.
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| Colonial style architecture in Arequipa (UNESCO), Peru |
The historic centre of Arequipa is a UNESCO world heritage site. It is considered to be one of the most significant illustrations of Latin American architecture and city layout.
The architecture consists of colonial style buildings ranging from 16th century Baroque to 19th century Modern, that seamlessly blends the Spanish style with the local style.
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| Architecture exposing silla rock, Arequipa (UNESCO), Peru |
Some of these buildings show their sillar structure, while others are painted in typical Spanish pastel tones.
The city layout is in a grid pattern, so it was very easy to find our way around. And everywhere we looked, we saw cobbled streets, characterful stone walls, clever archways, and attractive courtyards. There were also some very classy shops, a wonderful café culture, and some stylish bars. We found it to be very attractive and vibrant, and loved it.
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| The Plaza de Armas and Cathedral in Arequipa (UNESCO), Peru |
Our hostel was an easy walk to the interesting main
square, the Plaza de Armas. One whole side of the Plaza is taken up by the beautiful colonial style Cathedral of Arequipa, the largest cathedral in Peru.
The other sides of the Plaza also showed imposing
colonial architecture. The most significant being the Church of La Compañía, the Church of La Merced, and some huge stone portals which were once part of the municipal offices. Overall, these impressive structures, along with the beautiful gardens in it's centre, seemed to give the Plaza a sense of calm and grandeur.
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| Pedestrian street off the Plaza, Arequipa (UNESCO), Peru |
The streets surrounding the Plaza were a combination of
one-way vehicle traffic and pedestrian-only, which made them easy to walk along.
We found many lovely shops in the side-streets. There was one that provided Marg with the
perfect long-sleeved shirt to protect her from mosquitos for our upcoming trip to the Amazon River.
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| Inside the Santa Catalina de Siena Monastery, Arequipa (UNESCO), Peru |
In our wanderings, we came across the Monastery of Santa Catalina de Siena, one of the most important and impressive colonial
structures in the city.
It is a monastery of nuns that was founded in 1579. Women from diverse
social backgrounds entered the convent to serve as cloistered nuns, never
again to return to their homes and families. There are still nuns living in its northern area.
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| Marg in the Santa Catalina Monastery, Arequipa (UNESCO), Peru |
The Monastery is often referred to as a "city within a city" because it is so big,
and made up of cobblestone paths thought of as streets, which are named after cities in Spain.
It was a fascinating complex to visit, and to see
how the nuns would have lived in their small cells.
We saw many interesting sights while we were in Arequipa. It has a population of around 1 million, so it is sizable, with many galleries and museums.
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| Church and Convent of San Francisco, Arequipa (UNESCO), Peru |
Our sightseeing included the ornate Basilica and Convent of San Francisco of Arequipa, and the baroque style Church of San Agustin.
We also visited the University of San Agustin, the Andean Sanctuaries Museum, the Archaeological Museum, two theatres and several other interesting places. In between visits, we lingered in some lovely green plazas and parks along the way. It is a lovely city.
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| Us with the Chachani Volcano behind, Arequipa, Peru |
Arequipa sits at 2,300 metres above sea level in the shadow of several volcanoes that are part of the Andes Mountains.
The highest volcano is Ampato at 6,288 metres above sea level (masl). The others according to size are Chachani, Misti and Pichu Pichu at 6,057, 5,822 and 5,664 masl respectively.
Ampato and Chachani are dormant volcanoes and Pichu Pichu is thought to be extinct.
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| Misti Volcano see from Arequipa, Peru |
However, Misti is considered one of the most active volcanoes in Peru. Unfortunately, it is also the closest volcano to Arequipa which is only 17.5 km away, making Misti very dangerous to the city.
Misti is considered important because it had religious significance for the Incas. It has the typical conical peak of a volcano and can be seen from most places around Arequipa. These days, it is the icon of the city.
After admiring the volcanoes and seeing as much as we could of Arequipa, we were happy to spend some time just relaxing in its lovely ambience before moving on.
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| Marg on the tarmac during the fire drill at Arequipa Airport |
On our day of departure, we headed to the airport to catch
our early-evening flight to Lima, the capital of Peru. Then, while waiting at the departure gate, we were suddenly evacuated from the building. Everyone was hustled out onto the tarmac where we seemed to wait for
ages without understanding why.
Eventually, the officials advised that it was an emergency evacuation drill and decided that it had all
worked well, so they herded us back inside. We eventually arrive in Lima,
around 1 hour later than planned. But more on that in the next blog.
This
is part of a blog series about our travels through the north-eastern countries
of South America. The first blog in this series is called “In and around Santiago”.