Blogs from Arequipa, Peru, South America - page 12

El Monasterio de Santa Catalina de Arequipa. The Peruvians use monastery and convent pretty much interchangeably, so it is really the Convent of Santa Catalina. The price for general admission is $35 soles per person (roughly ten bucks) and to get the full benefit, you will want to hire a guide for an additional 20 soles for the group. After an hour with the guide, you can return at your leisure to the places you saw for study in greater detail or more picture taking. Flash photography is allowed. We were very lucky to get Sandra for our guide. Not only is she a very nice young lady, she is not too hard on the eyes either. She studied English in the United States, so her abilities in English are far better than most and she ... read more

Okay, I'm a bit grumpy right now. I had about three pages written for this blog (none of it saved). I touched one wrong key on my laptop, and pfttttt, GONE! Now I am saving every other sentence. I am behind on my posts because my wireless card in my laptop took a dump. I got a neat little TC Link device and we're back in business. We arrived in Lima on 4/9/2013. For those of you from other countries, that is April 9. The LAN flight was very turbulent (and perhaps a bit flatulent) the entire trip. We were met at the airport by a friend of the family and he took us to set up our cell phone that we use for traveling. We also changed a bunch of dollars to soles. When that ... read more

Kaip planavę, atsikeliam iš ryto ir keliaujam tiesiai į autobusą su visais daiktais, nes po kondorų stebėjimo pradėsim savo kelių dienų žygį pėsti. Autobusas pilnut pilnutėlis žmonių, dauguma vietiniai važiuojantys tik kelis kilometrus iki savo trobos. Nežinau ką jie čia visi taip anksti veikia. Autobuse taip pat pasirodo piktai atrodanti vakarykštė policininkė ar parko prižiūrėtoja kuri patikrina ar visi turistai turi bilietus kanjono lankymui. Vistik gerai, kad vakar nusipirkom. Už gero pusvalandžio išlipam kondorų stebėjimo vietoje. Su mumis taip pat išlipa ir nemažai vietinių prekiautojų pardavinėjančių suvenyrus. Žmonių visai nedaug, panašu, kad atvykom vieni pirmūjų. O laikas čia būti tikrai pats tas, ant uolos, gal už 10 metrų nuo mūsų tupi 4 didžiuliai kondorai. Aš pasiemu fotiką ir einu dar arčiau, prieinu gal per 5 metrus nuo jų. Arčiau neinu, nes nenoriu nubaidyti. Netrukus iš... read more

Well, here we go again. We're not gone yet. Heck, we're just half packed, but as they say down south, "We're fixin' on it." This time we are heading for Arequipa, the White City, so called because a large percentage of the buildings are built from white sillar stone. We are only going for a week this time, ostensibly to attend a wedding, but really just because we want to go and that seemed to be a good enough excuse. We will be staying at the Casa Arequipa, a highly rated B&B. If the comments are even half accurate, I think we should be able to survive. We are thinking that the Colca Canyon trip might be too much for a single day trip, so we will have to decide based on the number of "oooo's" ... read more

My trip to the Colca Canyon and Cruz del Condor was so large that I wanted to write about the city of Arequipa in a separate blog. This actually includes the final day in Puno as well as the time in spent in the White City. had done some research and found an interesting day trip to do before I had to leave at 2:30. Not far from Puno is Sillustani, pre-Incan ruins on a hill overlooking Lake Umayo. I wasn't sure what to expect, but since it was something that Tara and I could do together, I was up for it. First we had to negotiate with a taxi driver to take us to the site, wait for us and then bring us back to Puno. Now, when I say we had to negotiate, I ... read more