It´s a keeper

The town of Arequipa in Peru was one of those surprise places that ends up pulling you in for a lot longer than you anticipate. This shot is of the interior of the monastery there, or nunnery more accurately, which is absolutely huge, taking up several city blocks. The colours represent different sections of the complex; one might be the area housing the novices, another where the mother superior resided. The effect is that the colours of the stucco walls contrast against each other and provide an amazing backdrop for the various courtyards and gardens throughout the place.

It apparently also induces severe forgetfulness; I managed to leave my camera in the very monastic toilets they had there (actually some of the better ones I had the pleasure of visiting in Peru) for around three hours. It was a very relieved and fairly sheepish yours truly who managed to claim it from the front office by sprinting back just before closing time.

One interesting thing to note about this shot is that it shows stairs which actually appear to go somewhere - the great majority of the flights here terminated, bizarrely enough, in a two or three metre high wall. That didn´t really stop me climbing all of them - I think I may have a touch of the obsessive compulsive about me.