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Published: September 15th 2007
A peruvian woman having a moment with the mountains
....before trying to flog her wares to the passing tourists in the Colca ValleyWe have become somewhat attached to a little city in southern Peru called Arequipa. It´s actually the second largest city in Peru, after the smoggy, loud, congested, capital, Lima, and its often called the white city, because most of its buildings are made from a white volcanic stone. Arequipa is surrounded by 3 massive mountains which puncuate the skyline évery way you look.
The city itself is really beautiful. The main plaza (square) is dominated by a massive white cathedral and then surrounded on all sides by dramatically carved white archways under which you find various shops selling alpaca apparel as well as lovely cafes and restaurants offering special menus of the day and Peru´s famous cocktail, the pisco sour. Many restaurants are located on the top floor and overlook the gorgeous tree-filled, pigeon-filled, people-filled plaza. We´ve found many cool bars and restaurants which we´ve frequented quite often, including an amazing mexican restaurant called Tacos and Tequila. The weather in Arequipa is also a massive drawcard. We´ve been enjoying clear blue skies, warm sunny days and temperatures of at least 25 degrees every day since we arrived.
After exploring the city for a day or two, and
sampling our share of pisco sours, Sarah and I bravely signed up for a 3 day trek down to the bottom of one of the deepest canyons in the world, the Colca Canyon. There is one canyon deeper than Cola, the Cotahuasi, which is located just northwest of Colca and is a measly 300m deeper. At 10,725 ft deep, that´s 3,269m, Colca is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the states.
Our trek began with a 6am bus ride to Chivay, then onto Cabanaconde, 2 villages in the Colca Valley. The Colca Valley is a colorful Andean region with towns founded in Spanish colonial days and formerly inhabited by the Collaguas and the Cabanas. The local people still maintain ancestral traditions and continue to cultivate the pre-Inca stepped terraces. By the time we arrive in Cabanaconde, its noon and we are given some lunch before we commence the walk.
Day one is mostly downhill but its not quite as easy as it sounds. Around 8kms stepping carefully down rocky, dusty paths soon takes its toll on your knees and in the afternoon sun, it was quite tiring. The views of the immense
mountains slowly climbing higher and higher around us as we descended, were magnificent. Our spirited guide Jose gave us some coca leaves to chew on to help us deal with the altitude. You dont actually chew on the dry, strongly flavoured leaves, you just kind of crunch them up a little bit and then stick the wad in the side of your mouth and suck on it from time to time, getting a little hit of what tastes like strong, sour green tea. If you´re lucky and the leaves are good, your mouth might go a little numb. I felt kinda tough having this chunky wad of coca leaves in my mouth all day. Anyway, we finally reached a bridge and crossed the gorgeous Colca River before having a short climb uphill to our lodge where we would stay for the night. It was in such a picturesque location and after a well deserved shower we sat back and admired the view. Our guide cooked us dinner (well, got the ladies in the village to cook it for us) and then taught us a fun new card game that we named Nervous Jose. There was no electricity in the village
so this was all by romantic candle light.
Day 2 was our favourite. Walking mostly on level ground we travelled through various villages deep in the canyon where only the very old and very young remain. We learnt about the various crops grown there, mostly fruit trees and cacti which are used to harvest tiny little bugs which are then sold for their bright red blood, used to colour lipsticks, clothing and various other things we didnt want to think about. We walked along channels the villagers created to direct water from the mountains down into their gardens, saw a beautiful old church and several intriguing peruvians and basically enjoyed the majestic scenery. After about 3 hours of walking in the hot sun, we descended to the very bottom of the canyon to The Oasis where we would stay for the night. This lodge was like a paradise and we jumped in the natural pool fed by water straight from the mountains immediately upon arrival. The rest of the afternon was spent listening to music, chilling by the pool, reading, relaxing and amping ourselves up for the big walk uphill the next morning.
