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Published: October 30th 2007
Almost from the beginning I was in love with Peru. It might have simply been leaving the endless desert that had me so excited but as I moved from Arica in Chile to Arequipa (a six hour affair) it seemed the country was just brighter, happier, more friendly than Chile. The exciting and fast-paced flight through the Tacna bus station trying to get tickets and board the soon-departing bus to Arequipa led by a loco local seemed to set the tempo for what was to come. Festivals in the White City, floating villages, and a friendly family who possibly saved my life are places and stories that will stay with me and now I'll begin to relate them and others to you:
As I mentioned, I began my adventures in Peru on a bus. The adventures that occurred since the last blog began slightly before that in the bus station in Arica. Finally feeling mostly better from my sickness that had kept me delayed, I was ready to move on and went to the bus station to look for a taxi where after a few random conversations I located and moved on, taking with me a new gringo friend, Gordon,
who is a very interesting Canadian that teaches kids in the United Arab Emirates. We moved through the border without problems although it took a little haggling to get the passport of Gordon's stuffed bear stamped (The bear travels everywhere with him, has a passport, and gets to star in really cool photos all over the world). The border successfully crossed, however, we quickly arrived in Tacna where we were instantly bombarded with new opportunities for travel and decided to follow one particularly enthusiastic Peruvian to his bus which we got to right before it left, after exchanging money and paying weird and minuscule traveling tax.
We arrived in our destination in the early evening. Arequipa, also known as the Ciudad Blanco (white city) because of its architectures heavy use of
sillar, a white volcanic rock very common in the area, was dazzling. The Plaza de Armas (read, city square) was stunning, with a giant park area in the middle surrounded by gorgeous white buildings all with open patios on the second floor. Gordon and I went out to eat one of the balconies and had an excellent dinner, I had alpaca with herbs which was great. After
Mas del Monasterio Santa Catalina
More of the Santa Catalina Monasterythat we retired to our hostel and prepared for the next day.
When we woke up we had free breakfast which wasn’t much, basically bread, jam and tea. I went off alone to explore the city and as I remember spent most of the day walking around familiarizing myself with the area. During my exploring I managed to visit the Museo Santury where I got to ‘meet’ Juanita, the Ice Maiden, another mummy. Juanita is five to six hundred years old and was sacrificed in the mountains (the Ampato mountain to be exact) in Peru by the Incas to appease the mountain gods. Her body is now kept in cold temperature all the time in a small museum dedicated to her in Arequipa.
I also visited the Santa Catalina monastery, a large complex founded by nuns in 1580. According to outside sources, the monastery had a racy history as the nuns, drafted from the daughters of the Spanish elite, tended to continue their lavish lifestyles by throwing parties and having servants. This lasted for quite some time until 1871 when Pope Pius IX sent a strict Dominican nun to reform, although you never would know any of this
by just visiting (unless maybe you used a guide which I didn't). The monastery now is very simply decorated in most buildings and almost composes a city within a city as little alleys lead to different sections of the complex, most of which are available to the public. The monastery also has a very nice collection of original artwork, all made by nuns over the monastery's history.
During this day, Gordon and I also decided to take a trip to the nearby Colca Canyon, one of the deepest canyons in the world. We signed up for a three day tour which left the following day at 5:00 in the morning.
What a beginning.
We were awake and ready to go at 4:45 but as 5:30 approached we began to worry. After a couple unsuccessful phone calls trying to contact the agency, our guide, a generally laid back guy named who went by the nickname Mystico, arrived in a frenzy and quickly got us int the taxi and flying off towards the bus station so we could catch our bus towards Chivay. Apparently the taxi he had originally reserved was a no show and he had a heck
of a time trying to get another taxi that would take him outside of the city to where the third member of our tour, William from Belgium, was staying. William had been picked up though so off we were to the bus station where we arrived and found out we were late! We literally watched the bus pull out of the station, but this wasn't enough to stop our guide. Next thing you know we were all sprinting after the bus but he wouldn't stop so we found a taxi and began a high-speed chase to flag the bus down. It took us about twenty minutes to pass enough cars to catch him but since the road only goes one place we made it eventually, got the bus to stop, and triumphantly boarded. We were now very well awake and began our introductions. Then we just hung out talking, or sleeping, until we arrived at Chivay, where we only spent about ten minutes to buy some snacks and switch buses. Then we were off further to Cabanaconde where the adventure we signed up for began.
We had lunch in Cabanaconde and then began hiking down the very steep canyon.
The hike down wasn't too bad although we went at only a moderate pace to keep from falling. We saw condors and were passed by a few locals taking their weekly trip up the canyon to take care of various forms of business (or school, imagine climbing out of the world's deepest canyon to go to school! Generally they spend the weekends with their families and stay in the city during the week in order to keep up). A few other tourists were going down or up also but for the most part we had the trail to ourselves. Then, after arriving at the bottom and eating at the river the passes through the bottom of the canyon, we started back up, but on the other side. We didn't have to go very far though. It was maybe an hour before we arrived to the first village which was very cool to walk through. We walked upwards through a tiny path which followed a little stream and got to see how the villagers divert the water coming from above to different areas where they are growing their food. The whole area felt like stepping back in time, and this is
Un Mujer y Su Hija
A Lady and Her Daughter almost true as the lives of the people here is has largely been untouched. Electricity just came to one of the villages a few years ago and the others still don't have it. They basically grow or make whatever they need and if anything else is wanted beyond that they have to carry it down. Yet still they have a church : ).
