The White City

I'm aware that we havnt really done much blogging about Arequipa (the city we are living in), and since we are both absolutely loving it, I thought it should have a mention. The city is in a desert region of southern Peru, about 2 hours from the coast on a bus, and was only founded about 380 years ago by the Spanish- so all of the architecture is colonial (the buildings in the city centre are all made from the local white volcanic rock- hence the city's nickname), and the vast majority of the population fair skinned and catholic. At first it felt strange coming from places which had a deep Inka history and traditions to a place where there are virtually none... but as the Ariqipenans say "Arequipa is not Peru" (They have a joke sort of AQP passport thing, and really hold themselves apart from pre-catholic Peruvian culture). Once I got used to this attitude the city really started to grow on me.

The Plaza de Armas and the cathedral

The monastery

There are several dormant volcanoes around the city- one is called El Misti which is 5,800m (steve wrote about climbing up there a few weeks ago, and the other is a cluster of 5 vlocanoes- the highest being Chachani (6,100 m). Theyre really stunning things to have in the cityscape, and at night they glow pink as the sun sets. In fact they are problably my favourite thing about the city- Sometimes I feel like cities lack an empathy for the natural world...it seem to get swallowed up in the bustle, but you really cant help but feel humbled every time you look at them. I felt my second earthquake since Ive been here last night. It was only about a 4 on the earthquake scale, but it woke me up. Felt like a massive train was passing right outside our apartment and the cupboard doors rattled for about 30 seconds. I always thought earthquakes would freak me out (and Im sure a big one would!) but I enjoy the little ones. I feel comforted that theres something bigger and stronger than mankind. Hah!

One of my favourite things about the city is San Camilo Market. It doesnt smell like rotting death like most big Peruvian markets Ive been to- not even in the butchers section. And you can buy pretty much anything here. Every town has its own area of production in the selva (jungle), so pretty much everywhere has a good supply of farely local exotic fruit and veg. Papaya is my new favourite fruit- I've never really appreciated it before now.

yum

yuck

Its not just food in the market though, theres ALL sorts of stuff. I found pretty much the only evidence of arequipenan non-catholic belief in at the stalls that sell tea and herbs. Some of the vendors also do coca leaf readings for customers, as well as selling dried animal fetuses (not exactly sure what the animals are...maybe foxes or something) which are used as sort of sacrificial offerings to the mountains when people need to ask for something. They are put into a bundle of offerings such as food, coca leaves and gifts, and ceremoniously buried on the mountains. My Spanish teacher said he has a friend who is a 'wizard'- a kind of traditional healer (although theyll also put curses on people for you if you want!!) - who apparently buys human fetuses from the dodgy abortion clinics to use instead of animals. He said the remains just get fed to the dogs otherwise. This tale sounds a bit tall...but I dont think its far too tall to be true.

On a lighter note, here are some pictures of our apartment. It's in a quieter part of town, across the river from the center and close to my work. It's an open plan 'studio' apartment on the third floor, built onto the side of a house. Im really happy we found it- it seems to be a handy location for everything. Our neighbours are the very nice family who own it and live in the main house, and an eccentric, creepy, sexist old guy from Florida who lives in the ground floor apartment (who we avoid).

Back to my favourite topic of conversation- food. There are some great cheapy little lunchtime places on our street, one of which is a cevicheria- a place specialising in the traditional dish cevice. This is marinated chunks of raw white fish in a spicy onion chili and lime salad. They serve it with corn and sweet potatoes. Yum. Peruvians cant get enough of corn and potatoes.

Ceviche

So it's all good in Arequipa- the baby avos are coming along nicely too!

Fodder

Hello! I havnt written on this for what feels like ages. We worked out today that we´ve been in Arequipa for nearly a month now. Can´t believe it´s been so long!! We hadn´t done any of the tourist things in the city until today, when we went to a very good archeology museum and saw a 500year old ´íce princess´- a 12 year old girl who was sacrificed on top of a nearby volcano as an offering to calm the mountain gods who were v.upset and causing lots of volcanic erruptions at the time.

Last weekend we went to a very tasty gastronomy fair that was held just outside town, (where we met these little fellas, who´s fate is unlikely to be better than the ice princess´s) and got inspiderd to blog a bit about Peruvian food - which is SO good! a bit too good infact, as I seem to have got myself a few foody friends in my stomach from all the streetfood munching ive been doing...but thats another story. Nice.

So where to begin? Maybe with the avocado tree we have in the garden of our apartment. Not sure how fast avos grow, but hopefully theyll be ready before we move on in a few months, as we can pick them from our bathroom window. We are both tremendously excited about it.

It´s been fab having our own kitchen since we got here, although when we moved in there was just a gas hob for cooking, and I´d got myself all excitied about baking when we were apartmen´-hunting...so Steve splashed out a bit and bout us a mini oven which is amazing! its sooo mini- and it bakes cakes perfectly. And it cost about 35 quid which seems like a lot of money nowadays, but not for whole oven with bags of baking potential!!!

The fruit and veg here is amazing- I´ll get some market photos posted when I´ve got the patience (it´s running a bit thin now as this computer is a silly speed of slow), but we have been gorging on tropical frit salad for breakfast since we arrived in peru. Heres one of the funkier looking one´s we´ve come across... Peruvians seem to be psyched on making grains puff up, and sometimes they go as far as dying them shocking colours of artificiality. These ones reminded me of fruit polos, and got me round to wondering if they still make them...?

I´m just about to run out of patience entirely, but before I go I HAVE to talk about the most incredible fish stew we ate last weekend. I can´t describe how incredible the stock was- Ive never even dremed of such good fish stock. We live a block away from the best fish restaurant Ive ever been to- and this stew (as well of being of the best stock EVER), had lots of big chunks of fish, octopus, calamares, and other unidentifiable but really tasty seafoody things. Oh, and to top it off, it was served in a washing up bowl-sized bowl. Might have to go back for more tomorrow- maybe it can become a sunday lunch ritual. Heaven.

Shame I´m such a messy eater though!