Arequipa: where my consultant brain short-circuits (and the data is messy)
so i landed in arequipa with a spreadsheet of 'cultural diversity metrics' and a deep, existential need for a pisco sour that wasn't part of a stakeholder report. let's get the boring numbers out of the way first, because my therapist says i have to acknowledge the facts before i can properly rage about them.
*the rent thing - a one-bedroom in a decent area (not Yanahuara, but not the concrete hell of certain peripheries either) will run you somewhere between 1500 and 2500 soles a month. that's, like, $400 to $700. on paper, cheap. in practice, you're competing with 15 other freelancers for a place that has 'historic charm' (translation: cracks in the wall that tell stories of the 1868 earthquake). and the job market? it's tourism, mining service companies on the outskirts, and a million people selling handmade alpaca everything on facebook marketplace. the 'diversity' you see in job postings is mostly 'diverse ways to hustle.'
safety, or the lack thereof - look, arequipa feels safer than lima, but that's like saying a pit bull is friendlier than a grizzly. pickpocketing at the mercado san camilo is an art form. my photographer friend got her lens stolen right off her shoulder outside the santa catalina monastery. a local in a bar in _vallecito_ leaned over and said, "don't wear anything you'd cry over. not here, not anywhere. the city's got two speeds: slow colonial and fast-fingers." drunk advice? maybe. but i've seen it.
right now, the weather is this brutal, dry heat that makes your lips crack by 10 am. then at 6 pm, the wind off misti picks up and it's like someone switched on an industrial freezer. you see neighbors in wool hats at night in july. it's a city of layers, physical and metaphorical. and the neighbors? the mountains are such aggressive roommates. misti, chachani, pichu pichu-they just loom, permanent and judgmental. three hours by bus and you're in colca canyon, where the condors literally soar over your existential dread. that's the diversity they don't put in brochures: the diversity of your own insignificance.
overheard at a chifa on jiron mercaderes:
"...the ecuadorian guys at the mercado are undercutting everyone, but their wool isn't as good."
"my cousin from cuzco says the arequipeños are too stiff, but he took two of their women out and got rejected twice."
"just wait for the sectarian processions in october, then you'll really see who hates who. it's all under the saint's name, of course."
religious diversity here isn't a kumbaya pamphlet. it's the virgen de candelaria procession that shuts down the historic center for a day, next to a growing evangelical church blasting hymns on a sound system that could wake the dead. it's the old catholic families who've run the city since the 1500s, the newer wealth from mining, the quechua-speaking migrants from the altiplano selling textiles on the sidewalk, the chinese restaurants next to the spanish-influenced _rocoto relleno_ spots. they all share the same plaza, but their worlds don't touch. they just… occupy. the food is where the blend gets delicious and weird. you want trujillo-style _arroz con pato_? go to the calle santa isabel strip. you want vegan quinoa burgers made by a kid who went to college in buenos aires? yanahuara.
i tried to structure this as a neat list, but it's not neat. it's dust and sierpes and contradictory vibes. i asked a guy at a hostel (he was charging his phone for the third time that day) what the 'real' arequipa is. he just laughed, point at the _el callejon_ map on the wall-a million tiny streets, all with their own tiny fiefdoms.
if you want data, fine: read the 2022 census breakdown. 73% catholic, 15% evangelical, 12% other/none. linguistically, 60% spanish only at home, 35% spanish-quechua, 5% aymara and others. but that's a skeleton. the flesh is in the market where aroldo, the guy who sells me coffee beans, switched from selling to catholic saints statues after his wife had a vision. his evangelical sister hasn't spoken to him since. that's the diversity. not the lovey-dovey kind. the complicated, grudge-holding, business-as-usual kind.
so yeah, arequipa. it's a city that judges you by your shoes (don't wear sneakers to a fancy restaurant) but will share its last bottle of beer if you're honest about being lost. the cost of living data says 'moderate.' the reality says you'll spend 30 soles on a taxi because your feet are killing you from the volcanic gravel roads. and you'll pay it, because the view of the illuminated monastery at night is worth every messed-up, non-vibrant, beautiful, contradictory sol.
quick links that saved my ass:
- the tripadvisor forum for arequipa has the dirt on which guides to avoid for the colca trip.
- yelp arequipa is hit-or-miss but helped me find a _picantería_* that didn't give me food poisoning.
- r/Peru on reddit has the real talk on apartment scams. search 'arequipa rent' and prepare for horror stories.
- and for god's sake, listen to the local subreddit wiki on safety zones. it's more current than any 'official' site.
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