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Published: February 10th 2016
After getting out of Puno, taking an overnight bus, and landing in Arequipa at the wonderful hour of 4:30 in the morning, I managed to get a cab to my hotel. I woke up the receptionist at the hotel but he was cool. The room I had booked was not ready, but if I wanted an upgraded room for $20 more a night, it was available. Yep! And it was totally worth the splurge. I took a nice long shower, took a nap, and just enjoyed my smart move. The I took the next few days to take it fairly easy, but I still did a lot and so have separated them as below.
Plaza de Armas My hotel is located very close to the main plaza and cathedral, amongst other places. To get to the plaza, you walk along a pedestrian only shopping street which was perfect. Then you walk into the main plaza and see the giant white cathedral, which is the only one in Peru that takes up the entire length of a plaza. This place is hopping at all times. And, of course since this is Peru, there were people trying to sell you things
Santa Catalina Monastery
Currently, about 20 nuns still reside here, but not in areas available to publicconstantly. I walked into the open cathedral and looked around. There is only a limited depth you can go in and yeah, it was big and impressive, but not much else you can say since you can only view it from afar. The coolest thing to me is that you could see the huge volcano, Mount Misti, rising up behind the cathedral. I never could get a good photo of this view from the Plaza though!
Santa Catalina Monastery Just one block from my hotel is the giant, sprawling Santa Catalina Monastery. This was established in 1579 as a dominican nunnery for the upper class widows and daughters of prominent families, started by Maria de Guzman. Each of the living quarters has a seating area, bed, outdoor kitchen and patio, with a door to the internal streets. The women were required to provide dowries and bring a certain number of items; one of the things displayed was one of the first pianos brought to South America. They also had servants. In the mid 19th century, the pope sent a representative nun to clean up the nunnery, so then more opportunities were provided; the servants were freed and given
Santa Catalina Monastery
view from above, with the elusive Mt Misti in the background, covered by clouds as usual the option of remaining or leaving, lower class girls were permitted to enter, larger communal areas were created, etc.
The monastery was heavily damaged by earthquakes in the 1960's, and restoration is ongoing. You will see from many photos that there are stairs that seemingly go to nowhere. Apparently, there used to be a second floor which was the most damaged from the earthquakes.
The overall monastery itself was pretty impressive. The walls were painted in bright colors, there was lots of greenery, you could go into so many different rooms to see what life might have been like. It was definitely worth a visit.
Museo Santuarios Andinos This is one of the places that I wanted to visit, because we all know I am morbid. I have to say that I was overwhelmed by it - I got my own private tour with an English guide and maybe that contributed to it. To keep the temperatures down, the rooms are all very dark, which also contributes to the this kind of isolated feeling. And of course, no pictures allowed.
To get started, you are seated in a large room to watch a twenty minute
Santa Catalina Monastery
Each tenant had their own patio video about the discovery of Juanita, the Ice Maiden. In the mid-1990's, per the request of a local climber (Miguel Zarate), American archaeologist and mountaineer, Johan Reinhard, put together a team to climb Mount Ampato, a local volcano and the highest in the area. Miguel had found some pieces that suggested a burial site a few years before and wanted Reinhard's expertise. Due to the eruptions of nearby Mount Sabancaya, one of three volcanoes adjacent to each other, the ice on Mt Ampato had melted and sent Juanita's 500-year-old remains down the side of the mountain. She was recovered mostly intact except for her face which was exposed to the elements. You could see pictures taken soon after her recovery which showed intact skin and the color of it, her teeth were intact, her hair was still intact. Pretty amazing.
Some of the items on display included pieces that were included in various kids graves. Along with Juanita, many other kids' graves were discovered on these three mountains as well as others throughout the region. The children were sacrificed to the gods, most likely fearing volcanic eruptions. If there were eruptions or other natural disasters, more children would be
sacrificed; there was one spot where two graves with six children each were uncovered! The children were carefully selected and had to be beautiful or perfect. They then walked the long distance from Cuzco; in Juanita's case, she walked about 150 miles over weeks. The children were given alcoholic drinks, which may have made it easier to meet their deaths, which usually came as a strong blow to the head. While their deaths were barbaric, the incas truly revered their sacrifices and they became almost like gods themselves. It was a great honor.
