Another overnight bus and I woke up in a new city, this time Arequipa. It wasn’t in my rough original plan to go here but what can I say, plans are made are made to be changed and now I have the possibility to see a live, wild condor.
The day today I spent exploring Arequipa with it’s 1 million population feels really tiny, it’s a really cozy and beautiful city but feels small and one day is enough.
However I found a city in the city, Santa Catalina monastery. I’m not a religious person and I don’t use to enjoy exploring old churches but this was like finding Eldorado. I spent several hours exploring this huge monastery . It’s located in the middle of the city but still its so calm and quiet here. The atmosphere is relaxing and the buildings are beautiful in both their architecture and with all the wall paintings. To get a grip of the size this monastery has its own network of roads, named after Spanish cities.
Fun fact is that during one of the earthquakes here the outer wall collapsed and they found skeletons from babies and fetus. Apparently the priests made the nuns to pay for their sins in a very nontraditional way.
Santa Catalina monastery 
Santa Catalina monastery 
Santa Catalina monastery 
Santa Catalina monastery 
Santa Catalina monastery 
Santa Catalina monastery 
Santa Catalina monastery 
Santa Catalina monastery 
Santa Catalina monastery 
Washing station @ Santa Catalina monastery 
Not the worst toilet so far on this trip @ Santa Catalina monastery 
Map over Santa Catalina monastery 
Arequipa 
Lama @ Arequipa 
Alpaca @ Arequipa 
Arequipa 
Arequipa 
pajje at the night bus