Exploring Town

The Towers of the church of Cayma

Meanwhile I am guiding on my own. The first time was by chance because Christian, another guide, was struck by diarrhoea this day and so I had to replace him. Actually I would have wanted to practice once or twice more but so I just had to jump in at the deep end. Finally the only ones who jumped, or rightly fell into the water were two of the passengers in a rapid. So far it was the first and only time that had happened to me and with every trip now I am getting to know the river and its personality better and better. And everytime I like it more than the last.

For there's enough time for doing other things still, when we are not going to the river, we constructed an earthen stove topped with a small volcano which off two kayakers are paddling down. The last days we prepared things for the kayak race which is going to take place tomorrow on Chili River.

Being used to the place already I also use spare time to explore the town more precisely. These days I went back from our base to the city by foot passing the Cayma and Yanahuara boroughs of Arequipa. Those are very nice middle class quarters which managed to preserve their original colonial village character. So you see old colonial houses and alleys mixed with mansions and modern high-end blocks of flats. There´s a nice mixture of beautiful garden restaurants and simple family run plain fare places. At the corners there are everywhere these typical small mom-and-pop grocery stores which are so common in most places but in Europe died out almost completely already. The center of these neighbourhoods always is a square with palms growing, a church, a fountain and one or more statues of national or local heroes. The side alleys of these squares are bordered with colonial buildings which become less and substituted by the typical simple brick houses with flat roofs of which the reinforcement steels are still jutting out or modern mansions the further you walk away from the square.

On Yanahuaras very nice main square there is a viewpoint which of you have amazing views of the Chilina Valley, Arequipa and the surrounding volcanoes where I spent quite some time to take pictures.

On another of these walks I discovered a huge market hall where they sell everything from furniture over meat to clothes. It was a loud, crowded place which smelt of hundreds of things at the same time: meals of the small restaurants, flowers, meet, seafood, fruits, spices, perfumes, petrol and many more. But what attracted my attention most was the row of fruit juice stalls. One entire lenght of the hall were lined of those one next to the other, all kind of fruits piled in front of them to a height that you just saw the faces of the woman who attended them behind. I chose the loveliest face and had a tremendous mango-maracuya-juice while chatting with the young lady.

For sure I also had to investigate Arequipa´s nightlife. I went to take a beer with some fellows in one of the numerous bars in the centre of Arequipa. Most of them are inside old colonial buildings whose lithic arches give them a very unique and cosy atmosphere. Some of them even have roof terraces where DJs perform the whole night and you can enjoy good views over the city as well as cheap beer and cocktails. Here is where you as well find all the lovely policewomen again you saw during the day on the streets besides many more beautiful women. But now they have changed their uniforms to high heels, stretch jeans and evening gowns. As you can imagine the first bar we had been to was not the last. In one of them that followed I lost my fellows which did not hold me back of keeping on to explore the local nightlife. Finally I came home at dawn when first citizens of the town already had been out on the streets again. "Noches arequipeñas" seem to be quite long and intense and I like them!

As they told me the next day the same thing happens to most of the people who come here for the first time, especially if they come from Pucón where you just have two bars to choose from. Nothing worse should happen to me.

What kind of funny, strange and beautiful things will this town still have to offer me?