Arequipa is Peru's second city with over a million inhabitants. It is known as the white city not for the abundance of colonial whitewashed houses, but instead for the high concentrations of gringos and expats.
We stayed at the Areqipay Backpacker House on the edge of town. The restored house hosts travelers and offers tours and amusements such as billiards, foosball, two kitchens, two TV rooms, ping pong and many other comfortable lounge areas.
The city's holy week celebrations were in full swing. Thousands of people attended processions throughout town. They followed their patron saint their churches Virgen, or their Señior as the bearers swayed like elephants in unison to move the altars through the streets. Often they'd stop for a breather and for other members of the congregation to replace them. The churches adorned the altars with lights, impressive bouquet of flowers, fruits, and the heavy statues and carried them on their backs. Some were dressed in cloaks according to tradition and others were regiments of only women.
Arequipa prides itself for being a progressive melting ground for cultures and the food may have driven this melding more so than any other factor. Picanterias are traditional restaurants where they'll seat all tables with multiple families, you never eat alone and there is no concept of "your" table. They are good, very good, and everybody knows this so rich or poor, brown or white you go and find the food as your invitation to break down stigmas. Picanterias are only open for lunch, which ironically was the perfect time for their slightly bitter winelike chicha fermented corn drink. What better way to go back to work than after a few jugs of this amazing beverage?
We were on a mission to find the regional dish Rocoto Relleno which is a stuffed pepper served with a potato casserole. Inside it's got all the goods: steak, rice, hard boiled egg pieces, raisins, peppers, olives, onion salsa and of course cheese. This dish single-handedly reversed my feelings that all South American food is bland, fried and tasteless. This, in one word, was delicious.
A few hours outside of the city is the Colca Canyon which is known for its impressive depth (twice as deep as the grand canyon). The canyons air currents are perfect for the 9 feet wingspan of the lazy Andean condor. I say lazy because they don't fly, they glide and they don't hunt they scavenge. The canyon itself I found beautiful, but I must say, it's not really a canyon and it is more of a steep-sided valley between two colossal mountains. I think Arizona and Utah have it beat hands down in beauty.
On the trip to the canyon we stopped at several towns for dreaded tourist breaks. One stop was particularly interesting because in the distance a volcano was spewing smoke high into the sky which made me realize how fragile Arequipa was.
Looming at 6800 meters high, the snow-capped Misty volcano is only 18 miles away from the city. If it blew up the city would be gone in an instant. The Incas knew that their lives rested on the fury of this snowcapped neighbor. In 1995, by accident, a mummy was discovered in an area exposed due to ice melt on a particularly bad El Niño year. Juanita was the first of four perfectly preserved mummies found on the mountain as offerings. The city has a museum with her or one of the others on display in a freezer. She was 15 when taken to the mountain by foot, and on her own will, to be sacrificed. She and the others knew of their fate since birth.
