Advertisement
Published: January 11th 2006
Edit Blog Post
The city of Arequipa
After our
fun in Nazca we caught the night bus to Arequipa. Situated at about 2300 metres above sea level the city offers nicer temperatures than the melting hot climate of Lima and Nazca. The 750 000 people living here are surrounded by active volcanoes, thermal springs, high altitude deserts and the world's deepest canyons, making it the perfect stop-over spot before going to Puno and Lake Titicaca or Cuzco and Machu Picchu. The city itself offers a lovely atmosphere with a cathedral, monasteries and churches on nearly every street corner. Best of all, there is very little hassling from street touts, which makes walking around a wonderfully relaxed experience compared to Malawi and Tanzania. Arriving early in the morning on Saturday 7 January we left our stuff in a nice hostel and went to explore the city.
Party nuns --- Monasterio de Santa Catalina First on our list was the Santa Catalina monastery. According to Lonely Planet, this monastery, or convent, rather, is one of the most fascinating colonial religious buildings in Peru, and after the visit I have no reason to doubt this claim. With its delicate pastel colours on every wall contrasted by bright-coloured flowers,
benches and fountains, I could not help but take lots and lots of photos.
The story behind the monastery is exhilirating. It was founded by a rich widow in 1580 but run somewhat differently than the monasteries of its time. Traditionally, the second daughter of upper-class families would enter a nunnery to live in chaste poverty. Not so in this monastery! Instead, each nun in the Santa Catalina monastery would have between one and four servants or slaves (usually black) for their own private pleasure. Also, they invited musicians who played music composed by hedonistic composers and would even throw parties! However, this unusual practice was stopped after about three centuries at the will of the Pope. He sent a strict Dominican nun to straighten things out. From this point onwards, the majority of the 450 people living in the monastery never ventured outside the tall walls of the convent and a cape of mystery surrounded it until it was forced opened to the public in 1970 by the mayor of Arequipa. Today, 30 remaining nuns live in the northern corner of the complex whereas the rest of buildings are open to the public.
Walking around the narrow
twisting streets, entering small plazas with fountains and flowers or beautiful courtyards was a great experience. Climbing narrow stairways made for much smaller people than myself revealed terraces with a lovely view of the city skyline and the mountains far away. I would have had no problem living in such wonderful surroundings as these rich nuns did!
We rounded off our super day by sharing a bottle of red on the rooftop terrace at our hostel. Although a little chilly (we had to wear jackets, it was probably around 10 degrees), nothing beats excellent three-dollar wine (which costs about USD in Norway) and starlight.
Juanita --- the Inca princess, or Ampato maiden Arequipa is also home to the Museo Santuarios Andinos, which contains the frozen mummy of the Inca princess Juanita and other child sacrifices found in the same area. Between January and April Juanita is removed for research reasons but we got to see another mummy. Found on top of the Ampato volcano, which reaches about 6380 metres above sea level, Juanita is also sometimes called the Ampato maiden.
At the age of 12 or 13 she was sacrificed by the Inca priests to satisfy the
mountain gods. She was subjected to a fast before being drugged and put to sleep. The priest then sent her to the other side by striking a single blow to her right eyebrow. Although she was probably terrified in her final hours, being the chosen one for a sacrifice was also a great honour --- by being sacrificed she would never return but live among the gods --- as a goddess.
Covered by ice since her death, the body is incredibly well preserved. When a nearby volcano erupted in 1995, the resulting ashes caused the ice that covered Ampato to melt. This triggered an expedition to its summit to see if any remains of the Inca culture could be found. Indeed, the scientists were right about this hunch. At the summit, they found a burial site but with no body. Being in an area where earthquakes regularly occur, the idea that the body could have rolled down from the crater edge into the volcao struck the scientists. Ingeniously, they started rolling big rocks down the inside of the crater to see where the rocks ended up, and thus, they found Juanita!
The guided visit to the museum was
Helene
Many of the narrow streets had rosebeds. Notice Aashild curiously looking into on of the buildings. great and took about an hour to complete. The guide took us through various rooms with lots of artefacts such as pottery, clothes, and gold, silver, and copper crafts. The final room contained a -20 degree glass container with the mummy of another child sacrificed just like Juanita. It was incredibly well preserved although somewhat macabre to watch.
Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos inside the museum but I took one of the entrance and of the nice pateo inside.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.252s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 9; qc: 56; dbt: 0.1588s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
birgit
non-member comment
gøy
kjempefine reisebrev! Veldig fornøyd tante som leser og koser seg med fortellinger og fotos. Vær forsiktige, og nyt livet.