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Published: January 24th 2010
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Arequipa is the second largest city in Peru with a population of around 900,000 persons. Arequipa is located in the Andes Mountains of Southern Peru at an altitude of 7800 ft. Temperatures averaged about 75 degrees while we were in the area.
Chuck and I arrived to Arequipa the morning of Friday, January 15th. We found a taxi driver who drove us around town to secure a hotel room, reserve a tour to Colca Canyon, drop off laundry and see some sights. For $40.00 we made use of the taxi for about 5 hours.
After looking at a handful of hotels, we decided on the Hotel Villa del Carmen. The hotel was clean, small, situated across the street from the Selva Alegre Park, and within walking distance to the main plaza. The nightly rate was $30.00, which included a small balcony, breakfast buffet, wireless internet, hot water, and cable television.
Most hotels in Latin America will offer laundry services to guests, however they charge per item, which adds up to a large sum of money quite fast. For instance, the last time we calculated how much a hotel would charge for a load of
laundry it came out to around 500 Soles (well over $100 USD). The same load at one of the lavanderias (launderers), which charge by weight, cost us 44 Soles (about $15 USD). Either way the service takes about 24 hours and your clothes are washed, dried, and folded.
With laundry dropped off, our taxi driver brought us to sites situated along the outskirts of Arequipa. We visited three miradores (observation points) with views of Arequipa and the surrounding valley, as well as the mountains and volcanoes in the distance. The views were simply stunning, the valley was lush and green, and the mountains and volcanoes were beautiful, rugged, imposing, and immense.
Along our taxi tour we also visited a small museum focused on the local and pre-Incan culture group called Chiribaya. The Chiribaya developed between 800 and 1350 CE. The museum had on display a collection of ceramics, textiles, gold, and trophy heads.
Our next stop was at Mansion del Fundador, which originally served as the home of one of Arequipa’s founders. The home now functions as a museum with a collection of antique furniture on display, as well as a place available to
rent for gatherings.
Our final stop was to Molino de Sabandia, which served as a mill for the surrounding area. I cannot say if the mill still operates as a business, however the mill was operating during our visit.
After touring the mill our driver brought us to the town square to make reservations for travelling to Colca Canyon.
We spent our second day in Arequipa walking around town, visiting museums and churches, and browsing the artisan and antique shops.
The churches were all incredible and grandiose. The stone and wood work was intricate, ornate, and seriously impressive. All of the churches we visited still serve as centers of daily worship and prayer for the local community.
We also visited the Sanctuarios Andinos Museum. The focus of this museum is toward Juanita, a female mummy found high in the Andes. Juanita ended her life as a sacrificial offering to the mountain gods. The collection on display included items that were left as individual offerings or items left with Juanita and a few other persons sacrificed to the mountain gods.
Sunday, January 17th we departed for an overnight tour
to Colca Canyon. On our way to Colca Canyon we stopped at a roadside restaurant and artisan sale, where we drank tea made from fresh coca leaves and snacked on coca cookies. A short distance more up the road we entered a vicunia reserve. The vicunia is an animal native to the Andes, smaller than the alpaca and lama, and valued for its wool. Further along, we stopped at an observation point located at an altitude of approximately 15,000 ft., from where, if the sky is clear, one can view a handful of volcanoes in the distance. At this place and many others in the area, locals have piled up rocks as an offering in reverence of their gods.
We entered Colca Canyon through the town of Chivay. This town, like others of the canyon, was nestled in the valleys of the canyon. We arrived to Chivay in the afternoon, we walked around town, visited the local church, and then ended our day with drinks at what was said to be the highest Irish pub in the world.
The following morning we left to tour the canyon and the area of the condors. We stopped off
a short distance from the Cross of the Condors visitor area to walk a path along the upper edge of the canyon. The views were absolutely incredible of the canyon, the valley towns, and the stepped terraces used by local farmers. Colca Canyon is said to be over twice as deep as our Grand Canyon. The condors live in nests built in the canyon walls. As the air warms in the late morning the condors, and other birds, use the rising thermals to soar over the area looking for food. It was incredible to wait among busloads of tourists for the condors to take flight. When the first one finally flew by everyone there let out a gasp of amazement. After witnessing a total of three condors and one hawk, we left the condor crossing to make our way back out of the canyon. On our way out we stopped two more times, once to see a rock carved as a map of the canyon and funeral niches built into the upper walls of the canyon.
When we made our reservation for the Colca Canyon tour we were told of a scheduled nationwide public transportation strike that was
scheduled for Tuesday the 19th of January, which was the day we planned to travel to Puno on Lake Titicaca. The strike would last at least one day, but could go on indefinitely. The strike was to include all busses, taxis, and trains. What this meant for us is that we could no longer simply travel from one town to another. Airlines were not part of the strike, so if it continued longer than the first day, we could fly from Arequipa to another town with an airport. But, if there were no taxis we could be looking at quite a trek from any airport to any city center.
We decided to give the strike some time to see what would come if it and passed a day visiting the Santa Catalina Monastery. The monastery was constructed in the 1500s to house the area nuns. It still houses nuns today, the youngest of who was said to be 18 years of age. The monastery was like a town within a town, there were plazas or courtyards for gathering and socializing, streets, even neighborhoods. Some of the nuns owned their own cells (more like apartments) and most made baked
goods that were sold in town.
After Santa Catalina Monastery we walked to a travel agency to determine our travel plans out of Arequipa. The strike was still in force, to a degree. Taxis and colectivos were not participating in the strike, nor were trains, so basically the busses were alone in their effort. We were told transportation within cities would not be a problem, but going between cities could prove to be difficult, if not impossible. So, we reversed our plans. We made reservations with LanPeru to fly from Arequipa to Cusco. Flights cost about $200 to go to or from anywhere within the country. By the time we are finished in Cusco the strike may be over, or we can go with a tour group to Puno, or we skip Puno and spend more time in Cusco and Lima before returning home.
So, in the morning, we are leaving on a jet plane bound for Cusco, from where we plan to visit the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu. Until then, stay warm. More later. Cheers!
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Marmie
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YIKES!!!
CNN NEWS: Tourists, drivers trapped by Peru mudslides Posted Mon Jan 25, 2010 12:04pm AEDT Hundreds of tourists and cargo trucks have been trapped by mudslides in the Andean province of Cusco in south-eastern Peru, after heavy rain pounded the region, police said. Landslides and swollen rivers severed the rail line linking the city of Cusco, the former capital of the Inca empire, with the ruins of Machu Picchu at two points, the British-owned PeruRail said in a statement. The overflowing Vilcanota and Rio Blanco rivers in the area flooded hundreds of hectares of corn crops. Meanwhile, cargo trucks and long-distance passenger busses have lined up on the Cusco-Abancay highway, unable to proceed due to the overflowing Yanama river, which has flooded some 50 homes and also destroyed crops.