Arequipa is known as “La Ciudad Blanca” because many of its buildings are made from white volcanic rock found in the area. It is also surrounded by 3, yes 3 volcanoes, the main one being El Misti. El Misti is 5822m in height and dominates the Arequipan skyline, an impressive sight. Arequipa is a very…
One of the biggest architectural and historical sites in Arequipa is the Santa Catalina Monastery or Monasteria de Santa Catalina. It is a cloistered convent which means that the nuns who enter cannot see their family or friends again as they take a vow of seclusion. The monastery itself was built in 1579, less than…
We left Chile about a week ago and are now in Peru. We are in a great city in Peru called Arequipa or “La Ciudad Blanca” – The White City. It is a really beautiful place, lots of original architecture, cobbled streets, a really impressive square with a huge cathedral dominating the one side, I…
Our morning started with a visit into the heart of the Salar de Atacama, or the Atacama salt flat. Salt flat is a bit of a misnomer as the area gets almost no rain in the year and as a result, the salt crystals grow upward and look more like sharp spikes in some places….
Our next expedition took us to the Laguna Ceja and then the salt flats. We took a dip (or rather a float) in the actual salt lagoons. The lagoon has a 40% concentration of salt and so you can float without any effort at all. We floated a bit and then had a mud bath,…
Our next excursion was to the Tatio Geysers. This is a geothermal zone high in the Andes at 4320m above sea level. The geysers are active at between 6am to 8am in the morning so we had an early start by waking up at 03:15 and being picked up at our hostel at 4am. We…
Remember to click on the images, especially the Pano shots, they look much better when you they are in full size!! Our first excursion into the Atacama Desert was into an area known as Valle de la Luna or the Moon Valley. It is called this because of the absolute starkness of the place. There…
We left the veritable lushness and beauty of being at the coast at Vina del Mar and traveled by bus (for 24 hours by the way!) to the dusty town of San Pedro de Atacama. San Pedro (as it is often called) is a rural adobe village in the North of Chile. It is 2436…
The neigbouring city to Vina del Mar is a harbour city called Valparaiso. It is an old city that has been built into the sides of the steep hills that surround the bay of Valparaiso. As with most harbour towns, the city centre is largely reclaimed land and the rest of the city is built…
Well, after the past few weeks, we decided we needed a break, so we moved down to Vina del Mar just over a week ago, from Santiago. We said goodbye to our Couchsurfing hosts in Santiago, Johanna and Mauricio and Steffi and got onto a bus to Vina del Mar. Vina del Mar is a…
