Hazel's Travel Blog: Arequipa, Peru Nov 2011

A 12 hour overnight bus from Ica to Arequipa finds us exhausted, and a little breathless with our adaptation to the new altitude. Having read far too many horror stories about night buses (I read one guys blog where his bus went off a cliff!), we got the most expensive bus company (Cruz Del Sur) where we were layed out on comfy cama beds, fed a hot meal and given a suitably cheesy, dubbed over in Spanish, Matthew McConnaughy who else film. Can't escape that flippin gobshite, not even in Peru. It was at this point I felt a pang of homesickness for my housemates who equally share my hatred of this man. Sob!

This city, the second largest in Peru surprised me on so many levels, mainly because I didn't read a whole pile on the place before we arrived, but also because it is absolutely nothing like Lima. Upmarket and well kept, this city has beautiful architecture, excellent restaurants, ice-creameries, fruit markets, wonderful clothes & alpaca woolen wear shops galore! Heaven! Huge Hazel will become Gigantosaurous-zel by the end of this trip. NOM!

Our first day here we met a few people who had shared our Matthew McConnaughy experience so we arranged to meet them for a drink at 9pm, in, yes, the local Irish bar. Cringe. Especial cringe when we had suggested the bar & then couldn't find it, only to show up a whopping 1hour & a half late. Eek. Despite our minor set back we got absolutely locked on 2 beers (altitude is my excuse), dropped & broke a bottle of beer on my own, and some Peruvian guys semi bare feet (flip flops), and talked drunkenly (super super cringe) about art/artists/how great art is/how much I know about Ort (Yaw) with our new Austrian friend. Aaaargh!!!

Following said art discussion, Donal reminds me I arranged for us to meet our Austrian friend at 1pm the next day. Super Aaaargh!!! We meet him bang on 1pm...we were kinda scared to be late...and he notes our surprising time keeping. Double Arrrgh!

We decide on a museum where the frozen remains of a young girl 'Juanita, the ice princess' lie. Her remains were sacrificed to the Gods 500 years ago during Inca time when the Inca people believed they had to make offerings to the Gods to avoid punishment. The greatest offering believed to have been the life of a young child. They climbed to the top of Nevado Ampato and killed Juanita as an offering to the Gods. Juanita's body was found in 1995 completely preserved as ice had covered the mountain shortly after her death, preserving her exactly. Not unlike the bog bodies in Ireland. They believed that if they did not make a sacrifice to the Gods, they would be punished in the form of Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and other natural disasters. To this day Arequipa is plagued by volcanic eruptions & earthquakes - the most recent earthquake in 2001.

We also visited a monastery that used to be run by nuns - a beautiful building which has managed to stay put since the 17th Century despite the natural disasters in-between. Its obvious from the size, condition & amount of expensive artifacts remaining in the convent that they were incredibly wealthy nuns.

Courtyard at Monastario De Santa Teresa

I just thought this was kind of cool..

Donal's Model shot - yaw!

My model Shot - Yaw!

Where the nuns used to sleep - creepy eh?

Where the nuns used to cook - the semi-circular holes beneath the cooking area was where they used to store the guinea pigs (cuy) before they gobbled them up!