Our plan to leave Arequipa (for good, sniffle) at the end of the week has inspired some alphabet posts.
When Scott and I first arrived in Arequipa, we took a tour bus around the city to look for places to live. It didn’t occur to me then that the tour bus would only be taking us to touristy areas/neighborhoods. There turns out to be a lot more to the city than those 8 or so stops…
We did, however, make a stop at the Yanahuara Plaza on that bus ride, which ultimately led to us finding an apartment close by. I think part of it’s appeal is just the way the word “Yanahuara” sounds: sophisticated and charming.
Yanahuara’s mirador and adjoining plaza embody its name. There is usually music playing and people mingling on the benches. (And tourist buses parked in the back.) We’ve never seen the fountain working.
If you venture outside of the plaza, deeper into the neighborhood, there are narrow streets lined with colorful houses and Yanahuara flower pots, and dozens of mom-and-pop markets, locutorios and shoe cobblers tucked into buildings. And it’s all just a short walk (albeit a noisy one) from downtown.
