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Published: October 13th 2009
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Santa Catalina Monastery Arequipa - Silencio! Hola again Amigos and Amigas,
Last time I wrote I promised a good travelling story, but one that was kind of unsavoury. So here it goes. Check this one out...
You may recall that we took a long haul bus from Cusco (10 hours) to Arequipa. It all went good, really good in fact. It was easily the best bus and bus company we have used since being in SA. I actually managed to sleep for 6 or so hours - very rare!
I say it all went well that is until we were about to leave the terminal of our bus company at 6am in the morning. Chris was in the WC and I was putting my passport away and generally just casually minding our bags. But maybe it wasn´t so casual though as I noticed a guy pick up our camera bag (with new Canon SLR and accessories on board!) and make a quick walk for the exit gate. The bag was only 1 metre from me!! So what do you think I did? I chased after the little **** of course and caught him before he could exit. I grabbed the bag and then held
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Calle Cordova in Santa Catalina Monastery. him by the scruff of the neck. Security was called very quickly and he was apprehended.
Cool hey!
It doesn´t end there though. He was hauled off to a police office in the bus terminal and I too had to go along. We both made official statements along with a couple of other witnesses. I even had to get a translator and sign my name alongside my finger print!
Cool hey! (but not really as it took over 1.5hrs!)
The Manager of the bus company Cruz del Sur was the loveliest man and extremely apologetic. He was so upset that a robbery had occurred in his terminal and he offered us free tickets to our next destination.....thank you and accepted! A quick saving of S/.160 - 65 big ones!
Want more? I haven´t got steak knives but I did get a free trip to the local court later that day to testify and to see the sentencing of the thief (pronounced "teef" by my translator). He got a 20 months good behaviour bond and must check into the local court every month to sign a declaration for being a good boy! The teef was also
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The view of Picchu Picchu mountains from the Monastery. ordered to give me S/.50 ($20) cash for my time which he handed to me personally during the court hearing! The local press even took photos - I might’ve made the paper!! Ha!!
The thought had crossed my mind not to pursue the teef legally but the camera had 10 days of photos on it from Cusco and our 5 day trek to Machu Picchu. Hopefully he will learn a lesson. I suppose we got really lucky that we didn’t lose the photos. We´ll be down loading more often from now on that´s for sure!
So that was our welcome to the white city of Arequipa. It claims to be Peru’s second biggest city but so does Trujillo - you would someone would sort that one out. We were primed for a beautiful city with old colonial style buildings primarily built of white stone called sillar, a stunning plaza and a vast selection for degustation, all surrounded by amazing mountain scenery. We got all that - the rumours were spot on.
The highlight of our time in Arequipa was a visit to the Santa Catalina monastery. Those who know me will attest to my non-religious way of
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El Misti... it dwarfs Arequipa. life (excepting my unwavering devotion to the mighty cardinal and myrtle of the great South Sydney Rabbitohs) so you might be surprised that I enjoyed our 2 or so hours at the monastery. It was a photographers (Chris) dream. Bright colour painted walls with rabbit burrow like corridors flanked by colourful flowers and plants. Santa Catalina Monastery was built in 1579/1580, some forty years after Arequipa was founded. The monastery is like a city within a city. 450 nuns once resided there but the nuns no longer live in the areas we visited (about 20 or so now live in the “new monastery” next door) but the monastery is set up like a museum with lots of old stuff preserved and presented to show how the ladies were nunning it up in years gone by. For S/.35 ($15) it was great value and worthy experience that we would recommend to anyone.
A “short” 5.5hrs bus ride ($6.00 each) took us from Arequipa to “nearby” Cabanaconde - home of the world famous Colca Canyon. It is in fact the world’s second deepest canyon which is home to the Condor, the world’s largest bird of prey. Everything in SA it seems,
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Big wing spans at Colca Canyon. must be ranked and I presume as tourists we fall for their scull duggery and trickery because we go there in droves! In 1,000’s in fact, as we found out during our time watching the condors. Fortunately for us our hostel owner gave us the good tip to turn up to the lookout early......before the tourist buses arrive. We arrived at 7am, about 30mins before the first bus and we were very lucky! A condor with a wing span of around 3 metres circled us and the 10 or so others that rolled out of bed early. He put on a real show for us before landing only 3 metres or so from where we were standing - you’ll see that I am not lying from the photos! These birds are just magnificent. They are so huge and powerful but yet seriously graceful. By the time we left the lookout an hour later, there would have been well over 500 tourists all bumping and pushing with little silence all trying to get a brief glimpse at the condors that we had just spent a good 30mins quietly observing in nature. Yay for us!
We also did a hike into
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Condor in full flight at Colca Canyon. the canyon. All hikes in Colca hurt. Our chosen path took us deep into the canyon, some 1,000 metres lower in altitude to a place named Sangalle - the maps and the locals refer to it as, “Oasis”. It was an apt name. Not only is it a small patch of green in the arid canyon but all of the places to stay have swimming pools. We checked into a cabin that had no floor (just dirt), no windows (just fly screens), no bathroom, no shower and no electricity. At S/.10 ($4.00) each what did we expect? The swimming pool was worth the accommodation price alone. They also had freo cervesa. It was one of the best swim and beer combinations I have ever had - even without our costumes (but not nude!) as we had discovered that we must have left them out to dry in the jungle in Bolivia! The walk back early the next morning was a challenge but our early start meant that we missed most of the heat. All in all, the Colca trip whilst short and with bus trips that were truly painful, was fantastic.
