The White City
Trip Start
Mar 02, 2005
1
19
28
Trip End
May 07, 2005
Arequipa,
Peru
Monday, April 4, 2005
Arequipa is called the White City because most of the buildings in the center of the city are made of a local white stone called sillar. With its colonial architecture and its location at the foot of enormous volcanoes, Arequipa is probably the most beautiful city I have seen yet in South America. After finding a room at a hostel, I walked to the central plaza in time to see a parade with a marching band and lots of military folk. Apparently Arequipa has a great deal of local city pride, and they do a parade every Sunday morning just because they enjoy doing so
Santa Catalina Convent
. I came to Arequipa for two reasons: the Santa Catalina Convent and the Colca Canyon. Today I visited the convent which is without a doubt the most beautiful building I have seen since I started traveling. The convent was founded in the late 1500s, and the nuns who were sent to live here came from wealthy families in Spain. They lived quite a lavish life within the walls of the convent. Each nun had multiple servants, and they were sent from Spain with large doweries that allowed them to eat, drink, and live very comfortably. Apparently they lived a bit too comfortably because by the 19th century, the Catholic church sent a new mother superior to run the convent and force the nuns to live much more austerely. From the mid nineteenth century until 1970 the nuns at the convent were completely shut off from the outside world and nobody from outside was allowed to enter.
It`s an enormous complex with numerous courtyards filled with colorful flowers and trees. The walls are painted bright shades of orange and blue and red. I spent 3 hours wandering around, and I could have stayed much longer just enjoying the archways and the colors and the flowers and the serenity of the place but they closed at 5pm so I had to leave.
