Arequipa, The White City

January 20-21

(Amber)

We had a good time in Puno, and then we boarded a bus yesterday morning to Arequipa. After some confusion about our tickets, we were somehow shuffled to a non-direct  bus (though we paid for a more expensive direct bus) that had many stops and took two hours longer. We were well on our way before we figured out that we got scammed. All a part of travel I guess.

The bus trip was relatively uneventful, though slow and full, but there are a couple of funny things that happened.

About five hours in, the driver stopped on the side of the highway and yelled ¨baño!¨ So everyone (except me...I was almost left in the middle of Ecuador with no money during a baño break and have held it ever since) scrambled off for the bathroom. Well....the "bathroom" was not a room. It was au naturale. Everyone...men, women, and children....just dropped trow and went right on the road around the bus or ran into an open field. The locals also knew they would be left if it took too long because everyone was running to their spots and back to the bus. I waited patiently on the bus and just enjoyed the scenery, but Matt hopped off with the crowd. He couldn´t go though. There were too many people around him in the field, and there wasn´t even a tree or a bush to hide behind. So he bought me Oreos.   

The next stretch of the ride was through rocky canyons and had very few stops for about an hour. That made us perfect sitting ducks for a salesman to literally scream at the top of his lungs about his product, which of course would save us from anything that ails. This was a new technique though. He wore official name tags around his neck, yelled for a full hour (public health sounding rhetoric about heart diseases, cancer, etc...), and scolded people who weren´t listening. Matt and I actually thought he was with the government until..at the end of a very loud hour...he pulled out shampoo that would save your life and started hawking it.

The scenery on the drive was of rocky canyons and dusty little towns. You can see photos at the link here: http://share.shutterfly .com /action/welcome?sid =8AatmbZk0Zt FGqo

AREQUIPA

We pulled into Arequipa around 6:00pm. On the outskirts, it looks like every other town....dusty and brown with the standard shops (auto repair, chicken and pork, kitchen supplies), but when you get to the historic center, it is striking.

Arequipa was founded in 1540 and is full of beautiful stone colonial buildings made from a white stone called sillar, which was quarried locally. That´s why Arequipa is referred to as the White City. The colonial center, situated around a huge and gorgeous Plaza de Armas, is stunning.  

We´re staying at the Hospedaje El Caminante Class just off the Plaza de Armas, and it´s very nice. Our room is basically in the reception area but costs only $17 per night with a bathroom, and the beds (four twin beds) are very comfortable.

We spent the day today seeing the city´s sights. We saw several beautiful churches and the enormous cathedral overlooking the Plaza de Armas, but the highlight of the day was definitely the Monasterio Santa Catalina, which is less than a block from our hospedaje.

This is a huge convent that Lonely Planet calls a ¨city within a city,¨ and it took hours for us to walk through the part open to the public. It was founded in 1580 and was completely cut off from the outside world until the 1970s. Santa Catalina topped the list of attractions named by UNESCO when it deemed Arequipa a World Heritage Site. It was peaceful, huge, and beautiful. We were completely alone in the convent for most of our time there....just walking room to room and street to street. Lots of photos are in the link at the bottom of this page. It was so photogenic that we couldn´t help ourselves.

Now to food. We´re about to end week three, and I´m ashamed to say...I´m really tired of the cuisine. I´ll snap back to action, but I´m on a mini hunger strike now. My body is temporarily rebeling against the brothy soup, tough meat, and rice combo that´s a part of our daily diet. I am eating enough but hope to get over the hump and start really enjoying, and blogging about, the culinary treasures again very soon.

We are getting up early in the morning to head to Canon del Coca for a couple of days where we hope to spot wild Andean Condors. Wish us luck!

Photos of our day in Arequipa: http://share.shutterfly .com /action/welcome?sid =8AatmbZk0Zt FGrs