Arriving in Arequipa

We arrived mid morning and went for a bit of a walk around town. Arequipa is one of the largest cities in Peru and is seriously beautiful. It is surrounded by 3 mountains: El Misti, Chachani and Pichu Pichu which range between 5571m and 6075m.

Apparently the Arequipa locals believe that it was left here when heaven and earth split.

A large number of the buildings in the scenic, historic centre of the city is built from Sillar (a white, porous volcanic rock which has good acoustic and temperature controlling properties).

At 2,200m above sea level it is also a nice place to acclimatise a bit to the altitude we are going to be facing in the next few weeks. Anyway, nice to get a bit of a wander around before relaxing for the afternoon.

This was also the day of Peruvian presidential elections which explains why there have been political posters plastered or pained on every square centimetre of spare space that can be found, all the way up to the tunnel at 4,500m near Huaraz.