How beautiful: Arequipa, the white city (thanks to the buildings of light tufa rock of a nearby volcano), the third largest city of Peru, 1000km south of Lima and equipped with the perfect climate ... Always sun, warm and not hot during the day and not too cold at night ,
The center is of course a World Heritage Site and the central Plaza de Armas is probably one of the most beautiful city centers in the world! The beautiful view is framed by the snow-capped volcanoes, especially the 15km distant "house volcano" El Misti with its 5822 meters.
The view from the roof terrace of our hostel (to the mountains and over the Santa Catalina monastery) was great - unfortunately we did not really have time to enjoy it.
In addition to the last blog entry: of course Peru has lost as expected the final of the Copa Americana. Menno. Marieke and have seen the game in a full bar, as unfortunately there was no public viewing unlike Lima.
A lost final does not mean that there is nothing to celebrate! Silver after all! Therefore, there is the sequel to the semi-final video in the last blog entry below: peaceful celebration one hour after the final whistle on the Plaza de Armas in front of the cathedral!
A main attraction of Arequipa is the Catherine Monastery (Monasterio de Santa Catalina). The nunnery was very special one day: the nuns lived like queens in the huge area. Each nun had several servants. And only novices from a very wealthy home were taken. The nonsense ended at some point a special representative of the Pope - from then each nun was allowed to have only one servant.
There are only about twenty nuns left in the meantime (who are seriously looking for new blood, but Marieke did not want to). They keep the shop running and in the very high peruvian entry, it still should not lack money.
How beautiful the monastery is, can be seen in the many photos below (the ones with the narrow streets and beautiful colors). Actually it is a small town in the city.
