One sunny morning, before work started at the orphange, Essex girl Emma and I took some time to be tourists. We went to Alpaca World, a big shop selling alpaca wool products and at the back you can see how its produced. You can even stroke the alpacas and llamas! Fact of the day: Peru has 95% of the worlds llamas. It was good, we got a free guided tour then didnt buy anything because it was super expensive.
Then we did some shopping and went to the cathedral. The cathedral is the centre point of the city, located on the Plaza de Armas. It was 15soles for a guided tour of the cathedral, the museum, and a visit to the roof and to the bell towers. It was good value for money, the guide explained to us how the cathedral has been repeatedly built and rebuilt throughout the centuries as it has been destroyed several times by earthquakes and fires. Apparently Arequipa undergoes around 25 seismec tremmors per day, although they almost always go unnoticed by the people. I certainly haven't felt any. We were shown around the cathedral's museum where my anti-catholic sentiments were once again reinforced seeing the vast amounts of diamonds, gold and silver kept in there. Stark contrast to the people living in extreme poverty in shanty towns in the outskirts of the city. The tour ended with a trip up to the roof where we were welcomed by panoramic views of the city, which made the whole thing worthwhile.
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