A Day In Arequipa

From Our Hotel Room
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We reached Arequipa by 7:30 AM since we had a very early morning flight.  Both of us were pretty dazed.  The airport was very small (the smallest I have ever seen!).  On one side of this small building, called aeropuerta,  landed planes.  And the other side was a parking lot for about 20 cars.  There was just one baggage claim, and standing there you could see either side of the building.  We picked up our luggage, and hoped there would be someone to pick us up! And there he was.

We were taken to our hotel, a cute little place called El Balcon.  This was more like a bed & breakfast, and I was convinced we were the only people living at that place.  It was about 5 blocks from Plaza de Armas (the Main Square).  We were to be met by Peter (our tour operator) by 9 AM.  We went to our room, and napped for about an hour.

Plaze de Armas
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At about 9 AM (Peruvians are very good with time - they actually start things earlier than scheduled!), Peter came to pick us up.  He is Dutch, a very friendly guy.  He gave us a little tour of the city.

Arequipa is on the desert side of the Andean mountains.  The city is supposedly the 2nd largest city in southern Peru, but it seemed a little too small.  But it was a cute little place.  Peter first took us to the Plaza de Armas, or the Main Square.  Every city in Peru has a Plaza de Armas, which is like the downtown.  Lots of stores, restaurants, and shops are located in this square.  It reminded us both a lot of Connaught Place in Delhi.  The concept is very similar.

Getting Ready for Christmas
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We went into the 'Compania' - a colonial church.  It was pretty neat, and because Christmas was around the corner, we could see a lot of decorations.  Every place had this 'golu'-like decoration of Christ's birth etc.  90% of Peru is Catholic and Christmas is pretty big in the cities.  After the Colonia, we went into another Church around the same area.  Then Peter took us to a museum - Monastery of Recoleta - that had some Inka pottery and ceramics on display. 

We learnt a little about the Inka history - there were 13 Inka rulers.  The legend says that the first Inkas (the Adam and Eve of the Inkas) came out of Lake Titicaca.   We learnt some about Peruvian history there.

In the Museum
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Then Peter treated us to some wonderful Peruvian fresh juice at a stall nearby.  We happened to meet his wife and kids over there as well.  After that, we went to the Santa Catalina Monastery and took a guided tour in English.  This took an hour and we learnt about the lifestyle of a novice being trained to be a nun as well as a nun.  The nuns and novices were not allowed to talk to each other, meet anyone or step outside the monastery.  The monastery is a village by itself. They had a hospital and everything else they needed inside of the monastery.   They were not allowed to go home, the parents were not allowed to even attend the funerals.  Apparently it was a custom and an honor in those days - the 2nd daughter of the family had to pray for the family, and so was forced to join monasteries.  Since these daughters were from rich families, they were not used to cooking or cleaning/washing, so they could have maids and accept lots of gifts from their parents like expensive beds, utensils etc.  So, they had everything they needed but not their freedom!  It was interesting to learn about such living in those days.   Currently, the monastery only has 27 nuns and 2 novices, and the numbers are quickly diminishing.

Arequipa City
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After that we went to a restaurant called Govinda to have some lunch.  Indian food in Peru sucks, dont ever try it.  The puris and chappatis didnt even look like how they should. 

We then went to a museum where they house the ice-maiden, Juanita.  This is a very interesting story.  In the earlier days, the Inkas offered (in other words, sacrificed) children to the Gods.  The children, mostly girls, were picked at the age of 3 or 4 as being special to be offered.  They were trained and mentally prepared from that age.  When they are between 10 and 15/16, they were made to walk up the mountains with the priests, given an intoxicating drink, given a blow on the head, and made to sit in the foetal position.  Then they were mummified and left there in the mountains as offerings.  In this particular case, since the mountains were snow capped, the mummy was frozen and preserved by nature. 

The City
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In recent years, a neighbouring mountain had volcanic eruptions, and melted some of the snow from this mountain.  When some archeologists and historians were going up this mountain, they came across this mummy well preserved and brought her down.  They have learnt a lot about the Inkas from this mummy, as well as done MRI scans and DNA analysis etc.  They have displayed this ice-maiden, called Juanita, in a museum at Arequipa and it was very interesting to see it.