Day 5 Arequipa

We arrived in Arequipa on July 1st, Canada Day at 7 am. Everyone was pretty exhausted, it was really hard to sleep on the bus but thankfully it was the last of the trip! In celebration of canada day, the canadians went pretty festive putting on some canuck tees, tattoos and pins. Then we had breakfast at our hotel in the central part of arequipa. Breakfast everywhere has been rolls and jam, but the bread here was particularly great. We found out that Arequipa is also known as the white city, because of the material used on the buildings as well as potentially referring to the amount of "white people" that lived in the city. We then went to our rooms for a shower and power nap before heading out to explore the city. Its a big city,second largest in peru but much nicer than Lima. Especially since it is warm and sunny. The architecture was also really beautiful and unique.
We grabbed some lunch at a indoor mall we nicknamed the "peruvian holt renfrew". Then most of the group took a tour of the monastery but lisa, daniel and I opted out and went exploring instead. As our tour guide taught us, eventually its ABC, 'Another Bloody Church'. There were guys on the street selling imitation sunglasses and we convinced lisa to buy a pair. You had to see her bargaining magic! First he charged her fifty, she countered with 20, he said 30, she refused he said okay 20 but then somehow only paid 15 soles! Not bad for a pair of fray brans! We then explored a little market that had tons of booths selling scarves, blankets, tshirts, dolls, etc. We chose to buy just a bracelet and save the rest of our shopping for cusco. We also headed to the bank which had really nice architecture to change our dollars into soles. Best line of the day, our british friend asking emily why she was putting her cash in her knickers (as she reached into her money belt) Ok, so we are very cautious travelers, with money belts and pouches everywhere! We also stopped at a pharmacy where daniel picked up some altitude sickness pills without a perscription!! Then we headed to the main square which was filled with pigeons like you can't believe. It didn't help that everyone was buying feed and spreading it across the ground. We waited there for beth and andrew who were meeting us after the church tour.
We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the area. We found this cute one street block that was all stones and terraces and bars. So we stopped at a nice rooftop terrace for a happy hour drink, probably everyone's last for a while because alcohol and altitude are apparently a real bad combination. We also got freaked out from the ice that was floating in our drinks. Exhausted from the bus ride and day of walking, we postponed our original party canada day plans, and instead opted for a quick dinner with most of the group. It was at a restaurant that as a speciality serves boneless guinea pig, but as usual we went conservative and had pasta and a tortilla that was very much like a latka. We did take a canadian photo though which was a necessity since we were all decked out. We got back to the hotel and went to pick up our laundry. The guy behind the desk wouldn't give lisa hers and we couldn't understand why... After some help from tour leader john we found out that they had ruined a pair of her long underwear with an iron. Disappointed at first, the hotel didn't charge her for her load or any others she will do while at the hotel, plus she has free access to all the drinks they offer! Not too shabby since after we spend a night at the colca canyon we will head back there (and obviously taken advantage of the free drinks n laundry)! On the way to the canyon now so we are not sure when we will hit a wifi zone to post this but hopefully it will be before heading back to arequipa!