A Website All About Jo

Arequipa

Friday 29th November 2002
I´m now in Arequipa which in my opinion is nicer than Cusco. This is mainly due to the fact that as there are less tourists there are less people hassling you to buy pstcards and shine your shoes. It is also much warmer here and I don´t have to wear a scarf and multiple jumpers as soon as the sun goes in or as soon as I enter a building!
My week here has been split into two main parts. A couple of days spent wondering around Arequipa visiting a few places and doing a bit of shopping and also 3 days spent trekking in the COlca Canyon - described on another page.

I arrived here on Saturday night after a 10 hour bus journey from Cusco. It wasn´t actually that bad as I just sat and listened to music and read my book the whole way. There were a couple of films shown on the bus but these were a terrible Spanish film and a Jean Claude Van Damme film with lots of fighting and not much story line. I managed to just about block out the sound by turning up my walkman.
Finally arrived at about 7ish in the evening and after emptying out my rucksac to look for some clean clothes I went on a wonder around to get my bearings. I can´t work out if Arequipa is bigger or smaller than Cusco but there seems to be much more here in the way of shops and restaurants and it´s a bit cheaper than in Cusco although not a huge amount. Like Cusco there is a large central square with a fountain in the middle and a cathedral on one side. Its it generally much prettier though.

The next day I decided to be cultural and so went first to a museum which was all about various mummies of children that have been found on the top of various volcanos around South America in particular a mummy that was found on a volcano near Arequipa which was frozen for 500 years and so is now in amazing condition.
These mummies are mainly young girls who were offerings to the Gods of the mountains to appease them so that the volcanoes wouldn´t errupt. The museum is full of loads of offerings that were burried with the girls which also are in amazing condition. The last room of the museum had 2 of the mummies in it it big glass freezers. It´s a bit freeky really as one of them in particular is totally how she would have been when she died with skin, hair, internal organs and all. Very odd. Her face is a bit defrosted as she rolled down from her grave and her head was exposed for a little while before she was found but she still has all her teeth! All in all very interesting.

After the museum I was even more cultural and went to the Santa Catalina Monastry which is basically a little city inside a city. It is a convent which was set up hundreds of years ago and was originally the destination for many 2nd born girls from rich Spanish families. THe families had to pay a dowry to send thier children there and the nuns lived quite comfortables lives with slaves etc. THis was until the Pope found out and ordered all the slaves to be freed or allowed to become nuns.
The monastry was opened to the public quite recently because the mayor of Arequipa ordered them to have electricity installed and the only way that they could pay for it was to let people look around. They now live in a small section of the convent closed off to the public.
The convent itself is huge and very beutiful with amazing murals on the walls and trees in the open areas. It took me about 2 hours to wonder around looking at everything but it was very peaceful and a nice way to spend an afternoon.

The evening was spent doing a bit more wondering around looking at the town and then I found a very nice veggie restaurant where I had dinner with an America couple who were doing a bit of travelling around Peru for a few weeks too.

Monday I finally got round to booking a trekking trip into the Colca Canyon which would involve me having to get an overnight bus leaving Arequipa at 1.30am. But I´d been told it was worth it so went for it.
I spent the day attempting to chill out and read my book but unfortunately it is virtually impossible to sit in a public place in this country without someone try to talk to you about where you are from etc etc. I really didn´t feel much like talking to random Peruvians so I ended up moving from cafe to cafe drinking lots of tea and coca cola. It´s a bit of a shame as the Plaza is very pretty and it would have been nice to have been able to sit there for a while.
One I´d drunk enough tea and coke I went in search of a shop to buy myself a cap for my trekking trip. I ended up in a street full of shops selling pretty much everything. I think I was the APequipa market but I´m not sure. The stalls sort of lead into little mazes of little shops indoors selling all sorts of stuff. IT was much cheap down there so I´m going back later today for some more shopping. I also found a lovely ice cream place where I sat with a huge ice cream looking like a total pig.

After dinner I went to the tour agency as the guy there had said I could stay at his house where he lived with his mum and his brother until I had to get my bus. THis meant that being cheap I didn´t have to pay for a hotel although I did feel a little rude just turning up on their doorstep. They were very friendly though and I got to sleep for a few hours before being taken to the bus station. I was also informed that the other guy who was suposed to be doing the tour with me was sick so I´d be by myself which was quite lucky I thought. Anyway thats enought for mow. My Colca Canyon tour is on another page!!