Leaving Arequipa

Day 14

Arequipa from the convent roof, with Misti in the middle

Today is a bit of a quiet day as much of the last bit of the trip has been.  We head back to Lima this afternoon and that takes up a good chunk of the day!

Convent with the rosary paintings

Our morning included a tour of the Santa Catalina convent.  It's actually still active with 15 nuns living in the newer areas.  But we did a tour of the older part where hundreds of women used to live.  It's so big it has streets!  Traditionally the second child was supposed to enter the church, and the girls became nuns whether they wanted it or not.  We did a tour through the public areas and a house as well as the meeting room.  It was the room where the girls could see their families.  But they were blocked from touching and had to bring someone else with them to supervise so they couldn't share too many bad things.  It was a little depressing.  And on top of that they were isolated for the first 4 years to spend all their time praying with a 45 minute break to walk the courtyard and do their rosary.  

A street in the convent

After all that they could have a private house with servants and it was as nice as what their parents were able to pay.  There was around 500 women living here, but only about 100 were nuns, the rest were servants.  

Directing traffic

The convent is huge and lovely with all the painted walls and lush plantings everywhere.  There are 6 streets in the convent it is so big.  The best part of the tour was Claudia (finally got a name, but she did wear a name tag) our tour guide.  At first she was all business but she kept making all these sideways comments that you couldn't help but laugh at.  A few people tried to leave Cindy behind here.  Said it would be an excuse for me to come back to Peru!  But she managed to escape.  

On the way to the convent we ran into my favorite person in Peru.  This man comes everyday with his stop sign and directs traffic to let the tourists and residents get across the intersection.  He was a lovely man who was very friendly and kept us from getting killed.  In theory pedestrians have the right of way but nobody will stop for you!  So it's more of a hustle across the street the second you have a chance.  And Arequipa seems a little worse because there are no lights to at least briefly stop traffic.  

After the convent a small group of us went to the museum to see Juanita.  She is a mummy who was an Incan sacrifice when she was around 12.  They've done multiple studies on her in many countries.  And I guess she was just returned the day before we were there!  I was hugely amused because they have you watch this impressively dramatic video on finding her in the mountains.  It was made in 1996 by National Geographic and it was filled with all sorts of crazy.   It did tell the story quite well and showed them going up the mountains to find her and all that.  The museum was pretty small and didn't take too much time to go around, but you were able to see Juanita.

Misti Volcano

Off the main square there is a big shopping street.  Which was filled with a lot of weird, which is becoming normal.  There were lots of restaurants and shopping along the way.  Nothing I was too tempted by as it wasn't as much touristy shopping.  We spotted a funeral parade, someone selling garden hoses, being offered cut strawberries drizzled with canned milk, a ventriloquist, washing machine covers being sold (or at least that is what it looked like) and a Spanish Captain America.  All in a few short streets.  Lots of giggling on that walk.

La Lucha Lunch!

We found a delightful sandwich place for lunch.  It was a treat on how fast we ordered and ate.  You won't typically eat that quickly.  But it was really delicious and their claim of best fries in Peru was really accurate.  I miss La Lucha a lot.  You could also pick from an array of sauces.  My Spanish didn't extend that far so we got tartar sauce and some grainy mustard sauce.  Both were good.  And golf sauce was an option.  I was a little concerned it might actually involve golf balls but is just a mix of mayo and ketchup.  And I've tried Chicha Morada.  It's a purple corn beverage that almost tastes a little like cherry.  Delicious.

And now we are heading back to Lima via Arequipa for the final day of the trip.  It's an incredibly small and quiet airport.  It feels like ours is one of the only flights.  And oddly enough the security is really easy here.  None of these pesky liquid restrictions.  Bring all your liquids!

We had a later return to Lima.  Traffic is still nuts so it was a bit of a drive.  And it was another drive through the city in the dark.  I've seen nothing but Miraflores in the light.  Maybe this is a good thing...