Quick facts: Capital city of Arequipa region; GPS: -16.39879, -71.53693; GMT-5; Altitude: 7661′
Arequipa – The bus ride into Arequipa was less than comfortable but it could have been worse. We got into the city a little after 05:00 in the morning and luckily the room I got was just around the corner. I checked in and tried to go back to sleep for a few hours.
I woke up around 08:30 and went upstairs onto the roof to have breakfast. It was mostly clear and sunny and had quite a view of the city from up there! Arequipa is surrounded by three volcanoes which was something to see.
After breakfast and getting ready I headed out. I wound up at the local alpaca museum, Mundo Alpaca. There were several people waiting at the door to greet me, one girl gave me a tour around the place. She explained some background on the different kinds of animals and how their hair is used for textiles. They had a little pen of about 10 animals so you can see them up close and even give you a handful of grass to feed them. After the tour there is a store to sell tourists stuff. I didn’t feel pressured to buy anything and it was a good intro to learn about these animals. It was cool, I liked it and it didn’t cost anything.
Leaving Mundo, I walked to this restaurant called Picanteria La Mundial that the girl had suggested for lunch. It was only 15 mins away and the walk wasn’t too bad. I had a hard time deciding at first but then when I looked around and saw that a lot of people had ordered the special of the day I went with the crowd and was not disappointed. I’m not exactly sure what it was called but it was pretty good. It was a soup of some sorts and had meat and veggies and maybe squash too.
After lunch I called and scheduled a massage for later. Until then I had some time to kill so I caught a cab and headed over to Yanahuara. This is a cool park because it looks over the city and had these white arches with writing around them. The city is well known for this white rock that is used all over to build things other than just these arches.
I didn’t have a whole lot of time here but enough to grab a lemonade and charge my phone in a nearby cafe before making my way to the spa. I found this place Beya Spa on TripAdvisor and while they weren’t the best place I can’t really complain because an hour long massage only cost S/70 (~$21).
It was early evening by this time but I was already pretty tired and ready for bed so I headed back to the hotel and crashed to be ready for the early start in the morning.