Arequipa - Monastery of Santa Catalina

What a gorgeous place! It’s 20K sq meters, a city within a city with street names. Founded 1580 by a wealthy widow, the 2nd daughters of wealthy Spanish families were sent here and paid a dowry. Housed 500 people, 1/3 nuns, the rest servants and orphans. We saw kitchens, gardens, chapels, living areas. I kept getting lost! Nuns lived here until the 1960s without running water or electricity and then built new accommodations next door.Read more