Juanita was not available to be viewed as she was currently in the lab. However, another girl was on display having been discovered on the volcano Chanchani. I almost didn't even want to look but I did. She was housed in a small glass cooler and was tinier than I thought she would be, seated in the lotus position; my guide said she was approximately 17 years old at the time of her death. It was very sobering.
Colca Canyon Tour - Day 1 I definitely wanted to visit Colca Canyon while I was in Arequipa, but the locations of tour companies was not
Colca Canyon tour
bus breakdown after having been 90 minutes late... as prevalent as I had seen so far in Peru. I knew they were there, but honestly, I really should have asked my hotel. Instead, I went into a small tourist company off the Plaza and booked an overnight tour for the next two days. I was to be picked up between 7:30 and 8:00 am, however, after multiple unanswered calls from my hotel, a failed visit attempt and more unanswered calls, my bus finally showed up at 9am - I was the last on the bus. The funny thing was, I had just one seat to choose and it turned out to be next to Alfredo, my Uruguayan friend from the Lake Titicaca tour. Small world. I was probably the only English speaker on the bus, but apparently I was doing fine and so the entire tour was conducted in Spanish, which helped me practice, but it was a lot of concentration.
I was a bit grouchy after the late pickup but tried to enjoy the ride. The scenery was breathtaking, but we kept getting passed up by so many cars and it seemed like the more we climbed, the slower we got. Until finally, we stopped at
Colca Canyon tour
Vicuna reserve. We saw so many! a turnoff on the side of the road where our tour guide told us that our bus could not continue and we had to wait an hour for another bus. Ugh!!!! There was nothing, nothing, nearby, so I walked into the desert, took some photos, and yes, I peed behind a cactus. Then I found a rock and sat down to read my kindle. After about 40 minutes, the guide found me and said the bus was fixed and we were moving. Whatever.
Our first real stop was some Inca Mate village thing. Basically it was a bathroom break, but it was really a stop to buy local handicrafts - this is what we saw every single time we stopped. It did have a good view of multiple volcanos in the distance, including the elusive Mount Misti. Next stop was the Vicuña reserve: Reserva Nacional Salinas y Aguada Blanca. The volcanos Misti and Chachani are also included in the reserve, including other animals such as the vicuñas which are a potential ancestor of the alpaca and cousin of the llama. As soon as we passed the sign to enter the park, I thought I could relax as surely there
wouldn't be anything to see right away. I was wrong. Literally 500m there was a herd of six vicuñas just crossing the road. So we stopped and took some photos of the cute things. We saw so many more the rest of the way, particularly the next 20km. Our next stop, within the preserve was a kind of wetland area, where we saw some birds and alpacas in the background. So nice.
Our next stop was at the highest point of the ride, Mirador de los Volcanes, a lookout point where you could see multiple volcanoes in various directions. The pass itself is at 4910m, which is a whopping 16,109 ft. I felt bad for one of the boys in my group as he had started puking at the previous stop and he didn't look too good. I was surprisingly doing fine. I'm very happy with my altitude performance. The volcanoes in the distance included El Misti (5822m), Ubinas (5675m), Chachani (6075m), Ampato (6310m), Sabancaya (5976m), Huaca Huaca (6025m), Mismi (5597m), and Chuchura (5360m).
After this, the way was down, to the village of Chivay where we had a late lunch and were to stay the night. The
lunch was not included and was a buffet, which was a whopping 28 soles (~$10). We then went to our hostel in town and I got a private room with a private bathroom and no towel. Whatever. I took a little nap while some of the other groups went to the hot springs
(side note: I enjoyed the springs at Santa Theresa during my jungle trek but was less than impressed with those at Aguas Calientes, so I decided not to go). At 7:30pm, we went to our dinner with our "included" folk show performance. They selected me to dance with them soon after I sat down. Embarrassed, I did so - I probably should have had a glass of wine first! We had some options tonight, including a tourist menu which was just too much after that big buffet. So I ordered spaghetti with pesto sauce. Gag - it was like canned pesto sauce smothering the pasta. I probably ate half. The show was fun, with multiple dances that mostly told a story of working in the fields, but of course it isn't really free - we need to tip them. I was happy to for the most part;
Folk dancing
I was requested to dance with these guys as soon as I sat to dinner. I just don't like being made to feel like I have to.
