Arequipa, Peru

Hi everyone! We are FINALLY in Arequipa! Its OK, very crowded yet pretty. The plaza de Armas is spectacular! Today treava and I bought bird food from a Little boy...put it in are hands and fed the wild birds from our hands! We went on a city-country tour of Arequipa. It started at the plaza at 9:15 this morning. The first stop was MIrador del Carmen Alto. You got off the bus and looked down into the Chile river. It was pretty but VERY dirty! We also tryed the famous juices from this area, Arequipa papaya and tumbo(I think) Those were kinda funny tasting!! The papaya was sweet and not like Papaya at all and the tumbo was very sour and had a funny texture! They also had guinea pigs their and those were fun to see. Are next stop was the Mirador de escaleras(Stairs). We drove up semi high and then climbed maybe two hundred stairs to the final lookout. It was a nice view of the city but nothing to stunning. Then we went to plaza viego which was very pretty. I think we will post photos latter but we got a really nice family picture in front of one of the arches surrounding the plaza. There were red flowers behind the arch and trees beond that. This was my favorite spot on the tour. There was also a church there but we diden´t get to go in because it was closed.I don't really care...I have seen a million-thousand-trillion churches. Next we went to the founders of Arequipa mansion. It was ruined in a earthquake but has been repaired. It was cool but it wasn't very big nor mansion like. Pretty much just like a house with some COOL antiques. My favorite was the statue that was all dressed for Battle. Real silver and lots of Shields. After that we went to a grain factory. It was old and nothing was really happening but we did get to see the water spinning the crushing wheel. Then we headed back to the main plaza got off the bus and went to EAT! Then we fond the old and famous monastery and ask how much it was. It wold have been $50 for our family so we decided not to go in because in our book it says its cool but not very much to see. After that we caught a taxi to the alpaca factory. It turned out to be more like a factory museum. It was very interesting seeing the machines but we were all looking forward to actually seeing the process and people doing it. Then we walked back and now were doing school work. We are thinking about heading to the beach tomorrow and that should be fun! I'm ready for some warm weather! In Arequipa its cold and always raining! I don't think we are going to Chile because it would be ten hours to the border. After the beach and the Nazca lines its back to Lima to meet my Grandma! I'm really excited to see her! Miss you,
Vienna