Arequipa

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Hola!
We sped out of Puno faster than the Millenium Falcon and headed to the city of Arequipa. The city has a lot of old Spanish colonial buildings and is situated in the shadow of three mighty volcanoes. We also dropped a couple of kilometres in elevation so theres no need to chew on the controversial leaf of the Erythroxylum coca or to drink coca tea. The cocaine plant has a lot of medicinal qualities to it, easing the strain of altitude sickness is one of them.
One of the highlights was a visit to the Santa Catalina Convent, a Spanish-built building dating back to the 1500s.
Hasta Pronto.
T and D

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Photos

street vendor and customer
taken from the second level of our fancy bus to Arequipa from Puno

in the Monastery in Arequipa
The nuns here have been using the Monastery since the 1500s. There are a few left and they live in a smaller area where they are not seen during tourists visits to this city within a city.

corridors and pretty blues
in the Monastery

Oven for making bread
in the Monastery

Funeral room
for the nuns. What is creepy about this room is that the paintings were done of the nuns after they were dead. They all had their eyes closed.

in the infirmary
Theresa´s favourite part - all the latin names of the medicines were recognizable. Magnesium oxide is currently used in modern medicine as a supplement.

another bottle of fun
Syrup of Ipecac is the modern form of this bottle of fun (used to induce vomitting...mmmm)

just one more bottle...
Digitalis or Digoxin is the modern medicine used for heart arrythmias. Not much has changed since the 1500´s!

any idea on what this is?
We did a self guided tour through the monastery. This machine we were unable to figure out.

weight scale
for the nuns to weigh themselves?? not sure

A hair cut and shave
from the best barber in Arequipa. It´s true, he showed us the newspaper clipping!

clean cut Gringo
One of the boys in the Plaza de Armas in the next city thought he recognized Dave in a movie. Wow that barber WAS good!

our hostel room in Arequipa
we had an entire room to ourselves, private bathroom, TV for only 45 soles per night (around 10 dollars each). Muy barato! (very cheap)

common room in the hostel
It was actually a run down mansion from the Spanish times.

Road to Nazca from Arequipa
Desert conditions, lots of switchbacks and lots of rocks, no vegetation.

Volcan Chachani
or the Chachani Volcano - one of 3 of Arequipa´s volcanoes sitting at 6075 meters high.

El Misti Volcano
This is where archeologists found the "ice princess", an Incan princess who was sacrificed on its 5822 metre summit in the times of the Inca people. It was so cold up there that her body was well preserved. They continue to learn more about "Juanita" each year as she visits laboratories 4 months per year then goes on exhibit for the remainder of the year.

Fountain at the Plaza
Dave´s fancy camera work using slow shutter speed. This guy actually stayed still for the duration of the photo taking which was about 7 seconds. Fluke!

Blowing bubbles
at the Plaza de Armas in Arequipa (also known as the Plaza de "no gracias" due to the many people selling us things). The temperature was feeling close to 35 C and this is all we did for the afternoon.

Comments

[Mom-in-law]

wow
WOW, DAVE, you look beautiful, it sure changes a person when they shave off their beard, you are not regonizable, but you look handsome, you did before, but more now, Boy theresa, on your holiday, is that all you do blowing bubles, really cute, LOVE YOU GUYS MOM

[Jan]

Memories!
I remember that monastery! I remember those pigeons!! And that volcano. And the Nazca lines (and the little barf bag they gave me in that 6-seater plane). I'm re-living my 2004 trip through you. Keep the posts and photos coming. Safe travels! XOXO Jan

[John]

Amazing sites
Great pics making us feel like we are there too! Hope it is as fun as it looks and sounds!

[Ursula and Shane]

I know, I know!
Grape Press?

[Jeannie]

I was just checking the place where my daughter will be teaching soon and I saw your name come up. I am Jeannie from England with the Owl class from Ipswich. How strange. Well I'm in nursery this year and I showed the 4 year old some of your polar bear photos again. Glad to see you are travelling again. My daughter may email you for the name of a good hostel in Arequipa.Happy Travels. Jeannie

[Michael]

Haircut?
I wanna know where you got your hair cut. I'm Michael and I live in Arequipa.

[Crannster]

Hair cut...
I only know that it was on a pedestrianized street about a ten minute walk from the Plaza de Armas.