Practice for the Amazing Race

¡Buenas Dias!

Estoy en Ariquipa y la ciudad es muy bonito. I am in Ariquipa and the is very beautiful. I think this is my favorite city so far. It is very colonial, so there are gorgeous colonial buildings everywhere, cobblestone streets - I think I could live here. The city sits at about 2300 meters (7500 feet) and sits in the valley of the volcano El Misti. Ariquipa is also a base point for many travelers to explore the canyons and surrounding mountains. I was going to hike down to the bottom of the canyon, but it would require an extra 3 days beause it is 6 hours from here. I have decided if it will fit into my schedule, I really want to stay in Cusco and extra day to see the Sacred Valley (more on that in a couple of days), also to get accustomed to the altitude (Cusco is 1000 meters higher than Ariquia and that is where I will hike the Inca Trail).

So after my last blog, I took a tour to the Cemetery of Chauchilla in Nasca. This cemetary dates to 1000 - 1300 CE and is home to hundreds of tombs containing mummies of the Nasca people. The tombs were ransaked in recent years and many of the gold and pottery stolen has been sold on the black market. In recent years archeologists have put 12 tombs together you can view with mummies and artificats. Now when the tombs were ransacke, the bones were scattered all over the land and archeologists have tried to pu them together again. It is very interesting viewing the tombs because you have skeletons that are thousands of years old exposed to the elements (which in Nasca consist only of wind and sand). There is not a glass cover of the tombs, just a wooden roof. A policeman is only on guard during the day and they will add one a night in about two months. There is a path to walk on between the tombs and off of the path you can see concaves in the ground where other tombs are and pieces of skeltons all over the place.

I was scheduled to take the 9:45 bus with Cial out of Nasca, I did not want to stay the night and the only buses to Ariquipa are overnight. So I head to the bus station about 8:30 p.m. and there are other tourists there hanging out. We are brushing our teeth and preparing for the 11 hour bus ride. About 9, the man who worked there, tells us the bus is going to be late because it broke down and will not arrive until 2:30 a.m. None of us wanted to stay in Nasca that long so he says he will refund our money if we find another bus. So we all rush out to catch another bus from one of the 5 other bus lines. I went to Civa and they had a bus leaving at 11 for about $10 less than what I paid for the first bus. So I bought my ticket and head back to the first bus line to get my money back.

Well when I get back, the man has now said there is a 11:30 bus that we can get on. Now there are three classes of buses in Peru, 1st class, 2nd class, and economic. I was on a 1st class bus to Ariquipa and without my knowing bought an economic ticket with Civa. I had no desire to ride 11 hours on a bus that did not have reclining seats overnight, so I talked the guy at the first company into selling my economic ticket to someone else so I could stay on his nice bus. All the tourists decided to stay with Cial because it was cheaper for 1st class service. At 11 a second guy from the bus company tells us (after he checked our bags) that the 2nd bus has broken down and will not arrive until 2:30 a.m. I do not know how he knew this because he had not been on the phone for about an hour, I guess it magically came to him.

This just seemed a little fishy to all of us, and I started to think they were full of it and lied because they were going to loose about 15 passengers. The timing of them telling us this was also about the time the other bus companies were leaving for Ariquipa, so it looked like to me that they waited until they thought we would not be able to get another ticket and have to stay with them. So this couple from Denmark, I had met earlier in the day, and I decided to try one of the other bus lines. We found a 2nd class bus leaving in 10 minutes (which really 20 minutes in Peruvian time) so bought our tickets, got a refund from Cial and waited for the bus.

I have heard stories bus companies taking pictures of overnight travlers, but thought it was only during the guerilla war about a decade ago. Well it´s not because we were filmed getting on the bus, I was not sure if I should smile or not. Filming me was not necessary because I made it to Ariquipa in one piece. Now the bus ride was very fast and curvy. I am so glad I could not see where we were going - and I did not have to sleep next to a gross old man, I was seated next to a woman.

After checking into my hostel, I headed out with the Danish couple and we ventured off to the Monasterio de Santa Catalina. Founded in 1580 by a rich widow, this was a convent for rich girls (an oxymoron yes I know). Traditionally the 2nd daughter of upper class families joined a convent to live in poverty, but not at the Santa Catalina, each nun had between 1 and 4 servants. Daily life of the nuns was non unlike what they were accustomed to in their life before the convent, they would have parties and invite musicans in all the time. In 1871, this all changed when a strict Dominican nun came and freed the servants and slaves and turned it into a nunery we are more familiar with. Not until 1971 when the convent was opened to the public had the nuns been outside the walls. At this point restoration was started on the convent and you can spend hours walking around. The streets are very narrow, cobblestone and the walls are painted bright blue or a deep brick (red). I took tons of pictures as it is a photographers dream to take pictures here. The rooms for the nuns were huge and included a bedroom, parlor, and kitchen. Some had their own bathrooms.

We then toured the museo containing Juanita, the ice mummy. She is an Inca girl who was sacraficed for the gods about 500 years ago. She has been frozen for this time at the top of one of the local volcanos. About 10 years ago and expidition found her when the ice started to melt because another volcano erupted melting the ice. She is still kept frozen and you can see her skin and fingernails perfectly. Since her finding they have found about 14 other sacrafices throughout Peru and Argentina. I will put a link to see her since we were not allowed to take pictures inside. http://www.mummytombs.com/mummylocator/featured/juanita.htm

I will hang out in Arequipa another day then head out to Puno tomorrow. I plan on just exploring the streets today. OH I almost forgot, last night I ate Alpaca meat, it is very tasty and is similar to buffalo. The man from the Danish couple I ate with had Cuy, guinea pig, and I will not be ordering that. The entire pig is deep fried, teeth, wiskers and all. You eat it like fried chicken picking the bones out. I tried some of his and I did not like the meat. There is not much meat on the poor little pig, he was not full after eating it. They are only about 6 - 10 inches long....What I would like to find out is if they are farm raised and how do they kill them if to cook them, or maybe they go into the oil alive like a lobster. So many questions.

¡Adios!