Colca Canyon Tour - Day 2 Everyone was woken at multiple times during the night with a band marching down the streets through town. Seriously, don't people ever sleep in this country?? Apparently, it's "Carnival" and if the band comes to your door, you have to join, so it was one long party, that still was going when we left. We were supposed to have breakfast included with our tour. Do you know what it was? It was bread, a cup of juice and a hot beverage of your choice. No joke. Fortunately, I had packed an avocado and enjoyed that with my bread and shared it with another table. Ridiculous.
Our first stop was the town of Yanque. Yet another town with a main plaza and church and people selling stuff. Kids were dancing around in custom clothes and there were various stalls selling things. I got a photo holding some kind of giant bird. It's not a condor, but I think that is what they try to tell people. He was large, but way lighter than I thought.
Then we took a
Giant bird!
His claws dug into me but he was much lighter than I thought road to the other side of the river and it turns out we were heading to our driver's hometown of Lari. I really liked this because the roads were so pleasant and when we got into town, there was no one trying to sell us anything. At first I was like, what are we supposed to do. But then a man came and opened the cathedral, which is the largest in the valley, and showed us around. It was such a nice, spur-of-the-moment tour. The cathedral is quite lovely and one thing I really liked about it was that it was lit by natural light. What also impressed me was a display near the front that showed the massive renovations in progress - this thing was in terrible condition and they have slowly brought it back, so I left them a nice donation. Gladly!
We continued to drive along the back roads, with me often wondering if we were going to be able to make it through sometimes. But then we crossed the river again and eventually got back to the main road, which was a dirt road, by the way. We entered Colca Canyon park, and as an
American, I had to pay 70 soles, while everyone else paid 40 soles or less, depending on their nationality. We drove by some impressive views, and ended up at a lookout point where we were to remain for an hour. I found a few different vantage points and wound up sitting near the ledge about halfway through. While there, I heard a few gasps and suddenly, out of nowhere, two GIANT condors flew up from below the ledge. Literally about 15 feet from me! It scared me and amazed me at the same time. I could not believe how huge these things are! They flew around for a few minutes before separating. One returned a little later and flew around some more before leaving for good. Definitely worth it.
And then it was time to go. Wait, go back to Arequipa. Whaaaaat? I just paid 70 soles and we leave!??!?! Not to mention, I was told that the canyon was supposed to be twice as deep as the Grand Canyon and I did not get that impression. Maybe, maybe if you took the mountain in the distance into account… But you're supposed to see the deepest part a little
more to the west. Plus there is supposed to be a huge waterfall to our west in between. It says so on the map that I paid 70 soles for! But nope that was it. I was livid.
And of course we stop at another lookout point on the way back where half a dozen women are selling things. Then the next stop is the town of Maca, yet another town with a place, church, and lots of handicrafts. I was just so irritated at this point. Couldn't we cut out these stupid money traps and spend more time in the canyon instead? The canyon tour I selected? The canyon park ticket I paid for? Unbelievable. Then we had lunch at another stupid buffet for another stupid 28 soles. I made sure I stuffed my face and my Uruguayan friend paid for it, saying that he felt bad I had to pay so much for my park entrance ticket.
The only thing I really enjoyed about the drive back was all the different animals out at this time of day. We almost hit donkeys, cows, horses, alpacas, llamas, dogs… It was hilarious. Then we went through a couple
of tunnels, including a long one where our driver (who was really growing on me) turned off the lights to freak us out. We stopped at the same bathroom break spot as the previous day and enjoyed thunderstorms encroaching from all the surrounding volcanoes; of course, I was in heaven - well, as long as I didn't think about the money wasted on this tour.
Seriously, I do not recommend Qoriland Travel. I do recommend to make use of your hotel and make sure whatever tour you do choose does what you are looking for.
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Andrea
Great blog and pictures! Thank you for allowing me to reminisce my travels a while back to Arequipa and Colca, and Puno.