Blogs from Arequipa, Arequipa, Peru, South America - page 13

The Santa Catalina de Siena Convent is an important landmark in Arequipa. Known as 'the city within a city' it is a large complex, closed off from the city by high walls. It was founded in 1579, less than 40 years after the Spanish arrived in Arequipa. The founder of the monastery was a rich widow, Maria de Guzman. Since the tradition of the time was that the second daughter in a family should enter religious service the nuns were typically young girls from wealthy Spanish families. The parents of these girls paid a dowry for their daughters, much as they would if the girls were to be married. These dowries could be up to 2,400 silver coins and the nuns were also required to bring 25 listed items, including a statue, a painting, a lamp ... read more

Situada a 2.300 mts snm, una ciudad rodeada de volcanes. Donde el transito es un descontrol. La gente muy amable, conservan sus monumentos, su cultura. Hay iglesias por todos lados, motivo de la evangelización. Ciudad de historias, de cuentos en sus montañas, de tradiciones en sus pueblos como la fiesta del WITITI (Hacer el amor), se juntan en un pueblo que está en la montaña, toman mucha cerveza, los hombres se visten con polleras y sus caras tapadas para simular ser una mujer y poder escoger una mujer, sin que el padre de esta lo note, y luego WITITI, luego de 9 meses se ven las consecuencias de la fiesta. Tradición muy particular. El transito, para quien no está acostumbrado, puede pasar unos minutos en la vereda esperando cruzar la calle. Así es Arequipa, tan grande, ... read more

We last left you back in La Paz at the very start of the year. From there we jumped on a bus to Copacabana (of Lake Tititcaca fame, not the big waved, high bikinied Copacabana of Rio de Janeiro). The bus trip was pretty uneventful, although we did have to disembark at one point, and we all caught little wooden boats across a narrow section of the lake, whilst our bus caught a micro-barge which looked very unbalanced with our bus on, and ready to flip at any moment. After a slight delay caused by a young Aussie lad who left his passport in La Paz having a little trouble with the local constabulary we were back on our way and arrived at the very touristy lakeside town of Copacabana. We wandered around and were confused ... read more

¡Buenos dias! Mittlerweile sind wir in Arequipa angekommen. Eine wirklich wunderschoene Kolonialstadt, die im peruanischen Hochland auf ueber 2300 m liegt. Wunderschoen ist vor allem die Bergkulisse rund um Arequipa - besonders schoen der 5800 m (!) hohe Vulkan "Misti", dessen Kuppe schneebedeckt ist. Somit sind wir nun von Nazca, das an der Pazifikkueste liegt, nach 10-stuendiger Busfahrt gut in Arequipa angelangt. Zuvor in Nazca haben wir noch die Scharrbilder von Nazca besichtigt. Das ist wirklich mysterioes - Die Scharrbilder breiten sich ueber 20 km aus und haben die Form von geometrischen Mustern bzw. bilden Tiere, Pflanzen und Menschen ab. Bis heute kann sich keiner so wirklich erklaeren, wie diese Bilder so lange erhalten geblieben sind ohne durch Wind und Wetter zu verblassen. Wir haben uns somit von der Kueste Perus verabschiedet und werden den naechsten ... read more

We got into Arequipa late afternoon and immediately went for some food. Funny thing was that we ended up having some Peruvian Chinese food which was actually pretty good. The next day we walked around Arequipa and got to know the sites. We went to the Plaza de Armas which is beautiful at night and went to the Inka museum where Juanita The Ice Princess rests. She was a young girl who was sacrificed on the summit of a mountain next to a volcano and got frozen to the ground as time passed by. It is funny how she sits currently in the museum at below zero temperatures so that her body can be preserved in the awesome condition she is in today, makes you think about life. At the end of the day we catched ... read more