Exploring Arequipa

This was the only town in our travels where we planned ahead and ordered a taxi to pick us up at the airport. A lot of blogs warned against the taxi drivers in the town, so we took heed. It was a long ride from the airport to historical center, about 25 minutes, and as we started to see the architecture change I knew we were close.
Our hotel was only about 2 blocks from the center square, and once again- there were cobblestone roads everywhere. The town had a very colonial feel to it, which was present everywhere in the building and church structures. The Plaza de Armas with the fountain in the surrounding buildings was pretty during the day, but beautiful at night.
We spent the day walking through part of the town. We wandered over to the Municipal market, which was shutting down as we got there. There were several groups bunched outside of the marketplace, and vendors selling their foods. We opted to share a chicken kabob. I couldn't talk myself into the chicken heart, yet. The city was very tourist in the historical center, and several side streets offered craft fairs. One of the biggest attractions in the town were the churches, and they were definitely all unique in their styles.
Before it got dark, we had heard from someone that the bridges were beautiful, so we made our way to the bridges traversing the high way. On the way, under one of the bridges, a rap concert was occurring at a skate park. We didn't stay for too long, but we did cross the bridge and stumbled across a picturesque view of the next bridges, a stream, and the two active volcanoes in the background. After crossing the second bridge we found a huge super market. It gave us the opportunity to stock up on some of the small things we needed, such as chap-stick and need sneakers for me. My sneakers were making this awful squeaking noise, and it was finally driving my dad and me crazy. Fun fact, my foot size is very large for women in Peru, a 10 US size, and I didn't fit into the largest women's shoe size they had- a 40. Thus, I finally gave in and bought a pair of bright red men's sneakers.
As we circled the town to find a place to eat, and I tried to weed through the restaurant peddlers selling their menu, it was actually my dad who found the perfect place. He walked over to me and said that the place had a 2 plated for 20 pesos special. I thought to myself- no way, maybe he didn't understand since he doesn't speak Spanish. Low and behold, the waitress confirmed that there were two pages to the menu and you choose one from each side. We each had a soup, I got a chicken soup and he got veggie cream one, and then for main dishes we got a rice and beef meal. The view was overlooking the center square, which was incredible with the cathedral lit up. A live band joined for a few songs as well.