I'm from Arequipa, NOT from Peru

This just about sums up our nights together...Jen: ¨Thats pretty, is that glitter on your shirt?¨ Jena: ¨Those are crumbs.¨

We've come to realize that Peruvians are excessively proud people, almost to a fault. (I say almost because I'm trying to be culturally sensitive but really, sometimes it makes you want to punch them). Our tour guide to Colca Canyon couldnt have been more of a jackass if he tried. He was full of loads of information, but for the most part that information was highly colored by his undying love for Arequipa. He's never been outside of Arequipa yet has something negative to say about every other place in the world. Polish people are ignorant of their history. Bolivians are dirty, cheap and untrustworthy. Cusqueños are sell outs. Americans have no traditions and no respect for culture. The british take what isnt theirs. Arequipeños even have issues with other Peruvians and want to secede from the rest of the country. Oliver, our guide, did have a few nice things to say though. He thinks Jen and I are quite cheerful girls, and wonders if we are so cheerful in our home country. Is it appropriate, he wonders, to be as cheerful as we? We're not sure if its appropriate, but we are aware that we laugh far more than anyone in South America. Giggling fits overcome us on a regular basis.

For example, we were on our way to visit some tombs of ¨The People from Volcano¨ and had to start at a base town called Copaqeque. Oliver informs us that the towns name means, in Quecha, ¨Sore vagina¨. The town next to Copaquque is called Chivay, and is known as ¨The town that likes to make love¨. You can see why if you went to Chivay first, you might end up in Copaqeque. After the amusing discovery of these two town's etymology we are hiking down the mountainside and happen upon another village. Jen asks if its name means a slight burn...down there. No one else thinks this is as funny as we do, hence Olivers cheerful comment.

Also, along the way we meet an alpaca on the trail and three girls who are supposedly descendents of the people from volcanoes. The alpaca likes me at first and then decides i have negative energy and spits on me. The people from volcanoes (which by the way is an absurdly wordy title) were Pre-Inca people that worshipped the volcanoes as their creators and gods. They buried their dead in mass graves up against the mountainside and we could see hundreds of pelvis bones, femurs, tibias and spinal columns; along with several human skulls that looked like they had been elongated.

Anyways, while trekking back down the mountain he makes us stop and look at these live peoples heads and talked about them like they werent there. This is one of my main issues with Peru so far... they are such a proud country and yet they treat their people (especially the indigenous population) like freak shows. They put them on display for all manner of reasons, and then ask for money just because you are looking at them. Its hard not to feel swindled every day by someone; whether it be a musician charging you money for listening to music in a PUBLIC square, a child that runs into your picture and demands payment, an old woman hassling you to buy a banana. A tour guide shuttling you around to the most expensive tourist restaurants so he can get a free meal while you spend all your soles on a crappy meal. Everyone is out to get theirs, which is sad for a country that really does have an immense amount of history, character and beauty to offer.

Arequipa is a gorgeous city. Known as Peru's ¨Most Important City after Lima¨ according to Oliver, it sets itself apart from the rest of Peru because they don´t rely on tourism as their sole income. Tours and treks to colca canyon abound, and tourist restaurants of the Plaza de Armas are aplenty, however if you wander a bit off the beaten path its easy to find the pulse of the real city. Arequipeños are friendly, intelligent, wealthy and proud. The history of Arequipa is very closely intertwined with the Spanish colonial history in the area. In fact, its impossible to separate the two. Their pride stems from the historic influence of the Basque in the area, which gives you an idea of how fervent their desire to separate from Peru is.

Their local cuisine is spicy, inventive and distinct. We ate at a very atmospheric restaurant in the suburb of Yanahuara called Sol de Mayo. A favorite with wealthy locals and businessmen as well as tourists this is more of a compound then a restaurant. The courtyard is expansive and there is stage with well-dressed musicians (that is to say, not done up in fake traditional costumes like most tourist restaurants) playing Hotel California. We try several local specialties like rocoto relleno (a spicy pepper filled with meat and vegetables), Potatoe Pie, and Ocopo de queso fundido (potatoes and fried cheese served with a spicy peanut sauce). We also indulge in a couple midday glasses of wine and after walking home to a chorus of raucous school boys proceed to fall asleep for many hours.

Oooh and we saw Juanita the Ice Princess. Talk about a creepy lady. One of 18 mummies (which Oliver lectures is a misnomer because if they were mummies, they would have been rubbed with ceremonial cream before burial like the Egyptians did...he knows this because he spent many soles to study and read the ¨researchings and studies of foreign explorers¨) to be found in the surrounding mountains in the past 100 years. These preserved ice bodies are part of the Inca's legacy in Peru, they made sacrificial offerings to the gods of nature (specifically the angry volcanoes that were erupting all around them) in hopes of calming natures fury. Sacrifices were usually llamas and alpacas, but in very extreme cases they were pure, innocent children. The children would walk hundreds of miles from the Incan capital of Cusco to the colder, mountainous area surrounding Arequipa. After ascending the mountain and drugging the children with chicha (fermented corn beer) and colca leaves, they would crack their skulls and bury the children with gold figurines, pottery and snacks for the gods. The snacks might be dried corn, dehydrated alpaca meat, and coca leaves. Archaeologists have been searching for these preserved bodies for the last 100 years in south america, and the most important body of all is Juanita, named for the American professor Johan who found her. She was preserved in an ice cave at the top of Ampato for 500 years and is now on display at this museum. She is not looking so hot anymore but at one time she might have been the most beautiful girl in the empire. Only the purest, most beautiful children from the wealthiest families were chosen for sacrifice.

I'm growing bored with myself so I'll write about the condors later. We spent the last two days on an excursion to see the great and spiritual condors of Peru. It was magical.

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