Arequipa, Peru

Our last stop in Peru was a flight from Cuzco to the southern city of Arequipa, Peru's 2nd largest city.  Arequipa is at 7,000ft, much lower than Cuzco, but it lies practically within the shadow of two massive mountains; El Misti, pictured above at 19,101ft and Chachani at 19,872ft.  We had made arrangements to hike to the summit of El Misti, and just the sight of the massive dome made me nervous.

Arequipa is known as "The White City" as its beautiful Spanish colonial buildings are made from white sillar stone.

 

Unfortunately Arequipa has one fatal flaw; taxi horns.  This sign is universally ignored.  Unlike lovely Cuzco, which enforces regulations prohibiting car horns, Arequipa is a hellscape of blaring horns at every intersection, at all hours of the day.  The otherwise attractive, modern and clean historical center has no stop signs, no stoplights, and every intersection is a battle where the loudest and boldest gets through first.  It makes for a miserable place to walk.

To top off the misery of the taxi noise, on our first night in Arequipa, I managed to get food poisoning form an undercooked Alpaca steak.  We had a two day tour of Colca Canyon scheduled for the next day, but I woke up with stomach churning and losing fluid rapidly.  I made an attempt to catch the bus for the tour, Lindsey and I raced across town in a taxi and caught it as it had already pulled away.  But after just moments onboard, I had to get off and collapse to hands and knees in the street puking my guts out.  End of tour.  Day 2 spent in bed.

On Day 3 I felt well enough that we walked around a bit and explored the wonderful Santa Catalina Monastery.  It is a colorful, peaceful escape from the city.

On Day 4 we attempted to climb 19,000ft El Misti.  Only my intestinal problems had returned!  Note to self; if you swallow antibiotics, and then puke your guts out 30 minutes later, you probably didn't get a chance to absorb much of the medicine.  Feeling awful again, we met with our guide, and loaded up a backpack with warm clothing, 5 liters of water, a tent, sleeping bag, 2 days of food, crampons, and a freakin ice ax!
We drove through the worst slums of Arequipa, past the stretch of road they use as a dump, and over a rutted dirt path for several miles until we reached the trailhead at 11,000ft.  I hauled my 50 pound backpack onto my shoulders and felt so weak I could barely stand.  And now I was going to walk uphill for two days??!!  I really, really, really, hate to be a quitter.  But a half hour into the hike, I did just that.  We turned back and and hailed our ride to come get us.  Ahh the agony of defeat.