Monday 10 April 2023

April 10-11 South to Arequipa and the Andes

The next couple of days was almost an afterthought, an addendum. It wasn’t really but it had not been included in the itinerary the tour company had mapped out our South American sojourn. I found reference to this place while I was trawling through the internet preparing for our trip – the Colca Canyon deep in the Peruvian Andes where the condors fly! That leapt out at me as something Lindsay would absolutely love, the ‘cherry on the cake’ for a bird lover. 

Arequipa is ringed by snow-capped volcanoes

Another early morning flight saw us winging our way south to Arequipa where we spent an afternoon and evening before heading for Chivey and the canyon. Arequipa is known as White City as many of its building are built of the white volcanic rock, ashlar I think. The city is surrounded by towering volcanoes so the setting is quite stunning. We weren’t so interested in being tourists in this quite large and growing city as we were champing on the bit to get to the canyon. But we did take a wander to look at the impressive cathedrals and monasteries. We were not as high as we had been when in Bolivia but still higher than Mt Kosciusko! 

Top R+L Basilica Cathedral of Arequipa
The city square - Plaza de Armas
The University
This power metre caught my eye

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