Now it’s time my favorite part of our trip… Arequipa! If anyone wants to go to Peru I would recommend spending a few days in Cusco to see Machu Picchu, and then a week or so In Arequipa. There is so much to do and see – from museums to river rafting and everything in between. My only regret is that we didn’t know this when we planned the trip so we only spent about 4 days here.
After spending every night either in a hostel or riding on a bus we decided to get an actual hotel room. We got into town around 3:00PM and took a taxi to the main square. We found a great hotel called Sonesta Posada del Inca for about $70.00/night. If you feel like checking it out here is the link:
http://www.sonesta.com/arequipa/
In the last 3 days we hadn’t showered and had been on a bus for more than 24 hours so the first thing we did was clean up. Next we went out to dinner and had one of my favorite Peruvian dishes. I can’t remember the name but its layered mashed potatoes, avocadoes and chicken with some sort of sauce. We spent the rest of the night walking around the Plaza de Arms area.
Our hotel room in Arequipa.
The delicious potatoes/avocadoes/chicken dish.
The building our hotel was in.The next day we visited the Santa Catalina Monestary (http://www.santacatalina.org.pe/ ). This place is a photographers paradise. I loved how old it was. It had been restored to what it was like in the 1600’s. Each of the nuns had their own rooms with a clay oven. They slept in nooks built in the walls. Here are some photos:
This is the bank of windows where the nuns had their only contact to the outside world.
Ironically there was a group of nuns on a tour. Notice the 69 backpack? I bet she has no idea.
The monastery..
The next day we left for Colca Canyon. Contrary to popular believe the Grand Canyon is not the biggest canyon in the world. There are actually two canyons in Peru that are deeper then the GC and Colca Canyon is one of them. We didn’t really have a way of getting there so we booked a trip with a tour agency… which is kind of lame but it turned out to be good. We left early Sunday and started making the drive. On the way we drove through a National Reserve for Alpaca’s.
Alpacas at the preserve.
A cholita woman selling goods at one of the bus stops.We ate lunch and spent that night in a town called Chivay. We broke away from the tour group and ate lunch at this restaurant we found. During lunch, this dog walked in from the streets. The Owner shewed it out but it came back in and came right to our table and started begging for food. Although this was amusing it also made us lose our appetite. As we were packing up the dog walked back into the kitchen… let’s just hope the chicken was actually chicken.
The dog begging in the restaurant... and on the dinner menu.After lunch we were walking around town and came across this cholita woman. She looked pretty authentic so we asked to take her picture if we gave her a couple of soles. She said okay so I took the photo below. After we took the photos we gave her 2 soles and she looked at us and demanded 1 more. We got a laugh out of it but gave it to her.
The highway robber...The hotel we stayed at Hotel Pozo Del Cielo which is an old converted villa… the furnishing were very simple but it was clean and nice. They even stopped by at 9:00PM to give you hot water bottles to put in the bed. To top it off the hotel had a resident 4 month old Alpaca! Sarah and I got to feed it by hand. It was cute but was kind of nosey looking for food.
The hotel room in chivay...
The hotel grounds...
Sarah feeding the baby alpaca
The next day we actually drove to the canyon… it was definitely deeper than the Grand Canyon but was not as pretty. The elevation was around 13,000 ft at the top and there wasn’t many trees. We passed through small villages to get to Cruz del Condor… which is the point where Andean Condors frequently fly. We did see some and they were impressive. I got some photos but my hand held camera didn’t take that great of photos.
A condor in flight.. the wingspan is about 12 feet.
Sarah at the canyon...
The view on the drive to the canyon from Chivay.
More canyon views... the bottom of the canyon was a rare sight.
After an hour or two we started driving back to Arequipa. On the way we stopped in Chivay again for lunch. Rather than eat at the restaurant with the rest of the group Sarah and walked into town to the market. I LOVED THE MARKET. Straight up 3rd world. No touristy stuff either… just fruit, grains, and raw meat hanging in the open. We passed one lady who was eating lunch at her meat shop. Her plate was on the same counter with a bunch of animal organs… bah. We didn’t eat any of the meat but we did get some scones from one of the street venders… we could get them for about 10 cents a pop – that’s better than the $20 buffet the tour group went to.
The market...
We finally made it back to Arequipa that night and stayed at the same hotel we stayed in earlier. The next day we got up and had few hours to kill before our flight left back to the USA. We decided to visit a museum that holds ‘Juanita the Ice Maiden’. I have no photos but here is a link to Wikipedia.
Juanita is a mummy who is approximately 500 years old. She was a young inca sacrificed at the top of a 20,000 foot volcano to appease the gods. I’ve never climbed a 20,000 foot mountain but it’s impressive to think a 12 year old girl would willingly go. The Inca’s believed she would essentially become a god herself. She was so well preserved that her fingernails are still intact and the scientist could see what her last meal was. If you go to Arequipa this is a must!
Well that’ basically it.. we left that day for Lima at 4PM… spent the night in the Lima Airport and left the next day to Las Vegas. The trip was awesome and we would both do it again!
