I have been to Peru twice. In 1999 I went there by myself, and over 5 weeks I travelled in a loop around the southern half of the country. From the capital Lima, I flew to Cusco before going south down through the Andes to Puno, and then into Bolivia. On the way back I headed west from Puno in the mountains, to Arequipa, and then from there north along the desert coastal strip back to Lima. The pictures from that part of the trip are in my other set of Peruvian photos.

I returned to Peru in 2001. This time I was travelling from Santiago in Chile to Lima with my friends Edith and Bryan. Why visit the same place twice? Well because it was so good the first time I wanted to go back again. In particular I wanted to visit Arequipa again, my favourite city in South America.

The photos here are of Peru from Arequipa, the area near the city and some of the sights on the road north to Lima along the south western coast.

I travelled from Puno (at over 3500m) to Arequipa (at 2300m) by bus. Its a long ride, 100km of which is over unpaved roads, but its well worth it. The alternative is the night train, which is cold and you miss the views of the Altiplano.

When I made the trip in 1999 it was the first time I got to see Llama and Alpaca herds. You pass plenty of them on the road. I got the oppertunity to wear their wool, very fine and warm. And I got to try Alpaca steak which is lean and quite tasty.

Arequipa lies at the end of the road. Its a beautiful old colonial city, and the second city of Peru. But it has always been my favourite city in South America. Most of the older buildings are made from the local white volcanic rock called silar. The Plaza des Armes at the centre of the city is flanked on three sides by colonades such as this.

On the fourth side, with the mountains behind it is the Cathedral. This is how it apeared in 1999 when I saw it. Unfortnately a few weeks before we visited the city in June of 2001 Arequipa was struck by a major Earthquake.

Fortunately the loss of life was relatively minor. But as often happens its the older buildings that are hit worst. This photo was taken when we where there and you can see the damage the Cathedral suffered. The badly damaged, but still standing tower on the right became the symbol in Peru for the earthquake, the damage it caused and the rebuilding afterwards.

In 2001 we were in Arequipa for the Peruvian national day on July 28th. This was a big celebration and was the whole city was decked out in the red and white national colours. It was a bigger event than usual this year as people were also celebrating the inaguration of the new President. Toledo was replacing the corrupt and dictatorial Fujimorii who had fled to Japan after losing the election. (Ironically as I write this 2 years on Toledo is now extremely unpopular and his own future is uncertain).