Blogs from Arequipa, Peru, South America - page 113

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 ... read more

As life seems to start very early in Peru (something to do with Peru behing 2 hours behind Chile despite being on approx. the same longitude and therefore it getings light very early here) we woke early to the now familiar sound of car horn´s tooting at regular intervals. Our intention was to spend a day in Arriquipe followed by a couple of days walking in the ´nearby´ Colca Canyon which is claimed to be the deepest canyon in the world. Unfortunately the only 2 day trekking option in the canyon involved a 01.30am start on the first day (as the canyon was actually 6hrs away) and a 03.00am start the following day (to get to a condor viewing point for the best viewing time of 7-9am). Funnily enough this itinerary didn´t seem too appealing so ... read more

we have explored peru for the 1st 3 weeks of the trip. Starting off in lima, we travelled down the coast to see the Nasca lines. Next stop, Arequipa and Colca canyon at 4000m up. the dry run for the atitude of the inca trail.... read more

Misti was a bit of a challenge, but but I knocked her off. The last 3 hours of walking was a bit of a strugle, when I suddenly developed a bit a stomach ache. Every few minutes I felt like I wanted to shoot something out from one end or the other, but could not work out which. So it was plod, plod, plod... stop, wait while my stomach calmed itself down....plod, plod,plod. I have never walked so slow in my life, but I made it to the top and forced a smile. Misti is a 5829 meter volcano at the back of Arequipa. It´s fairly high, and we started out at 3200 meters and climbed up to the camp at 4700 meters the first day. I have passed the last 6 weeks without droping much ... read more

Arequipa is known as The White City, since many of the buildings were constructed using sillar, which is a white volcanic stone. They were holding regional elections when I arrived, which made the bus from Lima twice as crowded and twice as expensive. Voting is mandatory. They vote much like we do in the States, with simple ballots dropped into boxes at churches and schools. I found the climate warm and mild, and the people very down to earth. There are a few sights to see in Arequipa, one is the Santa Catalina Monastery and the other is a museum housing Juanita, the Ice Princess. She is a remarkably well-preserved mummy of a young girl sacrificed by the Incas around 500 years ago. Unfortunately you can´t photograph her; she is kept in a dark room under ... read more