So, after passing through the first little village we shortly arrived at the second where we would be staying the night. We got a room together and had food prepared for us by one of the local ladies who knew Mystico (who seemed to know all the local ladies everywhere), and after a delicious meal we hung out for a bit and then got ready to go to bed, we were tired! But before going to sleep I stayed outside for a while just to look at the stars which were more amazing here than anywhere else I have ever seen them. Wow, indescribable. So I won't try.
The next morning we had breakfast and then prepared to move on. Our next destination was a nice grassy area with a pool known as the Oasis.
Cruz del Condor
Condor Crossing On the way, Mystic showed us the uses of some different plants including one that they use for dye and another for string to make clothes. We also got to try some strange plant that I can hardly describe except it was like a big pea pod and had a delicious white pulpy interior which had a sticky wet cottony texture that I loved. I don't know what it was but it was good.
When we arrived at the oasis, we had a few hours to kill before tackling the canyon upwards so we swam some and all us ended up pulling out a book. This was very very relaxing with incredible scenery. I was reading John Steinbeck's East of Eden at the time (which is amazing) and thoroughly enjoyed the morning.
Come 2:00, though, it was time to move on. But we didn't want to. Gordon and William ended up going on ahead while Mystico and I stuck around to play an informal game of 5v5 soccer. My team won we earned a giant bottle of water (six liters maybe?) which was gone almost immediately. I managed to brilliantly hurt my ankle during the game though (it
wasn't exactly flat everywhere and there were even a couple holes, one of which I found with said ankle) so walking up turned out to be hellishly exhausting. So exhausting that with my ankle and still being sick (a horrible part of this excursion which I'll give no more words to) I ended up hitching a ride on a mule about half way up to save myself the trouble. I wimped out but oh well : )
Arriving back in Cabanaconde through the irrigated fields in twilight, we had dinner, all showered, and called in for another early night. This was because, once again, we had to wake up very early in the morning. The next day, after all, was when we would get to see the mighty Andean condor, the largest flying bird in the Western Hemisphere. These amazing birds are well-adored in South America and is a national symbol in Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, Colombia, and Ecuador. A scavenger, these birds ride thermals and find prey with their incredible eyesight. They ride the thermals so well that often they only need to flap their wings once an hour to remain flying, and the best place in the
world to see them is in the Colca Canyon. Lucky me.
We reached Cruz del Condor very early in the morning but I could hardly say we hit the crowds. There were so many tourists there! Mostly from Arequipa but there were at least a couple hundred, all with cameras trying to take pictures of the mighty condor. I managed to squeeze in and find a good place and we spent a good hour oooing and aaahing over the birds as they passed by and trying to take perfect pictures. Then we ran ahead back down the road toward Cabanaconde a few hundred meters and flagged down a bus (ie stood in front of it and hoped it would stop) in order to beat the crowds in finding a place to sit. The bus driver wasn't happy but it worked. Next we returned to Chivay where we had lunch with some other tour groups and listened to an incredible live performance of Andean music. I bought a CD from them before we moved on to some hot springs to waste the rest of the day away before returning home.
The next day, August 15th, I was lucky enough
to be in Arequipa during its annual birthday celebration (the Arequipenas are very proud of Arequipa) and spent the entire day watching parades while slowly burning (a girl from other side of the street ran across during a lull in the parade to give me a sun umbrella, apparently my suffering was apparent). The parades began around eleven and I had awoken up around nine to go find a good place to sit which I eventually found, paying a few soles for a front row seat. It was great. The parade went on literally the entire day and into the night. Men, women, girls, boys all paraded by in traditional outfits with lots of music and even more dancing. The front row seat turned out to give me a few surprises though. The parade is entirely interactive and I was pulled out into the street several times to join in with the dancing. I can honestly say that I learned the official dance and song of Arequipa before the day was over. They LOVE this song, about every other dancing group/band that passed by was playing it and dancing to it and I even heard it several times in the club the night before, just remixed. The following day I spent preparing to move onwards, charting out plans. Also a friend of mine took me to church that's on a hill outside the city, from the top of which there's an excellent panorama view of Arequipa and the mountains behind it.
And here I'll cut it off so I can say I posted something at least, next is Lake Titicaca and Cuzco/Machu Pichu will follow. Cheers!
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Heather
non-member comment
Wow!
That sounds really amazing, Brian! I:ve always wanted to visit Peru myself - hopefully someday! But... I can:t believe you at Alpaca... they:re so cute! Take care, and Happy Thanksgiving from Japan! Heather