Chile: Arica Street Art & the Atacama Desert

San Pedro de Atacama was supposed to be my gateway to the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, but mother earth has been acting out this year and most of the roads surrounding San Pedro were blocked by snow.  On my first day there, I was told the roads might open on Friday. On the second day, I was told they might open on Saturday, but other people at my hostel heard Monday...Two weeks later it still isn't open! Good thing I didn't wait. It was (unusually) rainy for my first two days there and, because of this, there wasn't much to do, but on my last day the sun came out and I took a small trip to Valle de la Luna to watch the sunset.  It was worth the big detour!

 All buildings in San Pedro are made of adobe.

Valle de la Luna 

Since my plan to go to Bolivia from San Pedro didn't work (surprise, surprise!), I retraced my steps to Arica. While I wasn't very impressed with Arica the very first day I arrived there, the city really  grew on me and I was glad to be back  There's a lot of cool street art in Arica, so I spent a lot of my time just wandering the streets looking for some.  The rest of my time was spent at the beach (not quite warm enough to swim though)!

-S xo

In Arequipa we...

...tasted traditional Arequipeño dishes (chupe de camarones and rocotto relleno) and had pisco sours on a balcony overlooking the beautiful Plaza de Armas.

...visited the Santa Catalina monestary at candlelight and took some silly pictures. (above: what would happen if Kin and Sam were stuck in a cell: 1- boredom, quickly followed by 2- insanity)

...fell in love with this woman and her dolls.

...went rafting and made some new friends.

...followed Kin's (lousy) guidebook to Yanahuara for a big celebration (with fireworks and all!) and found this empty Plaza instead. Wrong date, guidebook!

...went to Cañon del Colca to see the condors.

...and saw plenty of llamas/alpacas on the way back.

...and just enjoyed the city bundled up in our new ponchos!

As much as we adored Huaraz, I think Arequipa might be our favourite Peruvian city so far!

-S xo

Lima with Karina

Karina flew home to Lima just one day after I flew to Peru at the end of April.  I was  lucky enough to catch her here before she heads back to Guelph next week for a new job. We had 4 awesome full days of Lima sightseeing, meeting friends and family, and being introduced to Peru's traditional dances.

Parque de las Aguas

a traditional dance competition in Parque Kennedy

and a professional traditional dance show at Brisas

Barranco street art

 Kin met up with us on the last couple days...this is us getting ready to cross el Puente de los Suspiros while holding our breath.

Miraflores

Chinatown

Karina's family. Looking forward to visiting them again in August!

 

-S xo