Arequipa 4th - 6th December

A large section of the road into the city from the south had major roadworks and were closed and it would take ages to get the truck through to the north of the city so we left the truck in the truck park and took taxis to our hotel. Our taxi was  alongside Kim's taxi and just about to overtake when we got blocked.

The hostel was just a short walk away from the centre but it had excellent wifi and I needed to do a lot of work on my books. The publication date has passed and there is still no final draft. The drafts have been 'edited' but there are still plenty of basic mistakes to correct after the editor has supposedly edited the books. Therefore I was going to do some intensive work whilst I had good internet so some of the tourist sights in the city would be missed...but I planned to at least see some of them.

It was Peruvian army day so the main square was full of various arms of the military services with bands, parades, singing and marching with plenty of other units down every side street so the centre was crowded. I sneaked a photo of some troops but didn't take more as despite it being public display, no one seemed to be taking photos.

But I did get a few views of the main buildings in the plaza such as the cathedral, badly damaged in an earthquake ess than two decades ago but now repaired.

The tower on the left is the rebuilt tower and just a little lighter than the one on the right which is original. The city is build extensively of white volcanic rock and hence the city is called the white city. The tower on the left was destroyed by an earthquake in 2003 but has since been repaired.

Some detail of a church door with both Catholic and Inca influences although you need to be up close to see the details.

Another view of the cathedral but note the Christmas tree or cone just off centre of the photo despite the sun and temperatures.And plenty of other photos of the city.

Some Spanish Colonial architecture.

A scenic back street.

Another view of the plaza. looking at the main government building.

I love local markets and this one was no exception. Except for the yams in the picture, all the other items are potatoes of which there are more than three thousands types in Peru, the home of the humble spud, including the brightly coloured red \ yellow type in the bottom centre of the photo..

A general view of the colours in the market, plus a lot of fruit which I didn't recognise. My walking tour guide offered several pieces about to the group and they were all great but have no `english name and the local names are local language or occasionally Spanish so I was none the wiser.

I always try the local delicacies, such as this super vitamin drink for S20. It was surprisingly tasty and had a lot more fruit than the list suggests, including black beer, mango, eggs, milk, pineapple and lots of other stuff...but the ingredient to note is la rana...and it was presented to me before it was put into the liquidiser to show its authenticity. For the non Spanish speakers, yes, it really is a frog...and not uno sapo or toad but una rana...a frog and not just the legs. This is a premium product when plain fruit juice sells for not more than one soles.