Arequipa
Trip Start
Jul 16, 2008
1
15
84
Trip End
Ongoing
Arequipa,
Peru
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Saturday evening I boarded a bus to Arequipa with my friend Jan, from Germany. We arrived in Arequipa at 6 am and went to our hostel, the Colonial House Inn. It was a pretty nice hostel although we did have to wait 2 hours before our room was ready. But, it was ready at 8:00 am so I guess I canīt complain! And there was a couch that I curled up on and went to sleep. They gave us breakfast on the rooftop terrace when we arrived and once we were all settled in our room, we went exploring Arequipa.
We walked around for a bit and I really liked what I saw.
Kitchen inthe Monastary
Arequipa seemed to be a very clean city. I liked the architecture. A bit more modern than Cusco. Lots of white buildings, which I liked. The streets were much more organized than Cusco and the drivers didnīt seem like they were trying to hit you, they seemed to actually follow driving rules! Cusco is very much a tourist city, and everything revolved around tourists. There were still people who approached us, trying to sell things or get us to go to their restaurant. However, after saying īNo, graciasī they actually left us alone, rather than follow us for a block, which is what happened in Cusco! Arequipa seemed like a city where people actually lived lives for something other than tourists. It seemed like more of a real city.We snuck into a few churches during mass (the best way to see churches for free). I even liked the churches more than the ones I saw in Cusco. They werenīt so guady. All the churches in Cusco were covered in gold or crystals or mirrors, something to make them really showy. These were much more my style. One we saw was painted all pastel colors. More interesting!
We went to the Museo Santuarios de Altura, a musuem whose main attraction is a frozen Inca girl who was found frozen in a volcano in 1995. She is believed to have died 500 years ago but her body was preserved because it was frozen. It was found in very good condition. The museum was very well put together, again, very different from the museums in Cusco. There was a very well done movie, which was available in several different languages.
Me at the River
They provided tours in several languages as well. The displays were also well organized, with all captions written in English and Spanish. I was just really surprised because Cusco, the tourist city, has nothing like this. The museums there, although displaying interesting items, arenīt well-organized. Many items do not even have a caption, much less one translated into other languages. I see why Arequipeņas consider their city to be better then the rest of Peru. They certainly try to make it that way and preserve it well.We also went to the Santa Catalina Monastary, a monastary founded in the 1500s. It is rather large and has many little streets with rooms off of them, the rooms that the nuns used to live in. Nuns still do live inside there, hidden away somewhere. It is very nice to walk around in, with many peaceful courtyards and quiet alleyways although it got a bit repetitive after seeing all of the nuns rooms. I was pretty surprised though, as many of the rooms were rather large, with seating area and a bed. Didnīt realize that nuns entertained in their rooms! There were also quite a lot of kitchens with these really cool looking ovens.
We walked around the city a bit, went to the river, which was pretty (as long as you didnīt look to close and see the garbage...just like the rivers in NY!)
We are leaving tomorrow morning at 4 am for a two day trek in Colca Canyon. I am already exhausted, after my 2 crazy nights out in Cusco and a night sleeping on a bus so it should be an interesting trek!
Comments
Pole kwa Safari
Hi Courtenay, I had no internet connection for a couple of weeks and I lost track of your safari. I quickly browse through your blog posts today and I was amazed to read and see photos of your adventures. I am Glad that you are doing great and having fun. Looking forward for your next post. Best rgds, Elias