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!

The white city

We'd been spoilt by Argentine buses. I'd also forgotten how bad long distance bus rides are. This overnight bus ride was uncomfortable to say the least. I should've known that getting the less pricey bus would've been a mistake. But, it got us there. After about 9 hours of viscious swerving, resulting in horrible nightmares of crashing planes, and a Harry Potter in Spanish we arrive early doors in Arequipa.
The deserted cobbled streets were no match for Cusco but still you could see the charm. You could also see the giant snow capped volcano towering over the main square, flanked by two smaller but equally snow covered mountains on either side. It's not a bad sight. The majority of buildings in Arequipa were constructed with silar rock which is volcanic and and gives the whole place the white-ish colour it's famous for in Peru. In fact the whole town centre of Arequipa is a UNESCO world heritage site. We seemed to have racked a few of these sites along the way but didn't expect a whole urban area to be one.
Our taxi driver told us, in Spanish but I got the gist, about the local delicacy. Cuy. Guinea pig. Oh good. Think I'll be going international then. Luckily in true Peruvian style there's loads of wood fired pizza places but as it turns out Arequipa matches Cusco for exquisite food in atmospheric places for little cash.
The driver insisted on taking us to some hovel of a hostel instead of the one we'd been recommended by a couple in Aquas Calientes a few days earlier. So what if it's 20 soles a night, 3 pounds, it was dirty dark and dank. The next place was much better, definitely worth double the amount of the first. Still we changed hostels for somewhere better for an extra 80 pence a night. Heady days my friend, heady days.
The great looking Plaza de Armas, again the same name as every other main square in South America, with it's white colonial style buildings and shiny cobbled roads and multiple arches and churches and the large volcano behind makes for a great scene. Outside of the main square there isn't much else. Cusco went on and on with narrow gorgeous streets with quirky bits of colour and Inca stonework. But then that was the capital of the Inca Empire. Arequipa was not. But Arequipa is affluent non the less and has a more Westernised slant than Cusco. Long streets full of banks and men selling watches and sunglasses. But also we saw mobile phone shops and clothes shops that didn't seem prevalent in Cusco.
This also means one of my favourite daily phrases was missing too. On the street in Cusco and Puno everyday were Peruvians clasping a handful of phones and a stopwatch. All day they stand on street corners declaring,"Llamadas llamadas llamadas", in quick succession. All this means is, 'Calls calls calls'. They basically sell usage time on their mobile phones. All day, everyday. I'm sure they must dream about llamadas llamadas llamadas. People do use them though. As a side note, ice-cream sellers use the same tactic with the same rhythm and speed and sound but with, "heladas heladas heladas". At this speed they sound the same, trust me.
After walking the town and eating the food we decide to book a tour to the nearby Colca Canyon, one of the deepest in the world. But first we try and get a bit culturised before we end up eating ourselves into a stupor. We visit the stunning Monastery of Saint Catherine, 'Monastario de Santa Catalina'. This place is like a little town within the city, high walls protect it and the nuns from the outside world. It's still inhabited but now it's open to the public for extra funds I presume. Within are a maze of small streets with blue or red painted walls that give the whole place a Spanish feel. Nuns have lived here for years and have actually been reigned in for living it up a bit. Eventually a minister came to crack down on the good living nuns and enforced various rules on them, such as the damning only one servant per nun rule. It seems like they had it good too. While outside of the high walls people struggled with poverty and the odd political struggle. Now and again the nuns took in the unfortunate and the monastery was also a sanctuary for various ill fated individuals.
It's a beautiful place, that also includes numerous lookouts over the city. This seems rather curious of the nuns, they could see out but no-one was able to peer in. Must have been hard either way, especially seeing some of the barb wire knickers they were forced to wear at some points. Photogenic it certainly was but there's no way I could live there until my dying days, barb wire digs in you know.