Arequipa, The White City

This morning we flew to Arequipa, known as The White City because the many of the buildings have been built from a white volcanic material called 'sillar'. The city lies in a beautiful valley and at the foot of the 5822 metre high El Misti volcano, a perfectly shaped cone - although due to cloud cover we couldn't see said volcano. After a bit of a hiccup at the airport with the airline losing Damian and Willy's luggage, we continued on to our hotel with the promise t would arrive later that day. We had lunch and sandwich and fresh juice place called Mamut, which was delicious on all accounts before beginning our city tour.

Our first stop was the Arequipa Cathedral, which was originally constructed in 1656. It stood for over two centuries, but was gutted by fire in 1844 then destroyed in the earthquake of 1868. The cathedral was rebuilt shortly thereafter, and still stands today. Another large earthquake hit Arequipa in June of 2001, which toppled one of the cathedral's towers but did not cause major damage. Its huge facade dominates an entire side of the Plaza de Armas in the centre of the city. Inside is an organ donated by Belgium in 1870 (pictured above), which is said to be the largest in South America.

After this we took a walk down the cobblestone streets to the beautiful Santa Catalina Convent. Originally built in 1580, it is a maze of high walls decked in flowers and houses painted in the traditional colours of white, brown, and blue.

Later in the evening we went to a lovely restaurant that overlooked the beautifully lit town square and I tried a local dish of Alpaca fillet on a bed of quinoa. It was delicious! Willy was more adventurous and ordered guinea pig, which came out head, teeth, claws and all!