Arequipa

We were picked up by Atisa tours (excellent service). We checked into the fabulous Hotel El Libertador where they have alpacas and a huge turtle in the backyard. We were greeted with coca tea, left our luggage. Mark, Cindy, Mike and Lynn went to down town Arequipa. Delphine and Alberto took a little nap and met the rest of the group by the cathedral. Delphine and Alberto walked around the town hall (Plaza de Armas, see picture).


We then walked to the Santa Catalina convent, but we first stop to have drinks because we were all dehydrated from the Diamox altitude pills we were all taking. We tasted Cuzquena beer but it tasted funny because of the Diamox. Mark didn't believe that this was the reason so he had a second beer (Corona) to see if it was true. Yeah, right. Good excuse.


We then enter the Santa Catalina convent (see photo with Cindy and Delphine) which has existed for around 400 years and has only been open to the public for 70 years or so. The convent is an amazing complex were nuns were secluded from the outside wold. On our way out we stopped at some of the alpaca shops where Lynn fell in love with a modern andean tapestry. Alberto stayed with her to help her decide and bargain. She finally bought it. Cindy, Mark and Delphine went to the restaurant ahead of us and we followed after the tapestry sale transaction.

We then went walked to the Zig Zag restaurant. We found Delphine and Cindy in a nice private room at the restaurant. But Mark was supposed to be waiting for us outside, but was nowhere to be found. Alberto went to look for Mark and found him shopping a sweater at a little handicraft shop. This is when the rest of us found out that, yes it's true, Mark is a shopaholic. We had a fantastic new Arequipeno cuisine dinner at Zig Zag (highly recommended). We ate like celebrities with wine and everything. The whole bill? about 16 dollars per person. That felt very good.