Friday, June 21, 2019

Day 5 - Arequipa

if you listen you can hear the silence say
"when you think you're done, you've just begun"
Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way - U2

We arrived in Arequipa early in the morning. We're supposed to arrive at 05:30 AM, but I think we arrived later than that. The sun still hadn't risen though and it was really really cold in the morning. My feet was like freezing in the bus and when we got out of the bus, I was shivering. We're dropped off at this one point with different shuttles to take us to our hotel. The bus itself was continuing to the next leg. Here Peru Hop wasn't very organized. All of us were waiting for our luggages and bags, but the bags could be stored all the way in, like mine and Gioia were all the way to the back. So they had to unload all the bags at the front to reach the ones at the back. Unclaimed bags were scattered on the ground. I wonder if some would be missing. What Peru Hop should have done was organize people before departing, who's going to Arequipa, Puno, or Cusco and then load the bags based on this. The shuttle people were kinda in a hurry it seemed and we had to tell them over and over that we're waiting for our luggages. Even the people who were offloading the bags seemed exasperated. Finally we got all our bags and could get into the shuttle. Before we got into the shuttle, we said good by to the Singaporean group we met. Their schedule and ours diverged after that day so we wouldn't be travelling together again.

In Arequipa, we're staying at an hotel by Plaza de Armas. I kinda made a stupid decision in choosing this hotel. This wasn't my first choice and somehow I didn't stick to my first choice even though it was available. I was hoping the hotel was going to let us get into our rooms early on account we're going to check out super early too, but no such luck :( It was really disappointing. I was really tired and as often happens, I can be quite cranky :( As for the room, I didn't mind it and in fact I was kinda glad to have a proper hotel room after the 2 hostels experience, but Gioia actually preferred her room in Huacachina than this one. Well her room didn't have a window so it was kinda bad. One accommodating thing the hotel was willing to do for us was to allow us to have breakfast that day instead of the next day when we had to leave super early. However since we arrived really early, breakfast wasn't ready. So we spent the time walking around and waiting in Plaza de Armas.

That morning I found something really bad had happened to my body. It's an issue that I sometime experience here in Singapore too and would always stress me out. There in Peru, the magnitude was like more than 10 times more severe. I was quite in distress and it really brought my mood down even further. Mom was asking if I could go see a doctor there, but I didn't. I didn't even know how to begin to explain what happened, it's not even something that I like to talk to with my doctor here. So the plan was to self-medicate. It got better a bit, but then it returned with the same severity when I was in Cusco and it was still bothering me even after I left Peru :( It was something internal in my body. On the outside and in general I was fine so I could still do stuff, but knowing that there's a big problem inside, well as usual I just couldn't really shake it off. I was not in the best and positive mood :(

The day must go on though. After breakfast, we proceeded with the rest of the plan. There were some places that I wanted to visit, but since we're early, they're not open yet. We started with entering Basilica Cathedral of Arequipa which by Plaza de Armas and then we walked to the furthest place to go, Mirador de Yanahuara. You and I learned last year that mirador means a look-out point and this look-out point was some distance away and there would be some uphill walk. I didn't know how Gioia would handle it, but she did okay. We had to pass by busy streets. People were going to work after all. The heavy traffic, noise, pollution, crowd, they all really reminded me of Indonesia and I was thinking that one should be confident like an Indonesian in navigating the chaos :D Arequipa is surrounded by mountains and on the way to the look out point, we got a better look of the mountains. I think this is the Chachani mountain range.

The mirador itself has interesting and beautiful arches and a church nearby. The church wasn't open yet I think when we were there and I'm also not sure if it's free, so we didn't enter. We took some time taking picture. The Misti volcano can be seen overlooking the city.

