We then took an overnight bus to Arequipa which is the second largest city in Peru. Arequipa is a beautiful city. Very upscale and surrounded by mountains and volcanoes. The weather there is very sunny. This city is beautiful. Despite surviving numerous earthquakes and volcanic eruptions it is bustling city full of elegant restaurants, art galleries, shops and the buildings here are fantastic. Being the city is located at 2300 metres above sea level it does not take long walking up the steady incline to our hostel to lose your breath. Altitude sickness is something that you have to be aware of, as you don’t realise how quickly you feel like dirt and struggle to breathe... but spending some time at the higher altitudes and drinking mate de coca (coca leaf tea, no it does not get you high) does help with easing the body into the elevation change. We will have to ensure that we are completely acclimatized as we are going to Puno, Peru and Copacabana, Bolivia both located on Lake Titicaca which is located at 3800 meters. We are then onto Cusco and the Inca Trail, which at it’s highest point is 4300 meters above sea level.
In Arequipa we spent lots of time wandering around the streets touring through churches, monasteries and old mansion houses. Like I said this city is full of beautiful buildings and most of which are made of stones quarried from ancient volcanic rock. The rock has a distinctive white colour hence why Arequipa is deemed the “White City” as well we just found out today that the name literally means in the ancient Katchwan language “behind the wall of volcanoes”. There are 8 volcanoes surrounding the city the most famous being El Misti which compares to Mount Fuji in Japan in sheer beauty for its perfect conical shape and due to the fact that it stands relatively alone). The most amazing aspect of this city is the need to continually rebuild the city due to the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. As recently as 2001 an earthquake damaged and destroyed some of the most beautiful buildings specifically La Cathedral a beautiful church that spans an entire block side of the Plaza de Armes which looking at it today looks like it was built hundreds of years ago but was in rubble less than 10 years ago.
In Arequipa we spent lots of time wandering around the streets touring through churches, monasteries and old mansion houses. Like I said this city is full of beautiful buildings and most of which are made of stones quarried from ancient volcanic rock. The rock has a distinctive white colour hence why Arequipa is deemed the “White City” as well we just found out today that the name literally means in the ancient Katchwan language “behind the wall of volcanoes”. There are 8 volcanoes surrounding the city the most famous being El Misti which compares to Mount Fuji in Japan in sheer beauty for its perfect conical shape and due to the fact that it stands relatively alone). The most amazing aspect of this city is the need to continually rebuild the city due to the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. As recently as 2001 an earthquake damaged and destroyed some of the most beautiful buildings specifically La Cathedral a beautiful church that spans an entire block side of the Plaza de Armes which looking at it today looks like it was built hundreds of years ago but was in rubble less than 10 years ago.
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