I'll pass on the frog juice thanks...

People from Arequipa, Arequipenas as they are known, are very proud of their city which is the second biggest in Peru. Its many fine buildings and courtyards are made from the light-coloured volcanic rock called sillar, which supposedly dazzles in the sun, but not to our eyes. Locals are known to say 'when the moon separated from earth it forgot to take Arequipa'. This is a bit over the top to my ears, but it is a very pretty place.

Cathedral

We only had a day or so in the city, most of it spent organising our next trip, so we didn't get much sight-seeing done.

We checked out the market and it wasn't a pleasant experience. In the 'butchers' section, I saw the bumpy-textured 'meat' that had been in my worst meal in Bolivia, that I thought was cow tongue. But no. When I asked if it was tongue, the lady said 'no, it is cow stomach, here is cow tongue'. She pointed at something that was like a cross section of a cow's jaw, with a few teeth still attached. Truly gross.

Main plaza

But then things got worse as we rushed away. In front of us we saw a sign for 'Jugo de Rana' or frog juice and then saw an aquarium with little green frogs climbing on top of each other to get out, not anticipating the blender they were destined for. How awful! We think frog juice is supposed to be good for male sexual function, or something like that. We got away from there as quickly as we could, not wanting to see the grinder in action.

In the afternoon I went to the Monastery Santa Catalina. It is a massive complex, like a city within a city with plazas and streets. It was the nunnery for the richest daughters in Arequipa, and rumour has it that they didn't live the ascetic life one would expect from nuns, since they had servants, and some say slaves and parties. The first nuns to get servants were sick, so perhaps needed help. But then the other families decided that if they gave their daughters servants they could spend more time devoted to God, so would advance spiritually more quickly (or something).

Typically ornate building

The nuns lived in cute little residences with a small lounge, bedroom and kitchen with stairs going up to where servants and university students, who rented space, slept. Various people tried to get the nuns back on the straight and narrow but none succeeded. The bishop overruled the election of officers and the nuns took him to court. In the end he had to resign. The convent was closed to the public for nearly 400 years. Nowadays there only 25 or so nuns living there, but it was overflowing at one point.

Mountain looming behind the city

Entering the convent

Typical nun's room

One of the mini streets inside the convent