Weird weather

Got hammered in a dust storm today. Still chewing on grit and coughing up half a dirt road. The wild weather continued with the added influence of a lot of dust in the air. Rain YES RAIN, fell lightly on my rooftop for the first time in 4 months.

Yura

About an hours drive from Arequipa, Peru.
The air out there is clean and the old part of Yura has a ghost town feel with many deserted buildings.
Halfway beers at a little Picanteria was very welcome in the searing dusty heat.
Unfortunately our driver disappeared, leaving us waiting on the side of a deserted service road for an hour after dark. We eventually came across one of very few chicken buses and scored a ride back to Arequipa. We later found out there may have been something lost in translation (or someone fell asleep in their car).

Edi and Olga

Alto Cayma

Pueblos Jovenes (Young Towns) Alto Cayma

Alto Cayma, sits in the shadow of volcanoes Chachani and El Misti on Arequipa's outskirts.

Ice Cream

Peruvian army enjoying Peru's national dish, the ice cream.

It is no secret that Peruvian have a sweet tooth. Crap food is constantly available and pushed by street sellers at every turn. No matter where you are, there will always be someone offering ice cream, soda, "chicharrones", chips etc. Ice cream is pretty popular in the dry desert heat.

A parade, a festival for every and any reason

Alot of noise below my apartment as I'm slurping some veggie soup. Sure enough it was a parade of sorts making its way down my street, holding up traffic and for who knows what.

The Recoleta Museum

La Recoleta is a Franciscan monastery near our place in Yanahuara and was built in 1647 and is a cool little refuge from the buzz of Arequipa and not an overly popular tourist attraction. Inside it's sillar walls are many exhibits as well as several cloisters and a religious art museum, a pre-Colombian room contains ceramics and textiles produced by cultures who inhabited the Arequipa area. There is museum of Amazon exploration featuring many artifacts, stuffed animals as well as photos of early Franciscan missionaries in the Amazon. Probably the coolest part is the dim, pokey and dusty library with 20000 books dating back to the 16th Century. Ran the battery low so not too many pics.

Gallery



Library


Friars quarters

Shila