We had to wake up in time to get mostly packed up because we
had a city tour in Arequipa for the morning but we would be flying back to Lima
at 9 in the evening that day. The hotel was kind enough to let us leave the
stuff in the room for the day because they had not sold the room and did not
charge us for it. We had a brief
breakfast in their restaurant in the lobby which was South American version
continental breakfast. I had coffee, orange juice, toast and some fruit. Daniela
mainly finished the lamb she took back from the day before which the kitchen
was kind enough to heat up for her.
At around 9am our guide for the day picked us up at the
hotel lobby for our city tour. It was private. I am sorry I do not remember her
name. We started in a private car that
drove us up to a couple different scenic points of the city first. In those
points she explained a bit about the history of the city as well as the local
area which again had tons of pre-Incan steps around as well as 3 volcanoes, one
of which is still active though if I understood her right hasn’t erupted since
1450 or so just before the Spanish came.
The city used to have 2 main bridges over the Rio Chili but nowadays
there were a real lot of them. At the
first point there was a statue of an Incan who was supposed to provide good
luck. She also explained about a local
potato called maca and the local Arequipan papaya which is small and very
different tasting from normal papayas.
The second site was also mostly scenic and we got a bit more detail
about the city.
We saw a church built in the 18th century that
was made with the local white volcanic rock. Volcanic rock in the region of
Arequipa is either white or pink. The pink is not as sturdy as the white so
most structures using volcanic rock are made with the white with maybe some
pink for decoration. Though it was a catholic church it was set up on the
outside with a really gothic/Incan look. The guide explained that most people
out these ways didn’t fully just convert to Christian or Catholic but I will
say hedged their bets and wanted to continue to work with their own gods. I am sure that was the case for the vast
majority of the peoples in South America being force to be Catholic by the
Spanish.
We headed to the Plaza de Armas and she explained to us
about the square and the cathedral which was neo-classical style though made of
the volcanic rock. We didn’t go in that
one but did go into another church built by the Jesuits. This had some impressive decoration in the
section that was built by brick rather than volcanic stone on the inside
because apparently the plasters used don’t stick to the volcanic rock. The
Jesuits had initially had the whole church painted in a style representing the
jungle that was still in this one chapel/room.
Unfortunately they wouldn’t let us take pictures in there. The outside was also a gothic/Incan mix. The main part of the church was more baroque
style at this point.
After that church we walked our way to the Monasterio Santa
Catalina which was a convent founded in 1589 or so. It is still active with 15
nuns now. The place is termed, “A city within a city.” This because the nuns were originally
permanently cloistered in there with only contact to the outside world from a
couple speaking rooms near the entrance.
The inhabitants were typically the girls of rich families who were sent
there at age 12 or so as novices and were made into nuns by 18 or sent back out
to be married depending on the family’s choices. I don’t think the girl typically got a
say. It would be easy to say that in
those days the women lived pretty well with servants and large spaces because
they came from families who paid dowries to the convent to keep them there. If
there family didn’t have enough money then they had to work as a servant to pay
off their dowries on their own. The
convent was really huge and covered a few different “districts” that were built
up in different centuries: 17th, 18th and 19th. By this point we had switched over to a guide
form the convent instead. The primary
guide of the day left us inside the convent and was done with her part of the
day. Also, outside we met the “Most Kind
Peruvian” as voted by a contest. I believe he used to be a policeman but now
worked for the convent as a crossing guard for traffic so visitors could get in
without getting run over. He said hello to everyone in different languages
including English and was always smiling. We took a couple of pictures with him
before we entered the convent.
The convent had a nice garden as well as an interesting
laundry area. There were several chapels though most of that was converted into
other working areas when the convent was turned into a standard convent of
equality rather than the place of status it had originally been. There was one
beatified mother superior at the convent. Her two miracles were explained to
us. First supposedly after she died and was buried her remains were exhumed 9
months later and were still perfect. Second a person with cancer supposedly ate
the dirt from her grave and was cured of the cancer. So John Paul II beatified
her when he visited Peru in the 80s. I think we spent about an hour inside the
convent. You don’t get to see the active
nuns who are cut off (but apparently can get permission to leave by the mother
superior these days unlike before). Daniela bought some sweets made by the nuns
in the convent too while we were there.
The tour car took us to the travel agency that Daniela works
with to provide people tours in Arequipa. They had provided all we took that
day. We met with the owner for a few
minutes and she explained about her company and provided some wisdom to Daniela
because her business had been around for over 20 years. After that few minutes the owner drove us to
downtown Arequipa to meet up with Daniela’s family so we could have lunch. They
were all waiting anxiously. It was her aunt and uncle and cousin. We all piled into a taxi that drove us out to
a restaurant that was a fair bit out of town.
The treated us to lunch. They ordered us a mixed plate that had
chicharon, rocoto rellenos, pastel de papas (it was like au gratin potatoes),
estofada (beef stew), lambs’ feet (pata de cordero) as well as rice and some
other snacks. It was far too much food. The lamb foot was rather unpleasant to
me being like rubber with a flavor I didn’t care for. Her uncle ate a dish of meet from the nose of
a cow served in a sauce with tomatoes and onions. They ordered a second dish of
that and asked us to eat some of that as well. It wasn’t really that bad
honestly. I was stuffed already by the time that came through. The got us some
local chicha (which is fermented like a sort of corn beer) and some anis
acholado which is like anisette. We ate
and talked for a couple hours before we had to return to the hotel and get our
stuff ready to leave.
We packed up and had maybe another hour and twenty minutes
so walked to the downtown area and talked and took some pictures before
returning in time for our private transfer to the airport. We got checked in and the plane boarded on
time (we met Dan the guy from New York getting ready for his flight also and
spoke to him briefly). The flight was
uneventful except for a few bumps and a harder than expected landing. We had a
snack on board somehow. Daniela had
prearranged a safe taxi for our arrival. The luggage took forever still we got
back to the house around 10:30 or so. Daniela’s mom was waiting outside for us
and we talked for a while but I had another incident where I had to run to the
bathroom though I had believed I was better by then. Maybe about 11:30 we
called it a night.
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