Having arrived early in the morning we dumped our stuff at the hostel and went out for a day of exploring a new city. Arequipa is also known as the city of white, with the majority of buildings in the district having been built out of white stone quarries from the many volcanoes that overlook the city. It felt very very different from other places we had so far visited in Peru, seeming more upmarket. Practically no one could be spotted wearing traditional Peruvian/Inca dress (a massive contrast to Cusco) so it seemed a lot more cosmopolitan.

After some breakfast we set off to find a viewpoint of the city, at which you could clearly see the surrounding volcanoes in grand distance, snowcapped and beautiful. The villages we walked through seemed very nice and once again extremely different to other cities we had visited. We checked in at Friendly AQP hostel and then went straight back out to enjoy the sunshine - finally some heat! We got some frozen lemonades at a rooftop restaurant with views overlooking the main square in particular, with the intricately designed Santa Catalina Monastery and the imposing volcanoes behind.

We walked around for a long time before settled in a street cafe for some lunch. We decided to join a Free Walking Tour of Arequipa for the afternoon, but funnily enough after around half an hour of following along we decided we were both too tired and distracted to continue for he next two hours and sneakily split off from the group. Instead we walked to some local markets and bought some fresh goods, before walking back to the hostel to shower and eat. We had booked a your to the Colca Canyon for the following day that was to leave pretty much in the middle of the night so knew it would be a low key evening. Arequipa is a really pretty city with a complete different vibe to other South American areas I had been to thus far.