Peru - Arequipa

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Arequipa

We began our adventure in Arequipa a town 3 hour flight from Lima. Arequipa is home to one of the largest villages of nuns. Its like a city within a city and has an amazing history to it. Hundreds of years ago all girls age 12 would be sent to live in the convent, they were not alowd contact with anyone from the outside and were only alowd to speak to their parents through a wall. They had a room where they slept ate and studied, when they where 16 they had to choose if they wanted to be a nun and live the rest of their lives in the convent with no contact with the outside or if they wanted to return to the outside world.. the only catch is that if they did decide to return to their families it would be considered a disgrace that they wishd not to be a nun and live in solitude for the rest of their lives. Even when they passed away the family was not alowd to see them as were they not alowd to be at their families deaths on the outside either. ..

This is where we all got to know eathother on the tour before we started the trek for my first night also and what better than a Karaoke night!!!!!

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Photos

Arequipa
Shoe shining post they have everywhere

Arequipa Convent
Entrance to where the 12 year old novices enter

Arequipa Convent
The novices room, they spent three years here.

Arequipa Convent
the corridor the novice will walk through if they decide to spend the rest of their lives in the convent. They are also buried in the convent grounds.

Arequipa Convent
When one of the nuns died they would be here for a week so other nuns could mourn their death

Arequipa Convent
The houses for the nuns in the convent grounds, depending on how wealthy they were was how large their house was or whether they shared with others.

Arequipa Convent
Where they washed their clothes

Arequipa Convent
No showers... they wouyld bathe fully clothed in this bath

Arequipa Convent
No toilets... this was it.. a gutter in the street.

Arequipa Convent
The kitchen