Today my 65-year-old-father sends us some really nice impressions from the city of Arequipa, Peru´s second most populous city with about 870k habitants. Since it is located at about 2,335mt above sea-level, the nights are getting quite cold there already. My father was thinking about buying a "poncho" at one of the local markets. I asked him to send us a picture when he does, would surely look very funny though :-)

Arequipa 

Just a short story about the city of Arequipa´s name since I consider it a very beautiful one:
According to a a local tradition the "Inca Mayta Capa" got a petition from his subjects to reach the valley of the so called River Chili. Then they asked him for a permission to stay in the region as got really impressed by the natural beauty of the landscape and the nice climate. The Inca answered "Ari qhipay", which in Quechua means: "Yes, stay". 

The perfect start into the day: a XL fruit shake at "Jugueria Sonia". 

If you don´t wanna stay at Sonia´s, you can choose between a dozen of fruit smoothie stands - to me this is like paradise! I would love to start everyday like this! 

In the end my father decided to stay at Lidia´s. Which one would you choose? I´d like to have one of these "Fresa, plátano, naranja" ones, which means: strawberry, banana, orange. Yummy! 9 Sol are aproximately 2.70 USD. An excellent breakfast I think! 

And then after the vitamin bomb let´s have a "small" meat sandwich!!!! Hahaha, are these for real?!? 

Back to the healthier ones...;-) What we already learned in the cities of Lima and Iquitos is that market stands are quite crammed. I guess if you take off an apple at the bottom the whole thing will crash down :-)) 

The abundance of fruits and vegetables is amazing!

Look at these red balls in the middle - this is the reason why my father came to this city! Supergiant Rocotos, a Peruvian hot pepper variety! 

They are HUGE!

Here you can see the difference between a Giant Red/Yellow Rocoto and a normal-sized one. 

They will be excellent for stuffing - e.g. with minced meat. And of course, if you travel around the world, you always take your Swiss army with you :-)  

My father will surely introduce this new product in his business. He has an international hot pepper seeds production. Actually he is the one with the biggest seeds variety in the world. If you wanna have a look at it: https://www.semillas.de. But don´t order anything before Wednesday next week - since my father´s travelling around the world and I am taking care of the company, I am sufficiently busy with the clients we already have :-))) So just have a look, OK?  

The city of Arequipa actually has much more to offer than only markets. It is very green and has beautiful park areas.
Parks and squares come to a total of 26 hectares of urban green parks in and around the historic centre! Wow! 

It´s really a completely different world compared with Lima and Iquitos!

The town´s landmark surely is the Cathedral.
Picture source: https://www.tes.com/lessons/O04oz_-zgbGQPg/arequipa

At nightfall the city of Arequipa could even be a European city! This is the historical centre with its Cathedral in the back - simply beautiful! 

My father having dinner, he already looks like a local! ;-)

Thanks for watching!
If you missed the first part of this travel photograph story, you´ll find it in my blog: @surfermarly. Usually (if my father is not travelling and keeping me posted with nice pictures from Peru) my blog is about beach life, surfing and.... modern poetry ;-) See you there!

Cheers & live your dream,
Marly -