Arequipa
Trip Start
May 07, 2008
1
69
90
Trip End
Jan 06, 2009
Arequipa,
Peru
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Well, we arrived at Arequipa at 5:30am. Our Hotel was bright pink with palm trees and looked like a wedding cake! It was great! As we arrived so early we decided to get straight to bed and sleep until our City Tour at 2pm. This plan worked out brilliantly until.....10am when the gardener decided to mow the lawn right outside our window! When he finished mowing the vast lawn outside....he then started up the motor powered mower...and strimmed the whole thing!!! Seriously, from 10am until 1pm when we had to leave our room for the tour, all we got was............( a road digger noise) zzzzzzzzzzzzz ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!
To boot, I also suffered with altitude sickness. Arequipa is at an altitude of approx 2,000 metres above sea level. I didn't get the full blown vomiting, fainting attack of it but it was still pretty grim. My head felt like it was in a vice being crushed and I felt constantly dizzy and just weird. My asthma also became a bit dodgy and David had trouble catching his breath too
Lamas...or Alpacas...!
. Not nice. Arequipa, also called The White City, is beautiful. It's called The White City because most of the buildings are built from local volcanic stone. Arequipa is surrounded by volcanic mountains, mainly Misty mountain (meaning Mister in Ketchua the local language), Chachani volcanoe and Pichu Pichu. None of them are active. The City is full of history, stunning architecture, big squares with fountains and congregating locals, market stalls and old women in traditional Peruvian dress trying to sell their wares.
The City Tour was good fun. It was just us and an American couple. One of the places we went to was the Santa Catalina Monastery. This was a beautiful place, built in 1580, where nuns still live today. At one time, there were approx 450 people living here, including servants. In 1970 the nuns needed funds to help run the Cloister so they opened it to the public. It is situated in the heart of Arequipa's cobbled streets and is like a rabbit warren of secret alleyways and hidden rooms. Although the din of traffic was only just outside the big iron gates, within you only experience peace and tranquillity. Except for when David jumps out of a room at me and I let out a piercing scream, shattering the revered silence!! Most of the buildings are painted in deep orange and lavender-blue with pots of red carnations dotted about. Absolutely stunning. Climbing up wonky stone steps above some of the dwellings gave you a vista over Arequipa that took your breath away, of a hazy Monet watercolour of terracotta roofs, church spires standing tall in the distance and stray dogs jumping and barking
Church in small square
. The next day, we got collected at 4am to go off to Colca Canyon. This was absolutely stunning!!!! Twice as deep as The Grand Canyon, up to 3,000 metres, and surrounded by the shimmering, hazy, vista of the Andes mountains. It was a 3-hour drive to the Canyon so we snoozed and chatted with our guide, George, for a while. The drive was actually fascinating. Mostly along barren, winding roads with the odd mud hut here and there and wild lamas. There are a lot of agricultural terraces everywhere, invented by the Incas and still used by local farmers today, where fruit and vegetables are grown. There was one area which is always foggy. I mean full-on immersing fog shrouding your car. It was like a 1950's horror film, as you drive at the speed of a snail, wondering whether you will emerge into another universe. This road ran parallel with two volcanic mountains and we drove along the dip between the two, so the fog never lifts but just hovers like a blanket of fear.
We stopped off occasionally to see the view which was incredible - you could see for miles (once you had exited the Valley of a Foggy Death.) Our first major stop though was to see the Andean Condors. These birds are the size of Boing 747's!! They fly over the Canyon and keep their nests there so it's a big tourist attraction. We walked with George for about 30mins to a spot where the Condors would be. This was along a narrow track with a drop down to the Canyon of about 3000 metres. I was so dizzy I didn't want to slip over the edge! The view over the Canyon was absolutely stunning, just so flaming beautiful
Ornate building
. We got to a spot where it was rammed with tourists all dying to see the Condors gliding above. We found a small space on a step amidst the crowds and no sooner had we sat down then above us suddenly emerged a Condor, gliding slowly over our heads, like a shadow creeping sliding up to you. His wings were massive and he was absolutely beautiful. When he emerged a sweeping rush of "Look!" rushed through the crowds and cameras and video cameras all shot up to the sky. Incredible. We sat there for an hour and only caught this one, brief glimpse of him. We were so lucky, especially as George told us it was now the time of year when they would not be around.
We then went to Maca, a small village with a beautiful church. There was a man offering his eagle to sit on your head. I put the man's hat on and the eagle jumped on top. The bird was so heavy! I had to really hold my head up and I could feel his claws scratching about. Absolutely fantastic experience, he was such a gorgeous creature.
We stopped in Chivay for a buffet lunch which was delicious and then David and I walked around the main square for a while. Peruvians really utilise their open spaces. All the little squares are full of naughty, giggling children, traditionally dressed Peruvians wandering around with lamas, market stalls selling jewellery and souvenirs. Just so pretty everywhere. (David: And clean. They are so well maintained and respected. Everyone seems to appreciate the town square as if it's their own personal space, with not a spot of graffiti anywhere
Me posing...again!
. If you want to experience what an ancient Greek Forum must have been like then this is probably the closest you can get to a living example.)The day's driving was stunning. Most of the land was barren, dry and vast mountainous terrain with nothing as far as the eye can see, apart from the long tarmac road, stretching out in the hazy distance. Reminded us a bit of Australia. We saw wild dogs, lamas, alpacas, farmers just sitting on the side of the road, women walking around with heavy sacks on their back herding sheep and little children running alongside. We stopped off at the highest point to take some photos. This was at nearly 5000 metres above sea level. Which is nearly 16,500 feet up. Which is THREE miles up!!! The atmosphere is quite thin up there. (David: My memory of the place is a little hazy, like I'm remembering a drunken night. I definitely felt a bit tipsy feeling walking around trying to catch my breath. And the cocaine they kept pouring down our throats in the form of Coca tea didn't seem to be helping, so we went onto the hard stuff: Coca toffee sweets. They seemed to help a bit).
(David: I should point out, as a PS, that Coca tea isn't really cocaine - and neither are the toffees. It's a brew made with coca leaves. And although you do make cocaine from coca leaves, you need several kilograms of them to make a small amount. The amount of cocaine in the tea and toffees is negligible - probably the same amount as there is Opium in the poppy seeds on a crusty loaf
One old man and a violin under a bridge!
. I feel I should point this out as my Mum reads this!! )We also saw an Australian man wet himself laughing with his Australian mates, while he kicked a running lamb. Nice. I gave him a look of absolute disgust and David went and asked him where he was from. Why kick it? Why? Prat. (David: I actually didn't know where he was from when he was chasing after the sheep. I wanted to know what nationality did that sort of thing... just so I could condemn the entire nation based on this one guys actions. I asked him where he was from and I was quite surprised when he said Australia actually. But I think I said 'figures' in response to him. Well, if you're 5000 metres up and come across some sheep, really, who else is going to be chasing them? Not the locals, they treat them as semi-pets and the sheep don't shy away from people as a result. In hindsight I don't think he was kicking the sheep, just trying to step in front of one as his mates chased the group up the road. I guess so he could pick it up and show off... I think it's in their genes.) No, darling, he kicked the sheep. I saw him.
Next day, we were off to Cuzco. Another City of beauty and history.
Love, us xxxx
