Arequipa - "Yes, stay"
The name Arequipa means ¨Yes, stay¨ in Quechua. Manco Capac (the first emperor of the Incan Empire) is said to have said that to the men in his expedition when they asked if they could settle in Arequipa´s valley. We decided to stay, as well, in Arequipa for a short time. It had been a whle since we had been in one spot for very long. Cusco was the last ´semi-permanent´ place we had been and that was short of just two months. We ended up staying in Arequipa for about a week.
Our first tourist-like adventure in Arequipa was a bus tour around the city. Mostly we saw beautiful overlooks of the city on the tour, as you will see below. Overall, the tour gave us an opportunity to see areas in Arequipa other than the downtown, and helped us to appreciate the beauty of the area.
One picture we didn't quite get was a picture of "El Misti", the incredibly huge active volcano that overlooks the city. Though the sky was relatively clear for the rainy season that we're currently in, the haze and clouds still covered the volcano so much that our picture of it didn't turn out. Here's another picture of it anyway, so you can see how incredible it is.
We also visited Monasterio de Santa Catalina while in Arequipa. According to our guidebook, even those who are already overdosed on "colonial edifices of yesteryear" needed to see this sight. And they were right. It is absolutely beautiful. While strolling through the former convent's 5 acres of a "city within a city", we could see how easy it would be to be spiritual here. Every time you turn a corner or enter a room, what you see is worthy of a photograph.
In addition to the monastery's colorful interior, however, is a colorful history as well. From our Lonely Planet guidebook: "A wealthy widow that chose her nuns from the richest Spanish families founded it in 1580, but her new nuns generally lived it up in the style they had always been accustomed to. After about 3 centuries of these hedonistic goings-on, a strict Dominican nun arrived to straighten things out. From this point, the vast majority of the 450 people who once lived here never ventured outside the convent's imposing high walls. The convent was shrouded in mystery until it finally opened to the public in 1970."
We also took a short trip to Colca Canyon -- the second deepest canyon in the world -- while we were in Arequipa. Our hike down into part of the canyon took almost 3 hours, as did our ascent out of the canyon... We were pretty proud of that! Both up and down, the hike was steep and slippery with sand and small rocks, but also beautiful. We stayed at an incredible hostel down in Oasis called "El Paraiso" (or "Paradise").
After Arequipa and Colca Canyon, we took a luxury bus to Lima (16 hours) to meet Sarah's dad for his visit!
posted by Sarah and Jeremy @ 4:45 PM
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