Well, it has been over eight months since we moved to Arequipa…hard to believe! As I work away to keep up with my International Living writing and put most of my time and energy into my new Arequipa website, this blog has taken a plunge. Hopefully, I will begin to breathe some life back into it.

I wil leave the Top 10 lists to my IL magazine and website articles and the rest to my own new websites. I’ve decided all I will do here is write short snippets on my day to day existence. That’s about all I have time for right now along with a few pics of our travels as we continue our crazy lifestyle.

Arequipa has been great! Despite the fact that we are paying way too much for our beautiful condo (we could have found a much cheaper place if we had shopped around when we first arrived), the cost of living is very cheap. We could easily live here for much less if we didn’t like eating out so much. $1500 to $2000 per month would provide you with a good lifestyle in the city.

What we didn’t expect was the cold, rainy weather in January and February. We thought that was supposed to be summer..it is supposed to be summer. However, the clouds rolling in over the volcanos combined with the 8000 foot altitude results in some pretty dreary cold days. The good news is that the other 10 months are pretty much rain and cloud free. Guess you can’t have it all!

In January, we explored the northern Peru coast and loved what we saw. So in July we are moving beachside to the small town of Huanchaco. We’ll see if we like it or not after living there for a year. Then we will decide on whether to stay or return to the White City of Arequipa. The saga continues.