La Ciudad Blanca

Looking down Calle Mercaderes, Arequipa, Peru

It´s a beautiful day here in La Ciudad Blanca. I arrived here in Arequipa, Peru´s second largest city, just over a week ago and, for the first time in my travels, am enjoying being a bit more settled down. I do love the nomadic lifestyle of traveling from city to city (or campsite to campsite), but it certainly does get a bit tiring. In fact, I realized after making the following list, that I spent 29 days without sleeping in the same bed two nights in a row. Here´s a summary:

5-28 - Concord
5-29 - airplane
5-30 - Huaraz
5-31 - Chiquian
6-1 to 6-11 - various campsites in Cordillera Huayhuash
6-12 - Huaraz
6-13 - Vallunaraju Base camp
6-14 - Huaraz
6-15 to 6-18 - various base camps on Chopicalqui
6-19 - Bus
6-20 - Huacachina
6-21 - Bus
6-22 - Arequipa
6-23 - Bus
6-24 to 6-25 - Different Bungalos in Cañon del Colca

6-26 to ? - Hostal Pasada del Parque, Arequipa

And so, it´s been nice to settle down and feel like I have a bit of a ¨home base¨ for a little while.

I came here from Huaraz, in the Northern Andes, via a quick stop over in Lima and a day in the tourist-trap of Huacachina - neither of which I liked very much. I arrived bleary eyed on a cold night bus and immediately began to fall in love with the city.

My first impression of Arequipa was that it just looked different than the other cities I´d visited on this trip. Huaraz had been in a beautiful location, surrounded by huge mountains, but it had been a dirty, plain city. The little I saw of Lima had not been anything to write home about; it was huge and sprawling and congested and dirty and grey. Ica is known as ¨the Tijuana of Peru¨ and Huacachina had been clean and pretty, but felt inauthentic. Arequipa was the first place I´d been that was physically beautiful as well feeling fully Peruvian.

La Plaza de Armas, Arequipa, Peru

My taxi driver took me through brightly painted neighborhoods, past 500 year old cathedrals, until finally we arrived at my hostel, a second story apartment with a roof-top terrace overlooking the city. The staff were friendly and helpful and the price was very cheap for this town (20 soles per night, about US$7). The location was also perfect, situated a few blocks south of the Centro Historico and the Plaza de Armas - the main historic centers where most of the expensive restaurants and tourist hangouts congregate. Being a few bocks removed from this barrio - neighborhood - gives us a more authentic feel and also means that there are lots more cheap stores and restaurants right near us.

For me, one of the best parts of this was the mercado - open air market - located just a half block to the south of us. My first day here, I spent several hours just wandering the seemingly endless aisles of the mercado where you can buy anything you can think of, from books, electronics, and clothes to fruits, ceviche, and raw meet (some very interesting cuts - brain, heart, feet, etc.)

La Catedral de San Antonio, c. 1540, Arequipa, Peru

Finally, and possibly most importantly, I discovered on my first run from the hostel that there are almost NO street dogs in Arequipa. I can´t even begin to describe how different this is. I´ve now been to a lot of South American cities, from the giant metropolises of Quito and Lima to the most rural villages of Fúre and Huayhuash, and among ALL of them, street dogs have been a common denominator. That is, except for Arequipa. I´ve seen only a handful of dogs in the city, and most have been on leashes or have at least clearly belonged to people. As a runner, this is huge for me; street dogs can be a huge problem. I´ve very nearly been bitten many times by overly-territorial farm dogs or wild street dogs in cities. The fact that I can run out the front door and run all over the city with the peace of mind of knowing that I don´t have to worry about being attacked is, to me, one of the best parts of the city.

Looking down an alley-way towards one of the snow-capped volcanoes surrounding the city

Continuing with the idea of safety and peace of mind - the city also just seems safer than other places I´ve stayed. I feel totally safe walking around the city alone after dark here. There are just people everywhere; the city is so alive. Still, it´s not so alive that it´s too much and overwhelming - ala Nueva York (NYC). For me, La Ciudad Blanca is the perfect balance between feeling big enough but not being overwhelming and clean and beautiful, but still feeling authentically Peruvian.

I have a few friends here and we have been exploring the city and the surrounding area together - including a few days of hiking in Cañon del Colca, the world´s deepest canyon. I´ll spend a couple more days here just relaxing and running and then on Sunday, I´ll take a night bus up to Cusco where I´ll soon be starting my work for Strive!