Arequipa

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We weren´t turned back or dropped at any borders and arrived in Arequipa, freezing cold (Just add another quid on the ticket price and use the heating!) at 4 am. This isn´t the liveliest hour of the day here, nor was I feeling at my liveliest. We managed to cajole a bus station cafe into giving us coffees, then later breakfast, before it seemed a reasonable hour to be checking into a hostal without paying for that night but only the coming night. Put ourselves straight to bed. You know how when your feet are cold it feels like there are pebbles tucked under your toes? Well, that feeling persisted in me for the entire hour and a half I stayed in bed.

The strikes didn´t stop us getting here, but they do exist, and we have to leave Arequipa under cover of darkness at 4am tomorrow to go to the Colca Canyon to avoid them.

Arequipa is slightly lower than Cusco so warmer, and it´s very pleasant. This morning we went round the Convent here. Oh, to have been a nun in Arequipa! They had it sussed. This convent, which is large enough to have six streets within it, is stunningly gorgeous. It looks Tuscan, and the living arrangements were far from spartan. The cloisters are charming and the garden lovely. They all look pretty fat in photos and paintings, so the food must have been alright. Communal baths (which were appreciated more by some nuns than by others, I imagine), pretty fountains, classical music in surround sound as you strole from room to room. Also, if you fall prey to some nasty terminal illness, there´s the relics of an amazing, very merciful nun whom the Catholic church have admitted has performed miracles in curing people, and you just have to pray to her a bit and all´s hunky dory again. So everything´s covered really.

I´ve been popping in toa fair few churches and cathedrals along the way. There are some really stunners. In San Blas, Cusco, for instance, was "the best wooden pulpit in South America". Now, I haven´t seen all the wooden pulpits in South America, but I can readily believe in the accuracy of this description. Ornate does little to describe this thing. The symbolism much have been plentiful as someone else was getting a very long explanation in Spanish when I went. On the top, rather unnervingly, was perched a human skull, like the angel on top of a Christmas tree. Only the other way round, in terms of the pagan-holy split.

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Comments

[ruth]

Oh my, I have just realised that everyone can read everyone elses comments. Now I feel I should be amusing, or at least have something interesting to write. Well, I haven't....but I will think about something good for next time. All is dull, I now have 5 weeks holiday in Blackpool....can't really compare to your trip.....however I will continue to read your entries and keep getting very jealous of you! Something good to write...hhm...well, it is thundering here which is quite exciting ?! Love your Dad's comment....Hi Don (can we use this thing to talk to each other over?!), also, Richard I am not 'lost' I've just strayed to the Midlands!!!! Look after yourself Liz, Love Ruthie xx

[Beamish]

You can send private messages too, if you have something really saucy to say. Dad´s comment is a variation on the Bates family classic of, "Well, yes, I suppose you can have another helping of spaghetti if you´re still hungry, but don´t come crying to me when you explode." Meanwhile, you are thinking, "Just hand over the pasta, parent."