Day 138 – Friday 13th, August –> Day 140 – Sunday 15th, August
After finishing the trip to the Colca Canyon, we relaxed a bit in the hotel and went out for the night. First we went (the group and Louis) in a bar with the cheapest happy hour ever. (Eg, 4 Cuba Libre 3 €, about the same for Pisco Sour, a traditional drink) and then we took the whole group in a taxi in a salsa club outside the city. There we were the only gringos. It was all very cool, the atmosphere was great, we were even invited by a guy on Whiskey Cola (he had bought a bottle), one of his Peruvian friend lived in Kiel and was visiting Arequipa. All in all a very cool and fun evening!
Elena from Peru / Miami
Our group
n the following say, Saturday, we made another trip still with our group to a place a bit outside the city to eat typical Peruvian lunch in Chicharrón restaurant (Chicharrón is made of fried pork rinds) and also have a couple of beers. Some of restaurants were already full and look like big venues where actually live typical music was played. We found a quieter place with just outside were wonderful views of the volcanoes and the city. Lorenz had some spicy stuffed peppers called rocoto relleno, typical from Arequipa and was struggling a bit. Otherwise, the rest of the food was mainly fried and dry meat – some of our neighbors even had fried guinea pig- with different sort of potatoes which Peru is known for (hundreds and hundreds of different varieties) and not so much vegetables… like in the rest of Latin America. In addition to beer we had chicha (morada) typical fermented drink made out of purple maize. The Peruvian music was original and entertaining. From there we went to a lookout point as the sun was setting down and Elena made us tried for the first time “cheese ice cream” – queso helado, but despite the name it was closer to the taste of the french fromage blanc topped with cinnamon. In the evening we agreed to meet again to celebrate, even though we were starting to look for some rest.
El Misti volcano in the background (elevation: 5,822 metres)
Outside of Arequipa
Outside of the Chicharrón restaurant
A guinea pig! But not at our table…
Our table with chica!
Us with Arequipa and its volcanoes in the background
So we went back into the same good bar and then to a club. But only with Jasmine and Elena. The others had been understandably tired. The club had a very European feeling and there were many foreigners there. It was Saturday and not only the club but the streets were crowded with people. Added to that was on that weekend the celebration of Arequipa’s 471 anniversary, celebration and the people of the city were really serious about it. Everywhere was celebrated and there were parades. The next day a parade was planned with thousands of participants from many countries of Latin America and parts of the country of Peru.
Crowded street
Sunday was our last day in Arequipa and the day of the big parade for the anniversary celebration. We watched the parade from the window of the hotel room of Elena’s father. It would hardly have been possible otherwise, as the city was packed, unless watching the live transmission on national TV! In the evening we found a Kebab place and it was actually pretty good! Then we got ready to take the scheduled bus to Puno with 7am connection to go directly from there on the Bolivian side of the lake Titicaca, to Copacabana.
The Parade on August 15th
Arequipa was one of the best cities so far. The people were friendly, the city was beautiful, it was touristy, but not so that the city was influenced by it. The tourists easily fit in this casual open view of the city. In addition, the city was very clean and the prices were not on tourist level. Another reason for the good memories of this city will certainly be our group, but the weather was also great, despite the cold nights there has not been a cloud in the sky during our stay. Arequipa is certainly worth the trip, but after a whole week in the city then we looked forward to a new adventure: Bolivia, the poorest country in South America with the highest percentage of Amerindians in its population. We were about to see what we had heard so many good things about…
Entry of Elena in Todd’s travelling diary
Off for a while 
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