Peru - Week 3 in Arequipa

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.

Peru - Week 2 in Arequipa

We hopped a quick 2 hour flight from Lima to Arequipa, a city of 1 million people, the 2nd largest in Peru. We were met at the airport and taken to our hotel: La Hostería Boutique Hotel located very near the historic center, a UNESCO Heritage Site. The hotel is gorgeous…bougainvillea and great views of the snow-capped mountains everywhere. 

 

The city of Arequipa is at 7700 feet. It takes a while for people from sea-level (like us in Lima) to adjust to the thinner air. And this is doubly true of people who are older (again, like us). So once at the hotel, we drank a cup of coca tea, went to our room, relaxed, eventually went to lunch/dinner at a nearby restaurant, and finally returned to our room for a good night’s sleep. We are such party-goers! Now don’t get all excited about the coca tea. Yes, the leaves are related to the leaves from which cocaine is derived, but the ones we used for tea are a separate species grow for their stimulant and medicinal purposes and are used as an aid for mountain sickness. 

The next morning, we found a beautiful breakfast buffet waiting for us on the hotel patio. Scrambled eggs, meat, potatoes, coffee cakes, granola and yogurt, flan, tropical fruit juices, fresh papaya, melon, pineapple, meats and cheeses, coffee and teas. This lovely assortment greets us each morning. We eat on the patio in the center of the building which has the largest bougainvillea tree we have ever seen. It acts as a sun umbrella covering the entire patio. 

This week has been one of exploration. One day we explored the historical center, including the Plaza de Armas said to be the prettiest plaza in Peru. We ventured into the open-air market to see stalls filled with a small portion of the 3000 varieties of potatoes, all kinds of fruits, vegetables, meats and fish…pretty much everything you would want to buy. 

On Sunday, we walked to Yanahuara, a nearby neighborhood with a plaza filled with food/handicraft booths, great views of Misti (one of the volcanoes), and a first-annual celebration (we don’t know what everyone was celebrating) that featured traditional dancers from various parts of Peru. The dancing was lively and the costumes were beautiful. We left the square and headed to a “picantería” (restaurant) called Sol de Mayo. There we sampled traditional Peruvian dishes: avocado relleno (chopped vegetable stuffed avocado) and rocoto relleno (ground beef stuffed red pepper—a little hotter than our red peppers). Arequipa is the food capital of Peru, so we are trying everything. Many people here eat “cuy” (or guinea pig) or alpaca for special occasions, but so far we have not tried it. 

We dedicated one day to a walking food tour. It started at the central market where we tasted different tropical fruits. We then moved to a picantería where we again tried the rocoto relleno (a little different this time) and ocupa arequipeña, a potato dish with a delicious yellow sauce. These two dishes were served with chicha, a purple corn drink (3% alcohol). Our guide next led us to a tiny sushi place in order to demonstrate the fusion of Asian foods with traditional Inca/Spanish tastes. The sushi was delicious! Our final stop (we were already full!) was another picantería. At this restaurant, we were introduced to a pisco drink called chilcano (pisco, ginger ale and lime juice) with estufado de carne (beef stew) and a potato and cheese salad. The tour ended with a shared queso helado (local ice cream) and sweet corn cake—yummy!

Another day, we walked to a university that houses a museum of 550 year old Incan artifacts. The star attraction is the frozen body of “Juanita, the Ice Maiden,” kept at -4 degrees Fahrenheit in the exhibit and extremely well-preserved. She was found on Mt. Amparo. She was killed by priests as a human sacrifice to appease the gods. Natural events, like earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, were seen as punishments by the gods—the sacrifice of a child of high status brought peace. Juanita is incredible in her glass freezer: the cloth she wore 550 years ago, though dirty, was still fully intact. Sadly, no photos allowed. But we snagged this one from the web. 

We also took in Mundo Alpaca (Alpaca World, in English). It told the story of how the alpaca wool industry got started here in Peru. We learned about the 4 camelids in Peru—alpaca and llama are domesticated, vicuñas and guanacos are wild. Peru raises 80% of the world’s alpacas, using their wool for clothing. Locals also eat alpaca. After the tutorial on camelids, we were given the opportunity to pet the alpacas and llamas. But they were having none of that. Food was on the table and much more appealing than being mauled by tourists.

