Touring the City of Arequipa

Mon 24 July 2006

First things first! Monday morning we quickly checked out of the Vallecito Inn and into our new rooms at the Qosoda Inn, the hostel we'd discovered in the La Beveda building the day before. We left our bags there and headed out to see some of the more popular sites in Arequipa.

The first stop for us was the Santa Catalina Monastery which was quite literally like stepping back in time. The monastery was HUGE with a maze of corridors and buildings to be explored, hidden gardens, beautiful courtyards, churches, chapels and burbling fountains. If you were to only see one thing in Arequipa it would have to be this Monastery!

The story behind it is just as colorful and fascinating as the monastery itself. The early town leaders wanted their own monastery of nuns and it was originally dedicate to this purpose. But as it was being built a wealthy young widow decided to retire there and brought her fortune with her.

The now financially stable monastery attracted the attention of other women of wealth and social standing, including the daughters of many leaders and chieftains. They brought with them servants, household goods and additional wealth. Living inside the monastery as richly as they had lived without.

While outwardly renouncing the world and embracing a life of poverty, they enjoyed their luxurious English carpets, silk curtains, porcelain plates, damask tablecloths, silver cutlery, and lace sheets. They employed musicians to come and play for their parties.

By the mid 1800s the monastery functioned more as a social club than a religious convent and word at last reached the ears of the Pope.

The church confiscated the money, sent home all the servants and slaves or gave them the option to remain as nuns, and all the wealthy women that had thought they would live there in luxury suddenly found themselves strictly reformed into dutiful nuns.

Despite the churches intervention, the monastery still retains many, many beautiful items on display. Some of the rooms looking like they belong in the parlors of wealthy country leaders, tempered only by the religious items displayed on the walls.

We had lunch "On Balcony" and decided to get a little more daring in our cuisine. Opting for the native looking filet de Alpaca over some of the more Americanized dishes.

The Alpaca was a bit dry for my tastes, and it seemed to have that "Peruvian all-spice" mix of seasonings that we were becoming quite familiar with by this time, but it was a tasty dish.

Our next stop was to visit the Ice Princess or Ice Maiden, Juanita, at the Museo Santuarios Andinos (Museum of Andean Sanctuaries).

She was discovered on the top of Mount Ampato near Arequipa, Peru. She was 12 to 14 years old when she was sacrificed and is believed to have died about 500 years ago.

There were a lot of other fascinating artifacts and items on display at the museum besides the maiden, and we took the full tour, so we didn't finish up until dinner time.

We wanted to eat at a new place each meal to try a variety of menus, so this time we chose the Inka Wasi. We were a little unhappy to see that it was a very Americanized menu, but opted to eat there anyway rather than feeding ourselves to the hostess sharks waiting on the Plaza. Jason and I shared a club sandwich, which was awful. How do you ruin a club sandwich?? I'd never have that it possible until I tried it.

I was unfortunately still suffering with rib disfunction from the car accident the previous year, and sitting in the solid wooden chairs at the Inka Wasi was apparently enough to tease one into dislocating beneath my right shoulder blade. That put a big damper on Jason's spirits as well, and we headed back to the hostel for a break.

Robyn and I remained at the hostel, while Nate and Jason headed out to the supermarket to ward off the hunger that remained after our disappointing dinner.

Next: Shouts in the Night >>