Arequipa

In the morning we checked into the hotel campground. This is the only campground in the city, behind the walls of an old family house turned into a hotel. We met the other campers, Dutch and Swiss. Both were going north. The Dutch flew back and forth from home every six months. The wife was an ER nurse. This was their third trip back and they had stored their van in Uruguay the last two times but would be storing it in Cusco in four weeks. They loved Bolivia and gave some recommendation. The other couple was in a newer Hymer 580 and started their trip in Argentina in October and only had 10 months to travel.

Arequipa is Peru's second most populated city and has a much more pretty town center. We fortunately were camped 15 minutes from the center. There had been heavy rains before we arrived and the city's water supply was going to shut off for 24h. We had a mission to get some laundry done. I walked to a laundry place but they said the soonest it would be done was in two days. I carried the heavy load back to the campground and they said they had a large water tank at their other hotel. I met up with Christine and the kids at a Korean boba shop. They had somehow combined her and Dd's order of boba into one: matcha and strawberry shake. She drank the odd concoction and had them make one for Dd. They did not accept credit cards which was strange so when I arrived she used the rest of the Peruvian soles to pay for the mandus and boba. Most places since Panama have accepted credit cards and certainly expensive places like a boba shop. But it seems that places also use a Venmo type payment system that is qr code based. We didn't have that.

The weather was supposed to be 69 high and 85% chance of rain and thunderstorms. It was sunny and we were at 7500 ft so it felt like the 80s. Everyone was eating ice creams or popsicles in the main square. 

We went to the Banco de la Nacion atm to withdrawal some cash for our last two days in Peru. This bank does not have ATM fees for the Schwab account that we have using.

The area around the main square and basilica are pedestrian only and cobblestoned polished smooth. It is a pretty place and there are a lot of modern restaurants.

We walked to the Santa Catalina Monastery. It is a 16th century Dominican monastery for nuns now a museum. It was like a little village with many alleys and different apartments of different price. Families would pay to enter nunneries and you could buy a more expensive apartment. There were a lot of creepy statues that freaked me and the kids out. Honestly these places are old and creepy. The best part of it was the washing area with a small channel funneling water into different washing tanks. It was like a children's museum activity. 

We went to get a late lunch at a restaurant 13 monjas (13 nuns). We had carpaccio, bakes cauliflower and garlic bread. The kids wanted pizza and we thought it would be good and it would have been but the sauce was terrible and the toppings were soggy and undercooked. We should have ordered pizza margarita instead.

We walked back to the plaza. It barely drizzled. We had another baby lamb experience and Dd had cotton candy.

We walked back to the campground and got the scooters to go to the skatepark across the street for an hour.

We went back to the RV and did homeschool and ate quesadillas. Tomorrow we get our laundry and head closer to the Chilean border.