Arequipa, la Ciudad Blanca

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Hi everyone!

After the disconcerting start of our visit to Peru (being watched over VERY carefully by the tourist office rep & security guard in Tacna), we arrived in Arequipa. Arequipa is a large city (pop. over 1 million) teeming with tourists. It is nick-named "La Ciudad Blanca" ("The White City") because of the many colonial buildings constructed out of sillar, a white volcanic rock. It was quite picturesque and relaxing.

We had a couple unexciting days in town during which we caught up on laundry, email, and the like. We tried to have some traditional Peruvian food. However, other restaurants were easier to locate. So we ended up having Mexican (tacos, burritos), French (crêpes), Italian (pizza), and Chinese. Who would have thunk it? This place doesn´t quite feel like what we thought Peru would be like. We knew it would be touristy, but Arepuipa has a better selection of food than Argentina or Chile. And it is much cheaper.

After walking around town trying to see the surrounding volcanoes (several huge volcanoes form the backdrop to the city, but it took us a day and a half to see the famous El Misti because the buildings kept getting in the way), we decided to see a few sights. We visited the Santa Catalina Convent, which is one of the major sites in Arequipa. We hesitated because of the hefty entrance fee (we have quickly learned that despite many things in Peru being cheap, Peruvians have learned they can charge crazy amounts at tourist places because they known they can get us to pay it, and we do), but we are really glad we went. The convent dates from the XVI Century and is a mini walled town of over 2 ha in the middle of the city. The nuns used to live out their lives in near isolation within the walls of the convent. The convent is a maze of narrow cobbled streets, plazas, private and communal areas. At one point about 450 nuns where cloistered within the walls. Now, about 30 nuns and novices live in a small, modernized sector of the convent.

We also visited the Museo de Santuarios Andinos and learned a little about the Inca (or Inka?). The main reason to go to the museum is because it has Juanita, the most famous Inka mummy in the world (or something like that). According to our guide, the Incas revered the volcanic mountains as gods (Apus). Sometimes (volcanic eruption, drought, El Niño, etc.), the gods became unhappy and had to be appeased. This lead to offerings of young girls and boys. Juanita was a 12-14 year old girl that was found on top of Mount Ampato in the late 1990's. If you have the issue of National Geographic with the "Ice Mummies of Peru" article (from 2004?), you can read more about her.

Oh yeah, we are finally on our own again. After coming to Peru with Thomas, Dean and Tegan (the group we´ve been with for probably about 5 days), they continued on their separate ways.

We are now in Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca.

Hope everyone is well,
Ana & Ryan

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Photos

Taxis and Catedral
We saw very few private vehicles in Arequipa. Traffic was mostly taxis, taxis, and more taxis.

A courtyard and the church in Santa Catalina
The buildings of the convent were painted in traditional colors like melon, red, indigo blue, yellow, white.

El Misti above Arequipa
Elevation 5822m