It’s cold here. We wear long sleeve shirts and Kathy wears a jacket once the sun goes down. The hotel rooms have no heat, so we wear more clothes when in the room and in bed. But hot tea is available 24/7 so we can always warm up. We didn’t bring enough warm clothing. We may have to buy an alpaca something because it’s going to get colder as we move to higher altitudes. (Brrr!)

Summer 2024 - Our First Week in Peru

 This year we are escaping the 100 degree plus heat in St. George by traveling to Peru. In past years, when we planned our trips, we booked our own modest lodging and arranged activities and internal transportation on our own—a lot of work! This year we decided to be kind to ourselves and let Rough Guides select accommodations, arrange for all internal transportation and a few tours. As you will note, we ended up staying in hotels much more lavish than we normally book. But oh well, we will “suffer” through it!

6/20 - We arrived in Lima on Roger’s birthday. I don’t think either of us fully appreciated the fact that this is Peru’s winter. We thought Peru was a tropical country, near the equator and would be either rainy or dry, but warm.  As a result, we were taken aback when we arrived to cool (60 degree) cloudy and misty weather—there were no blue skies or sunshine in Lima. Now I realize that we shouldn’t complain about being cool as the alternative in St. George is extreme heat. Weather aside, we cleared customs non-stop (that means there was no check of our luggage) and were met by a friendly Mario who would be our guide for our first week in Peru. He and a driver took us to our hotel, the Blu Hotel Boutique (bluhotelboutique.com) a delightfully small hotel in the Miraflores district of Lima. We arrived at 11:30 pm tired from the full day of travel. 

6/21 - Our first full day in Lima, we were on our own. We enjoyed a beautiful hotel breakfast served at the cafe adjoining the hotel. The breakfast included fresh juice (papaya, strawberry, etc.), yogurt, granola, eggs and your choice of coffee—cappuccino, Americano, flat white, etc. We selected the “huevos Peruanos,” (scrambled eggs with spicy sausage) and cappuccinos.  Delicious! 

Then we explored the streets of Miraflores while searching for a bank with an ATM to obtain local currency. Navigating without a map was a challenge as we were told that we could only trust one kind of ATM. But eventually we found the bank. As we walked back to our hotel, we found the “cat” park (AKA Kennedy Park or 7 June Park) and a great little outdoor cafe (El Parquetito) for lunch/dinner. The park is known locally as the cat park because hundreds of cats live there in little cardboard boxes decorated by the locals. The cats are adored here and are very friendly, even wandering through the cafes hoping for a handout. On our walk back to the hotel, we found a large grocery store with a huge produce section and everything else you could possibly need. It would be easy to live in Lima except for the 5 months of mist and the horrible traffic. The good news is the mist is wonderful for our dry St. George skin. We got our 10,000 steps on this first day.

6/22 - After breakfast at the hotel, we had a half-day city tour. It took us an hour to move through traffic to Lima city center. On the trip to the center, we stopped at a huge pre-Inca archeological site. It was constructed of adobe bricks stacked vertically to withstand the area’s frequent earthquakes.  In fact, several pre-Inca civilizations left ruins in Peru. We knew nothing about these early people prior to this tour.

     

We then drove through the San Ysidro residential area of Lima with large colonial mansions (sometimes a full block in size) and interspersed parks of olive trees brought to Peru by the Spaniards. Finally, we arrived at the central plaza (Plaza de Armas) with its cathedral, president’s house, mayor’s house and paved central square. Most of the buildings had been restored since the turbulent 1980s when far left groups stressed by economic conditions tried to overthrow the government and frequent earthquakes. We toured a nearby monastery/church with catacombs and a beautiful wood-lined library with more than 25,000 books, some dating from the 16th century. The library especially brought out the historians (both of us have B.A.s in history) in Roger and me.

