We are starting to have our little routines in cities/towns in South America. For me I like to get my legs waxed at least once on the trip – a lot cheaper than NZ and fun to search out. I had two women – mas rapido – much faster – was the reason and they did a good job. We also find the closest bakery and local store and, when not eating out, we eat lotsa bread buns with cheese, tomato etc and fruit/yoghurt mixes. We also like to find and hang out in the main Plaza and people watch and we love wandering through the locals market amongst the stacks of cheese, past the meat stalls and the walls of fruit and vegetables.

After our initial poke around we visited The Monastario de Catelina which is a cloistered convent dating back to 1579, not long after the Spanish arrived. There are still twenty nuns living there but they are not living in the historic section where all the tourists wander. It is considered the most impressive colonial structure in Arequipa taking up a large city block and made from local white volcanic block and sections are painted in red or blue from natural pigments. As we saw it, looking around, it looked like a nice place to hang out if you wanted to escape from the outside world and men. Though there were some boxes that apparently contained the hearts and a tongue of some bishops who were close to the nuns – bizarre.