Hi dear friends.
This is our second week in Arequipa. We opted to spend two weeks here because we planned to take Spanish lessons to make the weeks ahead more enjoyable. We study about 1-2 hours a day and feel like we are making progress. While Roger speaks Spanish regularly with his patients at the Doctors Volunteer Clinic, Kathy hasn’t been exposed to it for 5 or 6 years. Her ears are taking longer to hear what is being said…and that isn’t because her hearing is bad! Both of us are improving.
We’re also continuing to explore. One day we visited the Santa Catalina Convent…something we were going to skip because our hotel overlooks the convent and it didn’t look very interesting. But several people said it was not to be missed. And in fact, we found it was very much worth the visit. We hired an English-speaking guide who led us through the city within the city. The Convent occupies an entire city block and is protected by walls at least 13 feet high. Founded in 1570, it accepted girls of mixed social backgrounds in their early teens (often the 2nd born girl of the wealthier families) to serve as cloistered nuns, never to leave the convent or to see or speak with their friends and families again. As a novitiate, a girl would spend 20 hours a day alone in 16’x16’ room in silence, praying and contemplating. For 4 hours a day, she was allowed into an enclosed stone courtyard. She spent up to 4 years in these conditions deciding if she wanted to stay in the convent and become a nun. However, if a girl chose to leave, she disgraced her family and herself. Talk about pressure! (I must say that I would have failed the rule of silence within the first few hours!)
Once a girl made the decision to stay, she joined the other nuns in a little city within the walls. Each nun had to be productive in some way—sewing, baking, playing an instrument—but still could not leave the walls of the convent. Some nuns who came from the wealthier families had small houses with kitchens and servants. Others had to share a little house and a servant. Eventually, the Peruvian bishop decided that nuns should not have servants (I would have left at that point), and later in the 19th century, the nuns were forced to live and eat communally. After many earthquakes and restoration projects in the Convent, it was made an UNESCO historical site and opened to the public in 1970. A walled-off section of the original Convent still houses nuns who are now allowed to leave during the day.
We also signed up for a cooking class this week. Those of you who have followed over the years know we love cooking classes! When we arrived at the outdoor kitchen for the class, we were the only “students.” We made causa palta (a favorite of ours which we plan to share when we return to the States) and lomo saltado. The “teacher” led us through step-by-step instructions and demonstrations. A perfect afternoon. We were promised pictures of us in our aprons and hats taken by the teacher with her camera. But they haven’t arrived yet.
I’m not sure we mentioned that the city of Arequipa is located in an active seismic zone. The Nazca plate (near the Peruvian coast) is sliding under the South American plate at a rate of about 3 inches a year pushing the Andes even higher. As a result earthquakes are common. About a week ago, we were awakened by a shaking bed…and a shaking hotel. No damage to the hotel (or us). The epicenter was on the coast where it was reported as a 7.4 quake. Had that magnitude actually hit the city of Arequipa, there would have been considerable damage. Following that, one of the 3 volcanoes near the city, shot volcanic ash and smoke into the air a few days ago. We get the feeling the mountains are upset with us…maybe its our poor Spanish…but we can’t decide which one of us to sacrifice to appease them.
Speaking of volcanoes, Arequipa is known as the “white city” because of the white volcanic stone (sillar) blocks comprising many of its mansions, monuments and the vast majority of the buildings that surround the historic center. Sillar is a white lava stone from the nearby volcanoes. Unfortunately, sillar does not withstand the earthquakes well, so new construction is largely brick and concrete. This week, we joined a small group tour to a sillar quarry and a slot canyon with petroglyphs.
We leave Arequipa mañana (see how good my Spanish is!) and head toward the highest point on our trip, Cañón de Colca and Puno on Lake Titicaca. We are excited about these next stops on our journey.
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