The plot thickens...

I am now asured by a tour operator that I talked to that the reason Arequipa is called "La Ciudad Blanca" is not because of the sillar stone used in its construction. Instead, the reason is racial: during Peru's war for independence, Arequipa was inhabited almost entirely by people of Spanish descent - few natives or mestizos. During the war, the city sided with the Crown, and during Peruvian independence day, Arequipa holds its own celebration that involves raising the Spanish flag in the plaza. According to my informant, if you ask other Peruvians, they will tell you that Arequipans are stuck up. But he insists that he doesn't think that Arequipans are best. He knows they're the best.


So I figured out the spell-check, but then I needed to figure out how to change the language to English, which was tough because all the menus are in Spanish. But I did eventually do it. The only problem now is that apparently the Blogger database is having problems re-publishing entries, which means I cannot go back and add pictures and run spell check on my previous posts, or edit them at all. And believe me, I went through a lot of headache trying before I read the "known issues" section of the help. So I'll post all my pictures here and you can refer to previous posts to see what I'm talking about. I might have gotten a couple images posted in old blogs too if you want to check.


Please enjoy the phollowing photos (p.s. if I had known blogger was going to crap out on me after only three pictures, I would have posted better ones. Sorry):


Awww... a sea lion from Las Islas Ballestas and ornrey pelicans from said islands














The picture below is from a University art gallery in Arequipa. I have a lot more, but they take a long time to post, so this is all you get until I come home (unless you ask real nice and maybe I'll email you more). In case you were wondering, the Catholic Church and America features prominently in the politically-oriented pieces. There's one of a sort of carnival-dressed Uncle Sam (actually think Carnival meets the movie 'Saw') with an ax over a bloody rock title 'They Think it's Only Tomato' and a couple interesting ones with prominant Jewish themes, although I'm hard pressed to say whether they are anti-semetic because I honestly don't understand the symbolism...