Ah, Arequipa. The White City. The City of 3 Giant Mountains Looming Above. The City Whose Jugo Slays All Other City's Jugos. The City of Awesome Daily Friggin' Protests, Strikes, and Demonstrations. It has many names in Quechua.
I grew to love Arequipa as I spent most of the last month there. The city itself is beautiful, the landscape is ridiculous, the people passionate, the food awesome. Of course, a city with that many protests, strikes, and demonstrations is a city after my heart indeed. Well, Arequipa, mission accomplished.
But after unexpectedly staying in Arequipa for the better part of a month, my time there drew to a close. Our 2-month stay in Peru is down to 2 weeks, and since my birthday was coming up and I hadn't seen Kyle for almost 4 weeks, I planned my return to Lima.
Still, I would have stayed in Arequipa if I could. While we intentionally came to Peru with few concrete plans, I didn't anticipate deciding to part ways with Kyle for that long or staying somewhere for as long as I did, considering we had rented an apartment in Lima. Not that I would change any of it; nothing I ended up doing wasn't rewarding in some way- the spur-of-the-moment decision to hike to Machu Picchu with the Dutchman, returning to Arequipa to take Spanish classes for a week, buying those 2 giant manjar blanco cookie things and eating them waaaay too fast.
Now that I've returned to Lima, I'm dogged by a few questions that I wasn't able to resolve while I was there. One, why do so many dogs live on roofs (rooves?). Secondly, how do you manage to coordinate the National Police, Tourist Police, Transit Police, and City Security? They're ALL EVERYWHERE. Thirdly, WHY ARE YOU FEEDING THE PIGEONS!?!?!? SON RATAS CON ALAS!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment