Blogs from Arequipa, Peru, South America - page 109

Jeff gave his talk to the faculty this morning. What he didn’t realize ahead of time is that research is a very politically charged subject matter at the University. Right now, almost all of the faculty members have their MS, but not their PhD. Additionally, there is some crazy precedent for faculty members with 20 years of service to be given a PhD by the school at which they teach. The Dean is closing that down and used Jeff’s talk on research as an example to the faculty about what goes on in US Universities. People were none too pleased. (And Jeff just so loves being embroiled in a controversy!) I can understand both sides here. Faculty are paid by the lecture hour (~s/17 per hour they teach), which is ludicrous. Most of the faculty members ... read more

Jeff worked most of the day today preparing for two lectures he’ll be giving on Thursday and Friday morning. Alberto, Elizabeth and I went to a remate (sale) of alpaca goods. They had spectacular sweaters, blankets, scarves, pashminas, coats, gloves and hats. The baby alpaca material feels just like cashmere. I would list prices, but I bought some of you gifts so …. let’s just say that a sweater I’d expect to spend about $200 on at Macy’s ran $30 or less. For lunch we had Aji de Gallina, a traditional Peruvian meal of hen with roasted pepper (yellow pepper, but not bell). We all liked it, but Jeff loved it and I’m sure I’ll be duplicating it when we get home if I can find a source for the peppers. Alberto and Elizabeth have household ... read more

Well after leaving from Puno and Lake Titicaca we arrived in the city of Arequipa - the second biggest in Peru and we were all pleasantly surprised at how nice the city was! So after arriving we we decided to do a two day tour to the Colca Canyon the second deepest Canyon in the world (disputed to be the deepest by some Polish students) and second only to a Canyon just down the road from it and deeper than the Grande Canyon. Anyhow after setting out at about 7.30am in the morning we stopped along the way to see some Vicuna a type of deer thing but related to the alpaca and llama. We also saw more massive mountains and volcanos and crossed to 4910m !! After a bit of Coca Tea we were on ... read more

After 11 hours of sleep, we all felt like new people. We awoke to a beautiful day, and a wonderful breakfast of fried eggs, bread, olives, cheese and freshly made juice. Elizabeth and Alberto took us sightseeing - the city is really amazing. We first went to Mirador de Yanahuara (a lookout point in the Yanahuara district) where we could see the entire city. Across the street was an old Catholic church made out of the white volcanic rock (sillar) that is very prevalent as a building material in Arequipa. The city is actually called Ciudad Blanco (The White City). There are three visible mountains from Arequipa- Volcan Misti, Volcan Picchu Pichu and Volcan Chachani. Even from a height of 8000 ft (the altitude here) the mountains are amazing. It was cloudy, so we didn't get ... read more

Our night bus arrived in Arequipa at 6.30am and we got a taxi (who over-charged us) to a hostel. We agreed a price for a room and went to bed to sleep. We slept for most of the day but went out into town in the afternoon for a look around and book the bus to Chile the next day. We had orginally intended to go to Colca Canyon but as I was not well we decided to head for Santiago as quickly as possible to see a Doctor. We took advice from the Lonely Planet and went to an agency to buy bus tickets. The commision they charged was less than the taxi fare to the bus station so it was the cheapest and easiest way to organise them. We had lunch in Govindas (again) ... read more