La Ciudad Blanca (The White City)

Two ladies came up to us and asked if they could take
pictures with us, giggling all the while. It was India all over!

Cusco is officially a thing of the past. After one last chill morning there yesterday, Laura and I boarded a plane headed farther south to Peru’s second largest city, Arequipa. We arrived in the evening and headed to the house of our latest couchsurfer: Fernando. Somehow, no matter how many times I do it, it never quite ceases to amaze that you just show up at some total stranger’s house and they just let you in to crash in their place.

So not only does Peru have its own beer, so do several of the
cities here. And, always the good tourist, I am committed
to trying each and every one!

Even though Cusco had a population of around 325,000 people, it somehow still felt small and cozy. Arriving in Arequipa, the second largest city in Peru with a population 900,000, was a momentary shock. I like small and cozy when in other countries as I think that’s where you get the truest sense of what a place is really like. Just think, if someone were to come to the US and only visit New York City, would they really know what “real” life in America is like, how the average family really lives? Either way, Arequipa seems to be a lovely city so far and well deserving of its nickname “La Cuidad Blanca” (The White City) because most of the buildings are, well, white.

The  cathedral in the main plaza in Arequipa

Today we did a bit of exploration while acclimating ourselves to our new surroundings. We were supposed to meet a friend of Laura’s in the morning but that fell through so we were left to our own devices to figure things out. Cue lots of coffee, a lunch overlooking the main plaza, a tour of the main cathedral in town and some more coffee, and that was about it.

Inside said cathedral

We headed back to Fernando’s for a little nappie-poo with plans of heading out again later in the evening. And then two more couchsurfers from France showed up so we ended up spending time hanging out with them, shooting the breeze. Turns out there was a street party going on to celebrate the anniversary of the neighborhood plaza so we all headed over. The music was pretty terrible (some sort of bizarre Japanese rock, which left the Peruvian crowd standing pretty stone cold) but it did provide one our coolest and most authentic Peruvian experiences to date:

The bell atop the cathedral

In one of the buildings on the plaza, we noticed what looked like some kind of abandoned space that was filled with several “street vendors” selling various kinds of homemade foods, mostly meat and potatoes on sticks. At another table was a lady selling some sort of “spiked” hot tea. There was a long row of picnic tables and you just squeezed in wherever you could fit, squeezed in among a big crowd of locals, many of whom took interest in us and struck up casual conversations. In true South American style, there was some chaos to it all (the good kind of chaos) but the food was real and cheap, the drinks were hot and spiked and the company and the experience were both as authentically Peruvian as it gets. And THAT is the stuff I travel for.

The view from atop the cathedral

Me in front of the cathedral door.... you get
the idea.

Coolest Peruvian dinner ever, with our fellow couchsurfers,
Olivier and Elisse