Alpaca Mill in Arequipa

We arrived in Arequipa on Sunday evening after a travel day. It is a beautiful city built from sillar, a white volcano rock, & is very colonial in its architecture, with lots of solid walls facing the streets, & lovely gardens & squares behind the walls. This morning, I also could see that it is situated in a river valley, surrounded by mountains, with 2 snow capped volcanoes towering over the city. Because they have snow on them, they reflect light & so far, my photos have not turned out! Our guide also told us that Arequipa is at the northern end of the Atacama desert, where it never rains! This morning we went on a city tour, which included St Catherine's monastery (a Dominican monastery still in use today), another nunnery (Carmelite) established in the late 1500s (the 2nd daughters were sent to nunnerys, the 2nd sons sent to be priests), a beautiful cathedral built by the Jesuits where many people were attending midday mass, & the historical exhibit where Juanita & other sacrificial mummies are held, along with all of their clothes & offerings to Pachamama. We then went to an alpaca outlet with beautiful garments, & then to Palador, a modern Peruvian restaurant in a beautiful old colonial building. The dishes were interesting, & I had a Chifu (peruvian Chinese) dish with an interesting fried rice with shrimp & pork. The entrees were interesting, & were based on some of the tasty & colorful Peruvian potatoes (some red, some yellow) with interesting toppings. After lunch, we went to the Michell Group alpaca mill & shop outlet (there was a big sale on, with discounts up to 50 percent!), so the girls on my group did some serious shopping. The mill itself is huge, employing 1500 people, & is right in the middle of Arequipa. In addition to processing alpaca, they also process wool & cotton, for use in clothes eg they make a lot of Lacoste cotton polo shirts. We saw the huge machines spinning the fibre into yarn, & then plying the yarn. There are also whole sections with commercial looms & knitting machines making cloth, & a big sewing & finishing area. We also saw the washing area for finished cloth & dye vats where the fleece is washed & dyed prior to spinning (I have a sample of red suri that had come out of the centrifuge today). The factory floor is huge & it was quite a long walk to see it all. We returned to our beautiful historical accommodation at Casa de Melgar, & an evening in. Last night a few of us ate at a Peruvian restaurant nearby, &I had asparagus soup & a pizza topped with carrots, beans, tinned mushrooms & cheese! It was tasty, but unusual!