Peru Day 15: Arequipa

A good night's sleep but the disappointment of not being able to eat the amazing breakfast buffet which Kerry stuffed herself with (French toast, maple syrup, bacon, fruit salad, scrabbled eggs on toast and the trimmings). I was limited to toast though sneaked in a small bowl of cereal.

We headed over to the main square in search of some non-tacky souvenirs and shopping. We still found some but this is Arequipa and there were hardly anyone hassling us plus the shops were almost European normal. Shame the tourist prices had quadrupled.

Juanita was next on our list to see. She's a frozen mummy found locally on top of a mountain sacrificed as part of the Inca worship. She wasn't in as she's quite popular touring the world (at 12-14 + 500 years). The tour around her modern day home at the university's museum was quite interesting with lots of artifacts and the final piece shown by the English speaking guide was a huge humming transparent freezer which was home to another sacrificed girl found near to Juanita. Apparently Incas sacrificed everytime an earthquake happened as if it was the gods requesting it.

A bit more shopping and back to the main square, getting accosted by a deaf and mute bloke collecting for charity then spotted a roof terrace for our lunch. Fantastic views of the cathedral and main square plus spotted some hawks catching the midday thermals. The chicken lunch was a bit tough but the potato rostis were muy bien.

Got collected from the hotel at 2pm for our tour and headed out of town for some more excellent landscape views. First was a colonial style park and church, the second a kind of farm/garden/guinea-pig slaughterhouse. the third part of the tour was the old convent. It was introduced as a city within a city and certainly had the size to have its own streets named after nuns. Each nun, who had to be stacked with money to even gain entry, be the second born(?!) and bring her own servants whilst she took her vow of 'silencio'. Once you saw one of their small living quarters, you soon got the idea of what the place was about and it was more about capturing the tranquility and beauty of the place - shame the other tourists go in the shot.

A small walk over to the main square and a visit inside the main cathedral. It was quite modern inside with holy mannequins displayed in large glass cabinets. The tour rep said the organ (3rd biggest in the world) had been sent to Belguim by ship for repair and took 3 years to come back. The other main church across the road was more impressive with gold holy stuff and trinkets on display (relics reminding me of a Blackadder episode like Christ's fingers). the adjoining courtyards had been converted into posh tourist shops including a hat shop which Kerry bought a Del Monte fruit empire hat.

The evening wasn't that pleasant as my bottom illness returned with more burps - should have gone to the docs!