Santa Catalina Convent

Im in Arequipa which is quite a large city in the south of Peru. It was founded in the 1500s and, as is often the case, on the site of an old Inca settlement. Its had its share of earthquakes, but since most of the colonial buildings are only a single level, and even the big public edifices are only two, most of the architecture has survived.
And I have to say that I like the particular local flavour of the building style here a lot. In particular, I very much like the use of "Barrel vaulted" ceilings... and the consequent use of many arched windows and doorways... It feels very serene to me :)

I did a walk around of the town centre and its an up market expensive little city (kinda like Antigua in Guatemala, or Zacatecas and Guanajuato in Mexico, or Granada in Nicaragua etc...).
I also visited a large old convent and the pictures in this post are all from there. The place was a completely walled and isolated little village with no external access for almost 400 years... Till it was opened to the public in 1970. At one time there were apparently about 450 nuns in the place but their numbers have dwindled over the recent decades to the point where the remaining nuns have secluded themselves into a small segment of the old grounds.
Its all been repainted and antique furniture placed in the rooms etc and it looks very nice...
But it was the architecture of the place that I really liked.

Lots of courtyards and arches and stairways that go nowhere etc...
I cant really say why, but I liked it a lot. (Maybe I was a nun in a past life! ;) )