Arequipa - Our Last Stop in Peru!

Our last stop on our Peru trip was to Arequipa, which is the second largest city in Peru. We arrived in the late afternoon and decided to tour around the city on our own. We saw the main square, the Cathedral, the monastery, did some shopping, dinner and back to the hotel. Our tour agency thought we needed a day to relax after our hectic schedule the past two weeks and didn't plan anything for this day. So we slept in and then wandered around the city some more.

My favourite part of Arequipa is their main square, Plaza del Armes, with the Cathedral as the main attraction. It was also pretty cool to see all of the Scotiabank branches, as neither Andrew nor I had ever seen a Scotiabank outside of Canada.

We went to the Casa de la Cultura museum to see Juanita, the Ice Princess. She is a 12-14 year old girl who was sacrificed by the Incan priests as a means to calm the active volcanoes. Her body was discovered in 1995 as a result of volcanic activity, which caused her to roll down the volcano from her icy grave. We actually saw her body, which has been preserved in icy temperatures, as well as several of the artifacts that were buried with her as part of the sacrifice. It was very disturbing to know that she was actually chosen at birth to be a sacrificial child, therefore her life must have been very difficult. When the time came, she had to walk up the volcano at such a young age under those weather conditions and, after drinking a special alcoholic beverage, was hit in the head and killed. There have also been many other bodies of children found on these volcanoes but none have been preserved as well as Juanita.

Before we came to Peru, we had read about a Peruvian delicacy, cuy, which is guinea pig. Some places will actually serve it with the head, teeth, finger nails, etc. still attached. As Andrew has been quite adventurous the past few years, he decided to order it for lunch overlooking the main plaza. This place was pretty sketchy but he didn't want to leave Peru without trying it. Oh, how our jaws dropped when it came to our table. Teeth, whiskers, some hair, fingernails, and the testicles still intact. We were gagging through the whole thing. Andrew did get a bit of meat off it, just to say he tried it, but wow, it was disgusting.

 We later relaxed in our hotel and decided to check out the Peruvian cinemas, so we caught a cheap movie (and a cheap taxi ride to get there). It was nice.

The next day, our last day, we were taken for a city tour. We drove to Carmen Alto for a nice view of the volcanoes and terraces and the Rio Chili River. Then to drove to Yanahuara, which is a colonial neighbourhood with really nice churches and architecture. Here is one of the picturesque streets in Yanahuara.

The last part of our tour was a tour around the monastery. We got to see the old convent, that was still active until recently, when the nuns moved into a newer adjacent part. It was really beautiful and well-kept, but hard to imagine living there.

 

 

At the end of the day, we had lunch at a nice creperie and then had some drinks at this cafe. We Skyped with my parents for my Dad's birthday and then headed off to the airport for the three flights back to Canada. It was kinda neat that we transferred at JFK in New York and I actually saw the Statue of Liberty from the airplace as we were taking off.

Peru was a really great trip, unlike anything else we'd ever done before. Of course, after 16 days, I was very very happy to head back to Canada to spend one more week with my family and to see my babies.