Arequipa

We arrived to Arequipa on an overnight bus from Cusco. It's a beautiful colonial city that is known as the white city. This is due to the white stone of the buildings but the name originally came due to the large number of white Europeans settling and developing the city. It is surrounded by four volcanos. During the Inca time, they saw the volcanos as their god's and made several sacrifices to them. This sadly included children. It generally happened every four years, in the hopes of keeping the Gods happy and stopping the volcanos from erupting.

Accommodation:
Arequipay Hostel. Pretty basic but overall nice. Has some nice outdoor areas.
Selina Arequipa. Very pretty decor. A classic Selina. Booked it because it has a pool but we didn't end up using it.
-Day 1: Checked into our hostel and went to Eco Brunch for breakfast. In the afternoon we did the free walking tour. It gets very cold here in the evenings so we had to rush back to the hostel for more layers before heading out for dinner.

-Day 2: We checked out of our hostel and moved to the Selina. Being good Friday we found that most businesses and restaurants were closed. This resulted in a lot of walking. We settled for lunch in Las Gringas where we had a pizza. The base was made of purple corn. In the evening we went to Waya rooftop bar where we could watch the sunset and look out over the square. There was a huge procession through the city, carrying Jesus in a coffin.

-Day 3: We went to the Mummy museum. It was excellent. We were able to see the mummy of Junaita, an Incan girl sacrificed to the Gods over 500 years ago. She was buried at the top of one of the volcanos. Her body was discovered due to an eruption in the 80s. Since then they have found three more children's bodies in the area. Juanita was only 12 to 14 years old when she was sacrificed. Only the mostly healthy and prestigious children were chosen to be sacrificed. It is thought that women used to scar their children's faces in the hopes they would not be selected. To date 20 bodies have been found on volcanos in south America but they expect there are hundreds still buried.

Recommendations:
-Do the free walking tour. I did Free Tour Downtown Arequipa.
-Ecobrunch for breakfast
-Kao restaurant for dinner. It's Peruvian Asian fusion.
-Kaya rooftop bar. Good place to watch the sunset
-La Nueva Palomino. Typical Peruvian food. It's very good and very popular so expect to wait for a table. It closes at 5pm so it's ideal for lunch/early dinner.
-Las Gringas. It's a pizzeria and has a chocolate shop. It was really good.
-Mummy museumLes mer