Day 3 & 4: Arequipa

Arequipa is located in southern Peru and it’s the second largest city after Lima.

Arequipa is in the Andes Mountains at an altitude of 7,661 ft above sea level. The below picture is the volcano El Misti which overlooks the city. This picture was taken upon exiting our airplane.

The main reason for visiting Arequipa before going to Puno (the town of mission work), was to prepare for the high altitude of Puno which is at 12,421 feet. To give you an idea of how high that is, Mt. Rainier has an altitude of 14,411 feet. Altitude sickness can begin around 8,000 feet, but serious symptoms can occur upon reaching 12,000 feet. After living at this altitude for seven years and continuing with yearly visits, Father has become accustomed to the altitude, so when he first started taking groups with him to Peru, the flight was scheduled to go straight from Lima to Puno. He told us every person in his group got altitude sickness. Since the most effective cure to altitude sickness is getting lower, the group was forced to return to a lower altitude. Slowly ascending the mountain will decrease altitude sickness dramatically, so Arequipa has since become a common stop for Father’s group to Peru especially since it is a beautiful mountain town. Arequipa was one of my favorite places we stayed, and the hotel we stayed at, the Mama Tila Hotel, was a winner!

The above picture was taken on the accessible roof, and the following pictures are of the surrounding view and other miscellaneous pictures :)

The mountain, El Misti, again

Nonna... note the shorts. Oh how I miss that weather!

our room from an above view

Father and Van at the breakfast table

Our guide, Jorge, wearing the popular "Peru" shirt

Not only was the hotel nice and clean but it was inexpensive and uniquely built. The Lindenau family had a huge room with six twin beds and a small living area with couches and chairs. We weren’t too high that it was freezing cold but it wasn’t too hot either: it was a glorious temperature with the sun shining the whole time! Even the town was cute... and walking through it was quite a joy. Later on, especially during our drive from Arequipa to Puno we saw some pretty disgusting towns (and bathrooms), some of the worst I've ever seen.

We enjoyed Arequipa for the afternoon and evening. We ate lunch at a nice restaurant on a balcony looking over the main town square with the cathedral of Arequipa within our view, also looking over the town square.

I tried alpaca meat which was in a sandwich and so delicious! It was nothing like the first restaurant we went to thankfully. Father said that at a high end restaurant like the one we were at, chicken soup with feet wouldn’t be served. Phew!

It was a little cold at the restaurant since we were seated outside, so look how cute... they gave us ponchos to keep us warm! :)

We walked around town some more... did some shopping, saw the inside of the cathedral and went out for dinner.

After a rested night’s sleep, I woke up, took a warm shower and had a delicious breakfast cooked and served upon my arrival at the table :) definitely a recipe for a good mood! We then met at 10:30 for mass and rosary making practice. Since we would be instructing the children how to make the rosaries when we began our mission work in Puno, it was necessary that we had time to help each other and practice.

A huge blessing during this trip was how much free time Father gave us to rest. Mostly allowing us to meet at 10am or 10:30 so we could sleep in, and giving us afternoon time as well to rest. A downside however (especially for me) was lack of breakfast and eating during normal, regular times. Sometimes we would eat lunch at 2pm after little or no breakfast and eating dinner at 10pm. Rarely was time specifically cut out for breakfast. This was a huge sacrifice for me because I was weak from lack of energy and couldn’t stop thinking about when we would eat next. It was always difficult for me to find snacks too since I’m not a huge fan of chips, granola bars, energy bars and the like – which are typical snack foods while traveling. Plus food in Peru is not the same as the United States so it was hard to find familiar American food in the stores.

After we made sandwiches and packed our things and other food, we began our afternoon bus ride to Puno!