This is the first sight of Arequipa as I woke up on my bus. I was happy to see the warm sun and the green grass after a week of traveling through solemn Lima without sunshine. Just cloudy, plain desert. Waking up to the sight of Misti was breathtaking.

Volcanoes and tremors are my daily encounters now. Volcanoes especially are mysterious and intriguing – they look so calm and deceptively peaceful. You normally do not see the real side of them. And people are very much attracted to volcanoes for their rich soil. I have seen towns in a crater! As Damien Rice wrote, you don’t build your world around volcanoes because they will melt you down, but we don’t care, do we?