Day 3. Arise
at 2.30 am to begin our 8km ascent. It was pretty tough going, all uphill along steep, rocky paths. I wondered several times whether my legs would hold out for the 3-4 hours and as we got higher and higher the air became thinner and thinner and it grew colder and colder. Thankfully an entreprenual young Peruvian lady had set up a small shop (well, a rug on a few rocks with some bananas and chocolate bars) about 3/4 the way up. Here we sipped a hot cup of coca tea to warm us up and give us that little bit of extra energy we needed to reach the top. Around 6am, just as the sun was starting to shed light over the canyon, we took our final steps up hill and rejoiced at our achievement. We made it and were so bloody proud. The rest of the day was spent travelling back to Arequipa where we had a shower and totally crashed out after a mega rewarding experience.
More sightseeing awaited in Arequipa though, so the following day we visited the Santa Catalina Monastery which operated in relative secrecy for about 300 years, until 1970, when it
was opend up to the public. Once a location where only the extremely wealthy could afford to send their daughters to gain a religious upbringing, thinking that if their daughters became nuns, it would automatically grant the parents a spot in heaven, Santa Catalina is now a well developed international tourist attraction.
From the local brochures -
Ïn 1579, less than 40 years after the Spanish arrived in Arequipa, the Santa Catalina de Siena Convent was founded. Since its inception, it has served as a home to the religiously oriented daughters of Arequipas most dsitinguished families, who entered the convent to serve as cloistered nuns, never again to return to their homes. The 20,000 square metre convent remained completely cloistered until 1970 when, after being rebuilt from the ruins of several earthquakes, it was opened to the public. It is still the home of a congregation of cloistered Dominican nuns devoted to worship, prayer and projects in favour of the city´s poor. ¨
Apparently, Santa Catalina is the only monastery in the world that is a small city itself, located within the larger city of Arequipa. Now I dont know if I would call the monastery
a city, but it´s bloody huge inside with many differnt rooms and streets that were used for various activities such as living quarters, bathing, cooking and praying. There were also many lovely courtyards where the nuns could sit for an hour a day to converse with one another and take a little sun. It was a really interesting experience learning about the ways the monastery (or jail as sarah and i ended up referrring to it as) was run and seeing how they used to live.
We also visited an archaelogical museum which housed a disturbing and grotesque mummified young Inca maiden who was only discovered in 1995, frozen on the top of a mountain, by archaeologists. The story goes that this young chick was sacrificed to the gods many moons ago, and was mummified in the lovely peruvian way. Her name is Juanita and she is beautiful....!
We still didnt think we had spent enough time in Arequipa so we enrolled in a spanish school to take lessons for a week to improve our communication skills in this foreign land. We also arranged through them, a homestay with a peruvian family, who´s computer desk i
Arequipa´s Cathedral
originally built in 1540, many earthquakes from 1666-2001 afffected the building thus it´s been touched up many times currently sit at to write ths blog. Maria has become our second mum and we have thoroughly enjoyed staying in her lovely house with her young daughter Olga. Its so nice to be out of the hostel scene for a while and to have a mum to cook for us, teach us about Peruvian life and look after us (something i have needed these last few days as Ive developed a bad stomach infection thanks to some dodgy peruvian food).
Anyway, spanish classes are going ok. We study grammar for 2 hours in the mornng with Pepe, the slave driver, then spend another 2 hours with his wife, Malena practicing conversation which usually consists of me describing how handsome my enamorado back at home is and the various antics we have gotten up to on our travels. Its pretty challenging but after this week we will have learnt quite a bit more spanish and know the correct way to say things. By no means will we be fluent, or even good, but at least we will feel a bit more confident in our commmunications.
We have met some cool yankee chicks from North Carolina in our
hostel, Annick and Lara, and have proceeded to party with them on several occassions which has been a lot of fun. Jugs of homemade sangria, drinking games and the nightlife in arequipa all make a fine team.
Everything good must come to an end however, as we realise we still have sooo much ground to cover on this trip. On Saturday we head to Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca and then its onto Bolivia. While Í feel quite settled here and could easily stay in Arequipa for another few weeks, we must push on.
Stay tuned for what Im sure will be some incredíble Bolivian adventures.
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