On our return to Arequipa, we hooked up
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3m wing span... Condor in full flight. with our favourite bus company Cruz del Sur for our free ride to Nasca. Our plan was to simply turn up at Nasca airport and negotiate a flight over the “Nasca Lines” that morning even though our Lonely Planet guide said to book well in advance. We had become quite the daring travellers! The ensuing result couldn’t have been better but our plan didn’t exactly work out. We were told not to stay in Nasca as it has very little to offer other than the Lines. So we bused in at 7am, hopped a cab to what we thought was going to be the airport. The cunning commission seeking cabbie takes us to an airline company and we then get the big sell from a sales girl. Her pricing was what we had been told is fair and she also offered a hot shower first and a flight within 2 hours. It turned out to be perfect for us as we wouldn’t have to stay a night. After cleaning ourselves up we were driven to the airport and taken immediately to an awaiting flight. It was just us........... and 10 Japanese tourists! Ahh Konichiwa! The guide spoke Spanish and English
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Lucky us...this is about as close as you could expect to get to a wild Condor! but mostly Japanese... funny stuff. Our fellow passengers went absolutely photo crazy for about 40mins. Our tour actually took us over 15 lines instead of the usual 12 so our plan whilst slightly diverted, came with added bonuses. Thanks Japan! The airline company even paid for our cab back to the bus station.
If you’re unsure of what the Nasca Lines are...Google it and also check out my favourite photos below. But basically they are huge geoglyphs and lines on the ground depicting animals and shapes like a whale, monkey, dog, birds etc that can only be viewed from the air. It is predicted that the Nascans created them before the birth of Christ and they have stood the test of time just so us tourists can fly over them. It is astounding to see that some of the figures have car tracks through them but hey, that's South America for you! They are truly amazing but I could be persuaded in to being sceptical. Anyway, good fun and a good way to break up our journey to Ica.
Amazingly our entire Nasca experience had taken only a mere 3 hours. We headed north and arrived in Ica
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Traditional dress in Cabanaconde including the unique embroidered hats. 2 hours later- the perfect amount of time for the local bus to show us and the children on board a movie with torturous violence and nudity. Is it just me or is there something wrong with that? The bus cost us $3.00. Just nice.
Ica is fairly boring to be honest but it did have a big western style shopping centre with a new Billabong store. New board shorts...check. New bikini...check. We haled a motorised rickshaw which took us 5 mins east to Huacachina. Huacachina is a lagoon oasis nestled amongst super duper high sand dunes. The photos below won’t do the place justice but I can tell you that walking up the dunes is a ludicrous excursion, one which naturally we decided to tackle. We also went dune buggy riding and sand boarding which was fun in a really dangerous, hold on for dear life kind of way. The rest of our time was spent relaxing by the pool in our hostel. 3 days later with batteries re-energised, we moved on to the capital of Peru, Lima.
But that another blog. Until then people......
Oh... thanks to all of you who have sent complimentary emails
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Boarding our flight to Japan... I mean... to see the Nasca Lines. regarding my hair and facial growth. They have given me the strength and will power to stay away from a hair salon for just a little longer. Cheers.
I'll leave you now with the latest instalment of "You know you're in Peru when...."
• The petrol stations are like palaces - oil rules the world people!
• People have absolutely zero consideration for personal space... it can get very smelly on buses!
• At the press of a button taxis can activate their car alarm siren. This is generally used to alert
pedestrians, potential passengers and other traffic of their pending approach.
• The vast population drink orange Fanta.
• You can buy knitted finger puppets from 10 year old kids at 10pm at night.
• You can walk up to a total stranger on a street corner and use their mobile phone to make a call. OK so it seemed that way until I realised that the “strangers” held a bright green lanyard or ribbon which supposedly indicates that they are selling phone usage.
• You see a car’s registration number not only on plates (front and back like at home)
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Seat belt? Check! Safety announcement... still waiting! but also painted up to 4 times in other places on the body. Why?
• Bar “happy hours” are totally random, like from 7pm to 9pm and then again from 10:30pm to 11pm. Huh?
• A juice store can be called Yajuu and get away with the obvious ripping off of a large corporation’s name trademark.....if you understand a little Spanish you will get this one. Yajuu in Spanish is pronounced Yahoo! And the way the store writes the name is with the identical font and colour to the website Yahoo...how do they get away with it? Further, their biggest burger is called...wait for it...a “Big Max”...how do they get away with it? Because they are in Peru people!
Adios
Ryan
P.S. Here’s some vital ongoing travel statistics to enlighten you further:
• No. of countries visited since leaving Aus: 7
• Cheapest beer to date (calculated on 100mL conversion): $1.30
• No. of hours spent on public transport (inc. taxis) in SA: 65
• Cheapest room (double room shared bathroom, breakfast included): $8.33 each per night
• Cheapest dinner meal: $3.00 (meat, salad, fresh OJ, bottle water, coconut
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Nasca Lines - My favourite, the Hummingbird geolyph. and toffy coated strawberries on a stick)
• Cheapest meal: $1.00 - 2 saltenas (pastry thing with meat in it - similar to a pie)
• Highest altitude reached: 5,000m
• Distance travelled in SA: 4,765kms
• No. modes on transport used: 19 (foot, jet plane, bicycle, boat, motorcycle taxi, taxi, taxi-bus, coach, ute back, car, 4wd, mini-bus, crawling, ferry, truck, motorised rickshaw, dune buggy, sand board, propeller plane)
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Niki
non-member comment
Nunning it up! Love it - sounds like the trip is just getting better and better!