Arequipa
Day Four - Peru - 2022
A chaotic day exploring Peru’s “White City.”
Map Credit: OpenStreetMap
Editorial Comment: As mentioned above, this day was crazy and I bounced across central Arequipa several times over two walking tours. In fact, I visited several sites twice and some of the photographs below are presented out of order for the sake of simplicity (I won’t say which ones, however; it is more fun this way). I did the best I could to make the map and travelogue as easy to follow as possible, but apologies in advance if it is still a bit confusing.
1. Plaza de Armas #1
The Basilica Cathedral of Arequipa was built in 1540, and has survived fire, earthquakes and volcano eruptions. This is seriously some Vigo the Carpathian-level survivability.
Our overnight bus from Nazca arrived on-time(ish), and we were transferred to our hotel -the quaint but overall lovely and accommodating Arequipa Inn- for a bag drop-off and freshen up. I had pre-booked one of the optional activities for the day, a bus and walking tour of the city; however, as many of the tour members didn’t book this activity, the tour guide offered to give the whole group a brief walking tour centered around the Plaza de Armas in the center of the city. I ultimately double-tapped a lot of sites in the city, but at least I can say I saw everything in Arequipa. We began our brief walk outside the Basilica Cathedral of Arequipa.
2. Plaza de Armas #2
In addition to “The White City”, Arequipa is also known as “The City of Eternal Spring” due to its favorable climate.
The Plaza de Armas in Arequipa is genuinely one of the nicest city squares I’ve seen, with well-maintained gardens, manicured trees and bushes, and no trash anywhere. A+, Arequipa.
3. Plaza de Armas #3
Arequipa is known as “The White City” due to the number of prominent buildings built from sillar, a form of the volcanic rock rhyolite.
4. Plaza de Armas #4
The fountain in the center of the Plaza de Armas in Arequipa is adorned with a statue of “El Tuturutu”, a messenger for the emperor of Cusco who froze in a storm one night and is tasked with overwatching Arequipa in perpetuity.
5. Plaza de Armas #5
Like most Peruvian city squares, Arequipa’s Plaza de Armas is ringed by balconies and churches, including the Church of the Company.
6. Cloisters of the Company #1
The Cloisters of the Company is a pedestrian district in the former -you guessed it- cloisters of the Church of the Company.
The ad-hoc tour group made its way to the lovely Cloisters of the Company pedestrian (read: shopping) area.
7. Cloisters of the Company #2
If you were dropped here without context, you might think you were somewhere in old Byzantium!
8. Cloisters of the Company #3
While llamas get all the press, alpaca fur is considered “superior” in terms of softness.
The Cloisters of the Company is ringed by shops selling anything and everything made from alpaca fur, so we stopped into a shop and had a look.
9. Cloisters of the Company #4
I don’t have much to add here, this thing has already devoured your soul and there is nothing I can do about it now.
Anyway, after our stop at the shop we were cut loose for lunch. Those of us who were taking the walking tour had about 90 minutes to eat and make our way back to the hotel about (consults map) six blocks away. No problem. Having subsisted almost entirely on meat for the last three days, I opted to join some tour members for lunch at a local vegan restaurant.
In most every respect, Arequipa is a lovely city: the people are pleasant, the climate is amazing, the city is by all accounts clean and safe. But, fuck me if the restaurants here aren’t scuffed. More on that to follow, but as for our lunch it arrived with about 15 minutes to spare. I’m not terribly certain why this happened as I didn’t even order food that needed to be cooked (a smoothie and a salad), but nonetheless I scarfed down my meal and ran (well, walked quickly - I don’t run) to the hotel to catch the bus. Reports from others in the group who ate at other restaurants reported a similar phenomenon, and -in fact- someone didn’t make the bus at all! Credit where credit is due, the bus did wait an extra five minutes or so and I’d say they were being more than accommodating.
10. Mirador de Chilina #1
Misti is a large stratovolcano about 17 kilometers / 10 miles outside of Arequipa and stands 5,822 meters / 19,101 feet tall.
The tour bus gave me a chance to catch my breath from the running fast walking (give me a break, Arequipa is at 2,300 meters / 7,550 feet). Some time later, we were dropped off at Mirador de Chilina, a viewpoint over the Rio Chili on the northern end of Arequipa. The views here are fantastic, particularly of the volcanoes that ring the city.
11. Mirador de Chilina #2
The Chachani Massif is a dormant volcanic group outside Arequipa standing 6,057 meters / 19,872 feet tall.
12. Mirador de Chilina #3
Looking down into the valley beneath the viewpoint, you could see workers picking crops by hand.
13. Mirador de Chilina #4
It was interesting to me to see agriculture practically in the middle of a city of over a million people; however, beyond the Rio Chili there wasn’t much in the way of a water source from what I could tell so perhaps this is the region’s only viable option.
