The Enigmatic Monastery of Santa Catalina

DAY 8: AREQUIPA
This morning I felt lazy, so I stayed most of the morning with my parents at their house. I left their house only to buy my bus ticket to Puno. I had to look for a bus that would be leaving the next day around 11:30 p.m. or a little bit later in order to be in Puno around 7:30 a.m. to start my tour over the Titicaca Lake. I had been told that a regular bus trip from Arequipa to Puno takes about 5 hours and thirty minutes, so I bought a ticket for the Royal Class bus of the Ormeño Company. The bus would be leaving at 1:00 a.m. of my day 10. Everything should be fine!

After lunch (around 2:00 p.m.) I decided to go to the Santa Catalina Monastery. This wouldn’t be my first time there, but I wanted to take some pictures of this huge colonial edification built in 1579 where nuns used to live in internment.

I paid around US$ 10.00 to get in and I didn’t hire a tour guide because I know well enough the background of the place. Anyway, once I was inside, I noticed that I chose a really bad time of the day to take pictures. I say so because the majority of buildings are made of sillar, a white volcanic stone, which reflects the light of the sun a lot.

In the monastery I spent a couple hours, but if this is your first or even second time there, you could easily spend all morning because this place is huge with many great pieces of art as well as amazing architecture.

After the visit to this ancient building, I went for a walk downtown and took some pictures of the Cathedral, the Main Square and other colonial buildings. After that I visited a handcraft market called “El Fundo del Fierro,” and then I spent a while in one of the thousands of internet cafes that are in Arequipa. You can pay around US$ 0.50 per hour. I would say that this is a good deal!

Finally, I went back to my parents’ house to rest and enjoy their company.

www.latikaperutravel.com

---

---