Feliz dia de Arequipa

Today is the 470th anniversary of Arequpia’s Independence from Spain. Today’s breakfast was taquitos and avocado cream dip and it was delicious. After breakfast we traveled to a Peruvian Protestant church, Iglesia Refugia, located on top of a delicious coffe shop, Cafe Berea (yay BW) . The service was very similar to an American service. We opened with songs of worship and then the pastor preached. The biggest difference was that it was all in Spanish but at the end we sang Open the Eyes of my Heart, in which we were very happy when we all recognized it. Emily’s youth group will be learning this song in Spanish, so be prepared!

Spanish song book

After church we walked back to the Plaza, which is the historic center of Arequipa, where we reserved roof top seats to watch the holiday parade. During the parade there were many traditional folk dancing groups from Arequipa, Peru and many other surrounding countries. The parade also had many American characters marching, including Pooh, Garfield, Popeye, and Michael Jackson (single white glove, moonwalk and all). We were informed that the parade lasts 7 hours but we did not stay for the entire thing. The big adventure began when trying to leave through the crowds. This was not just any crowd, this was similar to pushing through any NFL offensive line. Emily had a child’s behind in her face as she was being pushed forward and Sharaya and I just kept pushing forward. We ended up making it out alive with all of our stuff. On the way back to the house, all 23 members of the trip squeezed into a 12 person van, it was a real bonding moment. Tonight we will be having our first meeting to discuss our next few weeks here and the food smells fishy but delicious.

Peruvian dancers

Currently, we are writing this post from the rooftop of where we are staying. We have a 360 degree view of the beautiful city of Arequipa, a backdrop of beautiful snowcapped volcanoes and mountains. The weather an ideal 70 and sunny.

Sharaya and Nicole writing on the roof