Day 39: Arequipa

After a night in the hotel opposite Quito's south bus terminal, Quitumbe, I spent Day 38 getting to Quito airport and hanging around for my evening departure to Lima. And then a tedious overnight in Lima airport waiting for my 5.30am plane to Arequipa, down in the south of Peru. (It was by far the cheapest way of buying some quick distance – shortcutting four or five overnight buses.)


Anyway, I arrived in Arequipa around 8am today, Peru's second city, whose handsome volcanic-rock old-town sits dramatically at the foot of some mighty volcanoes – Misti, Chachani, and Picchu Picchu – and whose main square (pic) is rather fine.


There was some sort of festival going on, with lots of marching bands and so on, and lots of people in traditional costume – big gaudy skirts for both men and women, embroidered tops for the women, and lampshade hats for the men. All very dashing, but looks very hot.


In the afternoon I strolled round the Convent of St Catherine (pic): Arequipa's main attraction, a sprawling ancient convent in the centre of town that is more of a walled village in itself, like London's Tower. The blurb talks about the nun's cells being 'austere', but they looked fine to me, comfy and roomy and warm in the equatorial climate – certainly better than my freezing and pokey college rooms at Oxford, for instance.