     

After the city tour in the early evening, we walked to Punto Azul for dinner. Had to wait 45 minutes for a table. We were served small (Costco-sample size) Pisco Sours for the inconvenience. It really wasn’t much of an inconvenience as we met a lovely Chilean woman, her husband and daughter who were celebrating her 83rd birthday. She was delighted that Roger nearly shared a birthdate with her. Again, we tried local specialties. Kathy had causa pollo and Roger had tacu tacu. The causa pollo had layered yellow potatoes, chicken salad and avocados. The tacu tacu was a rice-bean-onion mixture with herbs and all kinds of fish (baby octopus, shrimp, mussels) shaped like a football. Are we making you hungry yet?

6/23 - Today we had a long 4-hour drive with Mario (our guide) and Victor (our driver) south to Paracas. We passed landscapes with no vegetation—just sand, dirt and rocks—and a few beach communities. There were some flat areas of irrigated farmland, but not much. We had been advised that western Peru was largely desert, but seeing it was still a surprise. Paracas, our destination, is known for its beaches and the natural reserve, so we had expected the clouds and mist to evaporate. But it remained cool, cloudy and very humid. We stayed at the beautiful Aranwa resort but couldn’t enjoy the cold pool. We did have marshmallows roasted on an open fire that evening, a nice dinner of soup at the restaurant and then retired to our room to read. 

6/24 - The following day after breakfast, we drove 2 hours inland towards Ica to a huge 800-acre vineyard with a resort in the middle: Hotel Viño Queirolo. Here we found the sun! We couldn’t check in immediately, so we had a tour of the property’s car museum. The 30 or so cars in the museum dated from a 1905 Ford to two 1960s pickups. All the cars ran and were meticulously maintained—looked as if they had just come off the showroom floor. They called the 1957 Chevy an antique, but we remember it from our teens (hmmm..what does that make us?). The 4th picture below shows a 1904 car with kerosene headlamps. This tour was followed by a tour of the vineyard and the tasting cellar where we tasted 2 wines (Chardonnay and Malbec) and 3 Piscos (wine brandies). 

   

After, we moved into our room, we took a swim in the large heated pool, ate a quesadilla and relaxed until our trip with Mario and Victor to Huacachina Lagoon—an oasis located on the outskirts of Ica in the middle of sand dunes. We strolled around the lagoon (to which the community has added water due to years of drought) and then queued up for a dune buggy ride at sunset. We were joined in the 6-seat dune buggy by two women from Argentina and Uruguay and at the last minute a middle-aged man. We strapped up (I must say the driver was not terribly concerned about the tightness of our seat belts) and took off. What appeared from a distance to be flat desert was really a bumpy, terrifying ride up one side and down the other accompanied by the delighted screams of the girls sitting in the front seats…kind of like a roller coaster. The screams of the girls seemed to encourage the driver to find steeper and faster dunes to conquer. (Am I sounding old????) We stopped (gratefully) for views of the dunes at sunset—absolutely stunning—and for those adventurous enough to snowboard down the dunes…Roger being one of them.

Full of sand and great memories of the ride in the dunes, we returned to the resort for a lovely dinner and a great night’s sleep.

    

6/25 - Mario and Victor picked us up at 6am the next morning for the ride back to Paracas (still cloudy) and a boat trip to the Ballestas Islands (the poor man’s Galapagos). As we queued up for the boat trip, we met a young couple with their two children from Colorado who were at the end of their stay in Peru. They sat near us on our boat adventure, a 40-minute ride over flat ocean to the islands. On the way to the islands, we saw a Nazca drawing on the sandy hillside—quite astonishing that the lines remain visible after 1000s of years. The islands are fairly barren, but contain beautiful layers of colorful rock, arches, and sea stacks. We saw Humboldt penguins 🐧, cormorants, terns, boobies, pelicans and a few other birds we could not identify. There were lots of sea lions both in the ocean and on the rocks and buoys. The Ballestas Islands do not compare with the pictures we have seen of the Galapagos, but we thought the tour was well worth it. After the tour, we had coffee with Mario and Victor, hopped in the van and headed back to our hotel in Lima.

     

     

For us, this was a busy entry week. But now we look forward to two weeks in Arequipa (7,700 ft elevation) with nothing planned.