El Convento de Santa Catalina

My first stop in Peru was the city of Arequipa. It is not necessarily as well known as some of the other destinations in Peru, but it had beautiful architecture and the best prices on souvenirs in the country. The coolest place in the city was the Santa Catalina convent. It operated completely cut off from the city for hundreds of years and was opened to the public only in the last few decades. It was a really amazing place to wander through for an afternoon.
All of the corridors were lined with red geraniums. This might be odd, but it reminded me of Trigun.
It was full of secret corners ready to be explored.
And of course, there was a pen for the haute cuisine of Peru, the guinea pig. I didn't eat one while I was there; they were too expensive. I had to content myself with alpaca steaks, which are wonderful.

A moment for Coban

Cobán, the city I called home for five months, has been in my thoughts a lot recently.
It is really a wonderful part of the country: an area with lots of biological diversity and the greatest proportion of people that speak native Mayan languages.
This small, out of the way city has recently found itself in national and international headlines because it was declared by the Guatemalan government to be in a state of siege. They are extending police powers and monitoring in an attempt to reclaim the city from the Mexican drug gang the Zetas, who are infamous for their violence.

While the Zetas were certainly present in Cobán during the months I was living there, it is clear that they have stepped up their activity since I left. Cobán is a city close to my heart, and I still have friends and former coworkers living there now. I'm very much hoping that these measures work and Cobán is able to achieve safety and security once more.