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Arequipa Park
Fountain in their central park We arrived into Arequipa kast night in the evening. We were with our two new friends, Rob and Dave. We all shared a taxi from the terminal terrestre (bus terminal) to a hotel called "Las Nuñez" for a total of S5 (under $2). The hotel was nice. We managed to talk the lady down from her original price of S75 including breakfast, to S60 not including breakfast. This gave us our own private room and private bath with cable TV - all for about $20. Good deal. Nice rooms across from each other. Dave and Rob's room had an upstairs too and about 6 beds in the room - same price!
Today we woke up and walked around the city. Our goal was to book a Colca Canyon trek for tomorrow, find a new hostel that had hot water (Nuñez claimed they had it but it was tepid at best!), and find something for breakfast.
We ended up booking a tour through Colca Trek, as we had heard great things about their company and we had been in contact with them via e-mail prior to coming to Peru. We ended up getting a 2 day/1 night tour for only
S75 (about $25) which includes the 3 hour transportation up to Chivay (with stops along the way for photos and souvenirs), our accomodation in a hostel for the night in Chivay, and breakfast the following day, plus return transport. We will only have to pay for 2 lunches, 1 dinner, entrance fee to the canyons, and entrance fee to the hot springs. Overall, we've estimated we'll be spending about $70 total over 2 days, including the trip. Awesome. We've been budgeting about $100 a day so far and have been able to keep well under this.
We then found a new hostel, which quoted us one price and we recommended to the boys. They went after us and checked in getting a better room for only about $3 more. When we returned we requested the same deal. So yet again, we got a private room with private bath (hot showers this time!) for only S50 (about $18 total divided by 2 of us). The hostel is called La Casona De Jerusalen (located on Jerusalen street - highly recommended to travelers!)
We then found breakfast in a nice cafe on the upper level of a building on the main
Breakfast View
Looking down on central park during breakfast square/central park (called Plaza del Arms). We then checked out the plaza, found a place to turn in a small bag of laundry for cheap, and went back to the hotel to shower.
We met up with the boys at 1pm and had a cheap (although not amazing tasting) lunch at a little place near our hostel. We were then off to see the Santa Catalina Monastery. We paid about $10 (S30) to enter and were surprised at how big it was. I had been to some other monasteries, remembering especially the one in Antigua, Guatemala. This one did not even compare. The monastery was like a city within the city. It had inner streets and gardens. There were also many HUGE cells where the nuns slept. I'm not talking big rooms, I'm talking big apartments! They each had their own kitchen and many had city rooms - some even with private bathrooms. This place was the mansion of monasteries. Dave told us that the nuns were all living very fancily for years until the vatican stepped in and sent some strict nun that made them live more like nuns, rather than queens. There's actually a new monastery in
Cathedral
The sun was BRIGHT that day but if you look close you can see a snow-capped mountain behind the church. the grounds (the grounds take up an entire city block) where about 30 nuns are currently living and practicing. The money from the tourists visiting the monastery helps pay for the upkeep of the new one.
I think we were in the monastery for about 2 hours and then we helped Dave and Rob get their tickets to Cuzco for tomorrow, and they head back to the hostel, while we went to check out the Museo Sanctuario that held the remains of Juanita the Ice Princess.
For S15 (about $5 each) we watched a video first of the sacrificial rituals of the Inca culture, viewed the artifacts, and then saw Juanita - enclosed in a glass case kept at about -20 degrees.
Juanita was a young Inca girl (they suspect royalty) whom was sacrificed to the mountain gods by the Inca people in about 1440-1450. She was sacrificed on top of a volcano at about 15,000 ft (imagine hiking that!!!) and was buried in ice for hundreds of years. The only reason the ice was melted was due to a volcano erruption. About 2 weeks before she was found in 1995, there was an earthquake, which shook
Monestary
Sarah shows how we need to be silent. her from her burrial site and exposed her to the elements. Because of this, her face is slightly discoloured in one spot. Scientists revealed that these children were struck over the head to be killed. They saw it as a great priviledge to be chosen.
In the museum were tons of artifacts found in the burrial sites of several children sacrifices. I think there were about 14 total between Peru and Argentina. It was definitely worth the entrance fee (and small tip to guide) to see the actual Juanita (who is only in the museum for 6 months of the year and the other 6 in labs) encased in the freezing glass. Very cool.
We picked up our laundry and are now sitting here in the internet cafe. Plan is to meet up with the guys for dinner.
Tomorrow morning we head out on the Canyon tour. I doubt we'll have internet there, so I'll write all about it when we get back.
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Mom
non-member comment
Wow
Amazing - you guys are really seeing some great stuff - can't wait to see the photos and hear more about it in person. Enjoy the rest of your trip - have fun and keep safe. Can't wait to see you soon .Love Mom