Friday, September 20

Peru, Day Five: Arequipa

Well rested, we woke up mid morning to explore Arequipa.


The plaza and cathedral were as pretty as a picture, while some of us broke off to visit the Ice Maiden exhibition covering the found remains of the human sacrifice that used to be practised by the Inca. Our whole time there was overshadowed by the imposing volcanoes - it was unreal, almost like a real life photoshop job.


Jummah was with some bros I had been in contact with for half a year. As far as I knew there were only two real mosques in Peru - one in Lima and the other in Cusco - so finding a place to offer Jummah in Arequipa was pretty fortunate, especially given how our tight scheduling depended on it having been available. And as always Jummah proved to be a great chance to get in some cultural exchange, very much including the home cooked daal they served for lunch.


In fact, we only really spent as much time as we did in Arequipa for my prayer requirements - as soon as I was done we were once again in a taxi, this time heading to Chivay. This was a relatively short drive so we still had the evening, which I spent visiting the planetarium, where I was introduced to the southern hemisphere view of stars and planets - including a view of Saturn and its rings.


Given the nature of the trip so far, it was an odd and out of place digression and so thoroughly recommended.

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