Arequipa

We woke up this morning on our own time for the very first time! No pickup, no train, and no early tour! Of course, we all naturally woke up around 7 am as we were use to the early wake-up call. We headed down to breakfast and made our way out into Arequipa.

Arequipa is the 2nd largest city in Peru and is nicknamed "the white city". Although most of the buildings are made of sillar, a white volcanic stone, this is not the reason for the nickname. Apparently only whites were allowed to live inside the city and natives could not. This area is also prone to earthquakes like the one from 2 weeks ago.

This morning, we visited the massive Monastery of Santa Catalina, once home to 200 sequestered nuns of the Dominican order. According to my guidebook, "it is the most important and impressive religious monument in Peru." It's built as a city within a city. Today, only a couple dozen nuns remain and a 17th century nun was beatified by Pope John Paul II and will most likely become a saint - Sister Ana. Here's a picture of Jamie and Caitlin near the entrance:

After our walk through, we headed down to the Plaza de Armas - the nicest one we've seen thus far. It had palm trees and a large fountain. It was like we were in Monaco rather than Peru as noted by Caitlin and seen below:

We walked around and then headed into the Cathedral. They wouldn't let me take Communion as I was wearing shorts. This morning, I didn't really think about the fact we would be entering churches and I am starting to run out of clean clothes!

We then grabbed coffee and soda and as the girls walked around, I started feeling really sick. I woke up queasy, but at this point couldn't really function. So I headed back to the hotel and slept the whole afternoon. Jamie and Caitlin went shopping and had lunch. I don't think it's the altitude, but fatigue and I don't think the shrimp in my risotto from last night was well-cooked.

The girls came and checked on me a few times, and since it was Sunday, a lot of sites were closed or closing early. By dinner, I was feeling much better. We headed to Zig Zag, an Andean gastronomy restaurant. I had a quinoa gnocchi and ratatouille, while Jamie had a hamburger cooked on volcanic stone, and Caitlin had a quinoa cheesy soup and salad.

We then headed back to the hotel as we were all fatigued, but we have a 2nd day in Arequipa ahead of us!