After that we went down and went to Mundo Alpaca. Mundo Alpaca has a shop that sells alpaca and llama wool products and a whole other area where you can see the llama and alpaca and get explanation on how the wools are processed. In fact as we approached, one of their staff came to greet us and took us around. First we saw some alpacas and llamas. I don't know how, they straight away walked to the edge of their fence. I think their handler might have shepherd them to us. They were really cute. We were given plant to feed them, but only one was eating what we're giving. The rest looked like they didn't care.

Then the staff explained the different wools. The softest and most expensive and most difficult to get is actually wool from vicuña. Vicuñas are not domesticated. They are out there in the wild and you don't get a lot of wool from a vicuña, only like 250 grams per animal, so it's very rare. We were also shown the different plants that they use to dye the wool. I love how bright the colours can get. Then the staff left us to explore and enjoy the place. Side note: the place has a lot of big succulents. I was fascinated. By the way I only knew what a succulent is when one day my Japanese classmates suddenly talked about it.

After that we made our way to Santa Catalina Monastery. The compound is identifiable by the high wall. In fact it's perhaps the only section of town that is protected by a wall. I thought it was rather funny that a monastery for nun would have a high wall. It was early when we arrived so there weren't many people and we liked it that way. You can get a guide, but we decided not to. The monastery is very interesting with its many different sections, cloisters, and colours. Inside it's like a small village. The nuns didn't stay in a dorm like building. It's more like they had their own little houses. Some of the houses were bigger and had more rooms and facilities because the nun came from richer family. These houses would have proper sitting area and rooms. While the poorer nuns may just have beds in the kitchen. Here's a picture of one the bed.

The compound actually didn't start with a high wall, the wall was added much later. I like visiting this monastery a whole lot. It's big and there's so much to see and there are little pockets of space where you can be alone and find a little bit of peace and quiet. It's also very beautiful with the strong colours in the inside walls. There are still some nuns living there, not a lot. I wonder where they live though. Maybe now all live together in one of the building. Below are some pictures from the monastery. You definitely shouldn't miss this when you visit Arequipa.

After that we were hungry but not so hungry. So we ended up having snacks at one of the Chinese restaurant. It's something that I really was interested about. There's a lot of Chinese restaurants in Peru, like a lot. Of course taste and portion wise have been adjusted to local preference, but I did wonder if locals really go there. They do really. When we went to one, there were locals eating. We chose fried wonton and fried tempura prawns. The wonton was a lot and not very good and we couldn't finish it. The tempura prawns were interesting because they're seasoned with the same powder as the Shihlin fried chicken but not as spicy.

The last stop of the day was Museo Santuarios Andino where you can see the mummy Juanita, the girl who was sacrificed to the Inca Gods and found intact due to the cold mountain she was sacrificed in. So she was like freezed after death naturally. The museum was in a university and the entrance kinda confused me a bit, but we found it. You can choose to have a guide, but again we didn't. You started with watching a video about the sacrifice and how she was found. What I recalled from the video was it was an arduous journey for the Inca people to climb the mountain for this sacrifice and Juanita was likely sedated or drugged before she was sacrificed / killed by blunt force trauma to the head. I wonder if she knew that she was going to be sacrificed. It must be frustrating to climb up a mountain just to be killed or perhaps she thought that she's doing it for the greater good. The exhibition itself is very small. There are some rooms that show some clothing and artifacts from that time and at the end you see Juanita in her ice box. Juanita is not always on display, there's another mummy girl, but when we were there we saw Juanita. I felt a bit sad for her. By the way, I googled this, I wonder how come there's no 3D imaging so far on what her face would likely look like.

Anyways, after that we called it the day. We had a really early start the next day and with our tiring journey to Arequipa, we really needed the rest. Had dinner on one the balcony restaurant near our hotel. Again I couldn't finish my meal. The waiter was like concerned that it's not good. I told him the portion was too much and I asked him if he ate that much, like how come he's still skinny. It made him laugh. It's good to make people laugh :D For pictures from Arequipa, you can go here.

:) eKa @ 10:10:00 PM •