Sunday funday

So today we woke up to go to a church service only to discover it was canceled today (or rather rescheduled for last night) because of the presidential elections today. Instead we decided to go exploring around Arequipa some more. Locals had told us about this pretty view point of the city so we walked up there. It was right by a nice, pretty (and clean) park called 'Parque de Yanahuara'. We talked with a nice older gentleman there. All the people here are so nice and friendly. Everyone just wants to start up a conversation to say hello and know where we are from. Below is the picture of the park from both sides.

There was also a pretty church of some sort of the side. There are so many throughout the city.

Then the actual "viewpoint" was these huge arch ways with the view of all the city with the mountains and volcano in the background. We weren't sure how new it was but very well taken care of.

A totem pole

Then  we found a cute arch-way off to the side that looked quite picturesque so we took a picture and then started wandering down the cobble stone road.

Along this road, we saw a cute little restaurant that we thought might also be a hotel so we walked in to check it out. Of course the people were very friendly (first explaining it was only a restaurant) but let us wander down to take more pictures, since it also had a good view. Here is one of Peru's pine tree on the right with the Volcano in the background on the left.

Here are some of the flowers that were surrounding the restaurant. 

It was so nice we decided to eat there and had delicious fish. The last picture also shows a typical Peruvian drink called "Chicha Morada" which (depending who makes it exactly) includes purple corn juice, anise, apple/orange juice, cinnemon, nutmeg. It is very good.

Even though this wasn't a hotel (looking for a place for Karlene's parents to stay), the waiter thought that next door was something similar. So we wandered over to ask. We were very warmly greeted by the "administrator" there. She gave us a lovely tour of the place and told us all they had to offer. It was more of a bed and breakfast than a hotel. We were probably there 45 minutes talking to this woman. This goes to show how friendly the people are talking to us and wanting to show off their city and culture. It was lovely. This is one side of it.

We finished the afternoon by taking our picture with the bronze bull statues in the city. 

And right outside our house, I caught a glimpse of the mountains through the trees so I made Karlene take a picture of it. The sun was hitting it just right to make them stand out. I just don't get bored of looking at them- they are always so pretty to me. However none of the photos ever quite do justice to the beauty I get to see!

[All these pictures today are thanks to the lovely photographer Karlene :) ]