Our final night (sigh)
Monday, June 30th, 2008After a harrowing 6-hour bus ride from Puno to Arequipa, during which Liz and I had the privilege of sitting in the first row of the two-story bus, poised perfectly to view every pedestrian, sheep and taxi we barely missed, we enjoyed nearly 24 hours in Arequipa. We all agreed that Arequipa is a lovely city. With the buildings in the main square (which is dubbed the “Plaza de Armas” in every city of Peru) constructed entirely of the white rock quarried locally and with the ornate carvings on many of the buildings, Arequipa has a very classic and elegant feel. This morning we visited the Inca mummy museum, which is dedicated to the young Juanita and two other ice mummies who were recently discovered on a local mountainside. All three were sacrifices made by the Incas approximately 500 years ago to appease the mountain gods in order to prevent them from destruction by volcano, earthquake, etc. The sacrifices were generally from royal families, had to be younger than 15 and considered it a great honor and privilege to sacrifice themselves. The crown jewel of the museum? Juanita herself, in a glass-walled freezer. Macabre but incredibly interesting.
After the museum, we visited the stunning Santa Catalina monastery. It´s practically an entire city onto itself, with bright red and blue walls and lots of hidden passageways. We got lost a few times. There are still around 30 nuns living there, but most of the monastery is now open to tourists and includes the living quarters of nuns from a bygone era, old kitchens, art galleries, courtyards with fountains and even an old-fashioned WC with the commode setting in a wooden throne.
The other thing worth noting about Arequipa is that it is the city where Kari and Liz (the two non-semi-vegetarians on the trip) finally tried “cuy¨(guinea pig, for the uninitiated). My understanding is that they generally really liked the flavor but were freaked out by the legs and the little eyes and teeth . I took several pictures of their various reactions and will share them later.
We´re now in Lima, which is huge, busy and noisy. Tomorrow we´ll check out a few things in town, including the gargantuan Plaza de Armas, and then scootch over to the airport late in the evening for our flight home. All of us wish we could stay longer.
One final note, since none of us have yet written about Puno. Lake Titicaca was intriguing. The first round of the floating islands, made not from earth but man-made from the local totora reed growing in the lake, is touristy but still fascinating. It´s an entire village of people living on home-made islands and reminded me a little of the movie “Waterworld.” Naturally, they capitalize on the tourists but selling various homemade crafts and by selling rides on the totora boats they have made. We wanted to get a flavor for the “real” lifestyle of the islanders, however, so we hired a private boat to take us out to an untouristed island. It was much further away and we never would have found it without a guide, as it´s through a never-ending labyrinth of the reeds. The island we visited had 4 families living on it. They make their living by fishing, and on the day we visited, they had three huge tarps with fish laid out in anticipation of trading them for potatoes and quinoa at the next day´s San Pedro festival. The fish were tiny and were ones that we would have thrown back at home. They were making a fire in an outdoor oven, also made from totora, to smoke the fish. The island elder brought out a couple of small, brown shriveled fish for us to try, and we actually really liked it as it had a nice smoky flavor. All of the buildings on the island were made out of totora reeds, and they included sleeping quarters, a kitchen and a church. There was no electricity, cell phones or i-pods. They did have a dog, though. The people were friendly and seemed fairly non-plussed by our arrival. They spoke Aymara, but a few of them also spoke some Spanish. I conversed with them the best I could, and they laughed at me when I said “Wow!”
The girls are waiting for me, so I have to go. We´ll see all of our respective people soon. Hasta luego. Anne
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