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We’ve been loving Arequipa. I’d say it’s our favorite city in Peru hands down. There’s great food (we’ve eaten falafel, stuffed peppers, and had great cheap vegetarian menus), it’s so much more organized, and quieter (taxis aren’t honking constantly) than other big Peruvian cities. It’s a little touristy, but that’s great after so much time surrounded by only Peruvians. We’ve immensely enjoyed swapping travel stories with other gringos (foreigners). We’ve even enjoyed seeing all the touristy clothes and trinkets that they’re selling everywhere. I think we were a little disappointed that almost all the clothes and souveniers available in Northern Peru are made in China, so being here where there’s high quality alpaca and Pima cotton goods is nice. Even the custom sweater Kim got in Leymebamba was made from acrylic yarn since they didn’t have any nice yarn for purchase in the area. It’s just good to see a local product that is actually worthy of some pride.

We spent a day and half in the city before heading to the Colca Canyon. That was a detailed trip, so it gets its own post. After getting back from the Canyon we rested our sore muscles for one night at the the same hostel we’d stayed at before and liked, Home Sweet Home. Unfortunately we got a room next to a woman with a baby who spent the night crying. Also, a fuse blew and the breaker box to flip the fuse was in the room with the woman with the baby – and she was sleeping late. All that drama caused us to get a late start, and then we realized it was Sunday, which means nothing is open when you need it. We had planned to leave that day for Puno, but we didn’t really want to take an uncomfortable night bus, and all the nice buses leave in the morning. So we stayed another day.

Since he had some more time we really wanted to see something related to Alpacas, especially after spending hours trying on super expensive and oh so soft sweaters, and we had read about a place in Arequipa that did tours called Mundo Alpaca (Alpaca World). Unfortunately, we the website is all flash and you have to click through every stupid screen to find the address. It took us a while to realize this, but once we got the address we didn’t have a detailed enough map to find the place. In general, anything in Peruvian cities outside of the very center may have an address, but it’s essentially worthless for finding the place since streets make very little sense. We actually walked right to where the place is by guessing the general area, but we didn’t see the building. We asked two taxi drivers if they knew where it was and they didn’t. Finally a police officer asked what we were looking for and pointed across the street. If anyone is looking for Mundo Alpaca just follow Santa Catalina from the Plaza de Armas north about 7 or 8 blocks until it ends.

Anyway, Mundo Alpaca is a very nice touristy thing to see. They have the usual gift store, but what’s more they have a few different kinds of Alpacas that you get to see up close, including some newborn babies which were 4 or so days old when we saw them. They also have a great demonstration of how the Alpaca hair is sorted, turned in to yarn, weaved, processed, and turned into sweaters. It’s all free too. Oughta be in the guidebooks if you ask me. They even have a little art gallery at the end that’s kind of nice.