Arequipa

A 4 hr transfer from the Colca Canyon brought us to Arequipa, known as the ‘white city’ as nearly all of the central area is built from the local volcanic stone, sillar. We’ve had three nights here, at a nice hotel about 15-20 mins walk from the main square allowing it larger grounds and a lovely swimming pool area which we have enjoyed at breakfast time and each afternoon. Arequipa is still at 2,300m - coincidentally the height of one our usual ski haunts in Val Thorens - but this is 1,100m down from the Colca Canyon and feels positively tropical, with lovely sunshine and a daytime temperature around 25C.

Looking back, our stay here appears to have had a rather religious bent to it! The main sites are the Monasterio de Santa Catalina and the Cathedral. The monastery (rather confusingly it was, and still is, home to Dominican nuns) is stunning. It is a city within a city, with a thick, high external wall, it’s own streets etc. Aspiring nuns plainly needed to be wealthy, because they were required to present a ‘dowry’ on admission and to pay for the building of their own cell. They lived in relative comfort, with the usual configuration of each cell comprising a bedroom cum living room, a kitchen, an area for washing and laundry, a roof terrace and often a small courtyard garden. The building material is the white sillar stone again, but here it is vividly painted in ochre and indigo. Flowers everywhere. Lots and lots of photos, because it was so unusual and so beautiful - a small selection below.

After 2 hours wandering, time for a coffee - Arequipa is full of good spots but this one, close to the monastery and similarly decorated, hit the spot.

Our second visit of the day took us to a small museum which houses the body of Juanita, a 12-year old girl sacrificed by the Inca in the 15th century at the top of a 6,000m mountain called Ampato, and preserved in ice until her discovery in the 1990s. A guided tour begins with a video showing how she was discovered. Various galleries then display the outer burial cloths, head dresses, offerings etc associated with this body and others discovered (all above 5,000m) before presenting Juanita herself. She sits in a glass freezer. Apparently, the sacrificial procession would have started in Cusco and she would have had to walk 580km and climb all the way to the top of the mountain. Scientists have discovered from her hair that her diet had been exclusively vegetarian until about a year before she died, and meat was then introduced to give her enough strength for the journey. They also found chicha beer (made from fermented corn) frozen in her stomach, suggesting that - through a combination of exhaustion and alcohol - she was out for the count by the time the priests banged her on the head. All very interesting, but very sad and a little macabre.

This morning, Thursday, across town to the Convento de la Recoleta. In similar vein to my comments about the Santa Catalina monastery, despite being called a convent, this was home to a community of Franciscan monks! Whilst the church is still in use, the other convent buildings have been repurposed as a small museum with a rather eclectic selection of items, seemingly largely private collections donated to the museum. The highlight was a library with an interesting selection of items on display. More beautiful, peaceful cloisters to admire as well.

Then on to the Cathedral. This is visited by a guided tour, but in small groups. We had two Peruvians for company, and our guide expertly segued from Spanish into English and back again throughout the tour. It’s much less heavily decorated than most of the churches we’ve seen and all the better for it. It has a famous organ from Belgium, and the views from the roof tops up to the volcanoes which surround the city and across the Plaza de Armas are wonderful. The facade of the cathedral, which you can see in early evening light in the first photo below, is actually the south side with the cathedral running east/west behind. It’s really hard to photograph because it’s so long!

Off to Lima early tomorrow morning for our final two nights.