14. Yanahuara #1
The facade of Parroquia San Juan Bautista de Yanahuara depicts the merger of Inca and Catholic beliefs.
The bus then dropped us off in Yanahuara, an area of Arequipa known for its views over the city. But first we checked out this church, which was made entirely of sillar.
15. Yanahuara #2
Yanahuara features a picturesque sillar arch. For better or worse, the crowds that day were cray and I was only able to get this cropped view without the hordes.
16. Yanahuara #3
The view is hard to beat. I suppose this is why a large mural of this view was hung up in the Nazca bus terminal … for some reason.
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Now back to the travelogue!
17. Church of the Company
Construction of the Church of the Company began in 1590 and was completed in 1699.
The bus brought us back to the Plaza de Armas where we did a brief walking tour (the guide was obviously unaware we did the separate walking tour earlier - I told you this day was crazy!). We then entered the Church of the Company (strange neither tour went into the Basilica, but I’m sure there is some reason for this). The church has a magnificent interior with amazing paintings and sculptures.
18. Santa Catalina Monastery #1
The Santa Catalina Monastery was built in 1579; it was a cloister for Dominican nuns for about two hundred years, but maintains a small community today.
The city tour ended at the Santa Catalina Monastery, which was certainly the highlight of the day in my opinion. I will let the photographs speak for themselves, and nine more from the monastery follow.
19. Santa Catalina Monastery #2
20. Santa Catalina Monastery #3
21. Santa Catalina Monastery #4
22. Santa Catalina Monastery #5
23. Santa Catalina Monastery #6
24. Santa Catalina Monastery #7
25. Santa Catalina Monastery #8
26. Santa Catalina Monastery #9
27. Santa Catalina Monastery #10
With the tour concluded, I made my way back to the hotel to freshen up and link up with the remainder of the group for dinner. We were given two options: eat at a Peruvian-style restaurant that serves, let’s be honest, tourist-oriented food such as guinea pig and alpaca; or, head to an Italian-style tap house. I chose the latter not wanting to offend my stomach.
I try my best when on vacation to not get bothered too much by events around me; aside from the missed airport connection and -perhaps- the snafu at lunch earlier in the day, I was having a tremendously good time back on the road after two-and-a-half years.
Little did I know this trip was about to become a battle between mind and body, the end result of which would be a near mutual destruction. And I think it started right here.
Where to begin: I was running low on cash (I avoid paying by card whenever possible), so I ran over to a cash machine to withdraw money. The only options the machine would provide were denominations of 100 soles (near as makes no difference $25 U.S. dollars at the time), and -of course- the machine only pooped out 100 soles notes. Keep this in mind, as it will be important later.
Returning to the restaurant, the beer I had ordered before running to the cash point had finally arrived (I should not be able to go four blocks to an ATM and return before a beer comes from a tap 10 meters away, but I digress), and while I had ordered a lager what arrived was without exaggeration the worst beer I have ever had. Suffice it to say it was not a lager, but rather some weird craft pale ale which I assume was supposed to be “chic” because it was brewed using the excrement of a … anyway, it was fucking terrible.
Turns out the beer I ordered was not on tap (head shake), so I decided to play it safe and just get a beer in a bottle.
The food began to arrive and soon the table was filled with apps and mains. My flatbread appetizer arrived (cold, but that’s fine, it was a large table) but no main. After some time waiting for the waiter to return (probably 30 minutes), when I inquired where my main was, they simply said, “Oh, we don’t have that” and walked away. Wow.
I went outside to clear my head, and when I tried to re-enter the bouncer (what kind of pretentious-ass pizza restaurant has a bouncer???) said, “Oh, you can’t enter.” Honestly, if it wouldn’t have meant sticking my group members with the bill, I would have just said, “Okay” and left. After explaining to the bouncer that I was a customer, I went up to pay (there was no way our absentee waiter was going to bring another beer to that table in my lifetime), and what happens?
“That bill is too large, I cannot make change.”
I am human, after all, and despite my best intentions I have pet peeves while traveling. One near the absolute top of my list: do not give out bills at your cash points that nobody is willing to accept. I am not sure why this is such a persistent issue around the globe, but fuck me it keeps happening again and again. Sorry for the continued profanity, but this issue really grinds my gears.
After paying with my card, I decided to quit for the day and head back to the hotel rather than join my tour group members for some drinks at a local bar.
I don’t like to be “that guy” when I travel and in hindsight I feel bad for being such a crabby asshole for the remainder of the day, but damn….
Did I over-react? Or was I justified in being triggered? Leave a note in the comments section … oh, wait, we don’t have one of those.
Around midnight my stomach started rumbling, and -assuming I was just hangry- I thought, “Damn, probably should have gone to that other restaurant….”
