Arequipena vs Cusquena

Peru isn't supposed to be like this. Full of fancy bars and rustic restaurants. They were nice places and we could easily afford to eat and drink in them. I like Peru.
Back to the job at hand, more eating and drinking. The evening of our return from Colca Canyon some of our group decided to meet up at the excellent French creperie opposite our hostel. We gasp at the Japanese guy who told us he'd been travelling around the world on his own, involving hitch hiking from Senegal to Mozambique, or some other far apart African destinations that sound similar. He went to see the Sahara dessert and then realised the public transport isn't what it should be. Imagine driving through the dessert and spotting a young Japanese guy stood at the side of the road, I'd pull over immediately. I asked him if he thought the Sahara was good, 'No, not really.'. Okay then.
We drunk into the early hours at another flash bar that really could've been anywhere in the Western world.
Next day we went searching for the mummy of Juanita. Not like a mountainous search involving trekking and digging holes in the snow but just trying to find the museum was a task enough for me.
Juanita the Ice Princess is the name give to a mummy found on one of the surrounding peaks of Arequipa. It was an accident find by an American climber who was trying to get a better view of a near by mountain. The mummy is considered important as it's not really a mummy. In fact it's a frozen body with organs and skin intact. Lovely. Juanita was a sacrifice to the gods by the Incas. The amazing thing about this is that not only did the body survive for over 500 years in a frozen state but also that the Incas even climbed the giant peak without any of today's modern equipment and supplies. These guys were true climbers. They were also partakers in the sacrificing of young children on top of mountains. Evidence suggests that the sacrifices were never enemies or adults. Incas choose young children from their tribes that had royal blood. The children were chosen as babies to be sacrificed later in life. Some had to be pure, i.e. to be virgins, and others had to have had a child depending on what god they were worshipping at the time.
At over 19,000 ft the Incas took the young Juanita to be given a bit of booze and whacked in the skull with a heavy club and left there for the gods. More bodies were found further down the mountain but non in as good a condition as Juanita. After seeing various artefacts we get to see the body itself. It's not preserved in a temperature controlled glass box. She's damn small, apparently shrunken once exposed to the air, and freaky looking. I suppose you would be after 500 hundred years stuck on a mountain. The descriptions mentions 'beautiful Princess' somewhere in the museum bumf. I disagree but still it's quite interesting, if not a little morbid.
Tests are still being carried out on the body, already they've found out what her last meal was and tested dna to find family lineage. They'd also found an umbilical wrapped in cloth with the body. These were used as healing agents during life. The Incas believed that your umbilical cord could cure you from ills further in life so they broke a bit off and ate it once in a while. This sounds grim but a lot of modern medicines derive from chemicals within umbilical cords.
After all that body part action we headed into one of the many churches here to have a nosey at the interior. Very elaborate stuff but a service was on and I was a bit churched out.
For our last night in Arequipa we ate excellent new Turkish cuisine. Strange on the combinations though very tasty, anyone for figs, mozzarella and ice cream? How about pasta with duck and strawberries?
And with that it all ended. Back we flew to Lima and after our previous visit we really weren't looking forward to it. We'd already moved a flight around as we'd somehow originally figured 2 weeks for the stay in Lima, no idea how that slipped through the net. We had stayed longer in Cusco and Arequipa and less time in Lima. But still we had 5 days ahead in a place that we originally found dirty and uninviting.
Arequipa had been good, a beautiful place in parts with fantastic scenery. Food was great and the people were friendly. Not a huge amount of things to do but enough to warrant the 6 or so days we stayed. Cusco beats it hands down and even saying that I'd return, but only to stuff my face with quality food!