Arequipa - Volcanoes, Earthquakes and Spicy Food

How do you capture Arequipa?

It´s a city surrounded by not one, not two, but three 20,000 foot volcanoes.  One is active.  Two used to be not too long ago.

Inca´s used to sacrifice children on the volcanoes (really!)  Climbers stumbled across the mummified, frozen bodies a few decades ago.

There are earthquakes every few decades.

The food is spicy and delicious.

The city`s major industries are alpaca products, cement made from volcanic ash, and tourism of canyons and mountains.

We don´t have anything comparable in the States.  Imagine food from New Orleans on top of the Grand Canyon, with Mount McKinley in the background.  Crazy place.

Peru consistently delivers on quality restaurants and good design (in the tourist quarters, at least...)

How about some Japanese / Peruvian fusion?

Cool architecture and design everywhere.

Colonial living.

Even the stray dogs seem less threatening here.

More historical architecture...

...with some vultures thrown in!

Found it!  I took Starbucks for granted... I will never make that mistake again.

AC, high speed internet, caffeine and spotless bathrooms.  Heaven.

These folks would have gone to Starbucks.  An old colonial mansion, then the residence of the British Ambassador.

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Also the private house of a Spanish merchant.  Doing deals the old school way.

A not-so-PC depiction of the natives from some very old maps.

Cusco, back in the day.  

Street life in Arequipa - families come and hang out in the Plaza del Armas.

Hustle and bustle.  

There must be hundreds of pigeons in the main square.

Kids love pigeons.

Massive, massive volcanoes behind the city.

Spain´s contribution to the skyline.

For some reason these taxis cracked me up.

Hectic.  The most unpredictable and fluid traffic I´ve seen so far.  Drive at your own risk!

City streets.