A Peruvian Adventure: Arequipa

We had to leave Urubamba at about 6:00 AM to catch our flight to Arequipa. That was quite early. But as I said in a previous post, we don't mind getting up for things like this. And the breakfast started at 5:30, so we were good!

The terrain you fly over between Cuzco and Arequipa is really something.

This gives you an idea of what you see (if you have the window seat, and the camera):

I won't go into traffic in Arequipa, other than to say it is pretty horrible. The city if doing really well due to the mining industry. Which brings us to this sign we saw in the airport as we were waiting for our bags:

And I agree. Illegal mining is bad all around.

We stayed in what was billed as the only five star hotel in Arequipa. All I can say is that the stars at night, are big and bright in the heart of Arequipa.

The hotel was "quirky" but we liked it. Our room was in a little third floor addition (you can just see it in the above photo) and was quite large. But there was no elevator. Not too bad if you have been hiking the Inca Trail!

They love their colors here in Arequipa. This sort of mimics the colors in the Santa Carolina convent (though we did not know that at the time)

It was about a 15 minute walk to the Plaza de Armas in Arequipa, which is the second largest city in Peru, at about 2 million people. And I don't think that the infrastructure has changed since 1976 when I took this photo:

Here is what the Plaza looks like today:

Arequipa is called the White City, since the old part of the city is built almost completely of sillar, a white volcanic tuff that is easy to work with.

You can see it in the above photo, and in the below photo, which is a typical street, with a great restaurant called Zig Zag

and this is what we ate at Zig Zag. Pork, Beef, and Alpaca on a stone:

From Zig Zag we crossed the street and entered the Santa Carolina convent.

It was quite an interesting place.

They had good advice for those of us wandering about:

An interesting thing about this convent is that it was a convent in more of an old world way. The novitiates had to bring a certain amount of money with them before they could join, and they had to donate their dowry and a large part of their inheritance to the convent as well.

So almost all the women were very well off, and spent a lot of their time in crafts.

For example, they made all the clothes for this life size Last Supper tableau.

The colors in the convent were fantastic

and the architecture was quite welcoming.

The services were minimal, though. Many of the cells had their own ovens, that we think were used for making the biscuits the convent was famous for, as well as their own food:.

But there was not one chimney in the place. I would suspect a lot of lung disease in here

But it was really a pleasant place

that has some interesting art. Angel Gabriel kicking out Satan.

This is a mold for the hosts. I think they are still using similar tools

I found these water purifiers very interesting. It is a cone made of the tuff, which is a porous rock. You fill the top with water, and it filters through the rock to give you clean, clear, cool water at the bottom.

The roads inside the convent we wide and welcoming.

And there were no guards. So they encouraged guests to play with the tools. Here I am attempting to cook something.

and here are a couple of grinding tools. A small mills stone and a mortar and pestle.

More great colors. It was really beautiful.

These are laundry tubs. You use you hand to grab water from the trough running down the middle.

As I mentioned, this convent is really quite well equipped. This is a piano built by Muzio Clementi, widely believed to be the perfecter of the modern piano.