Arequipa
The approach to Arequipa from Lima. The coast is dry as a bone, but wherever water comes down from the Andes, somebody catches it.
On the outskirts of the growing city of Arequipa, builders look for flat land.
The Plaza de Armas or Plaza Mayor marks the center of the colonial city, established in 1540.
Archways, or portales, rim the plaza, which lies at the center of the city's 49 original blocks.
A central fountain was installed at the suggestion of Don Jose Antonio de Mendoza, viceroy in 1740. Put the word "suggestion" in quotation marks.
The city's cathedral fronts on the plaza, but it's a 19th century building. Thank an earthquake in 1868. See the arch in the distance?
There are two of them, perhaps a bit of earthquake insurance. Or perhaps a prestige marker. Or both.
Just a reminder that behind the church and the city is Misti, the volcano famously associated with Arequipa. At 19,000 feet, it falls short of about three dozen higher peaks in Peru.
Interior.
Here's something different: the Monastery of St. Catalina, built shortly after 1600 to protect about 70 nuns (and their 200 servants). The public was excluded until 1970, and now that the public is allowed inside most of the nuns are gone.
And here's the city's pride and joy, at least for architecture buffs. It's the entrance to the Compa ia church, from the middle-to-late 1600s.
It's the type specimen of the mestizo or Andean Hybrid Baroque style.
Closeup.
The style germinated over the side door of the church, built about 50 years earlier.
The dominant figure is Saint James, busy slaying Moors.
Another example of the style: the Cayma church across the river and upstream a mile or so.
Closeup.
One of 250 protected casonas, or mansions. This one has some mestizo ornament over the entrance.
Closeup.
Another example. It's the Tristan del Pozo mansion, later occupied by Comercial Ricketts, the Argentine consulate, and now by a bank.
Closeup
Here's a modern imitation.
Closeup.
Other styles invaded before UNESCO made the colonial city a world heritage site.
Another spoiler, two blocks from the Plaza Mayor. It's the South America Building,