Wednesday, July 9th, 2003- Day 141 to Thursday, July 10th, 2003- Day 142

Wednesday, July 9th, 2003- Day 141

I had seen many people popping pills over the past few days so bought some Diazepam or Vallium for .20 Soles a pill. The bus journey was fine (12 hours) and for the money, pretty poor. No food, drink and just one Spanish dubbed movie called “The Champ”. I was able to sleep as I had two seats. We arrived in Arequipa (After stops in Ica and Nasca). It was 6.00am. I bought a ticket for Cusco for the 11th. The cost was 25 Soles. I shared a taxi into town with an American (1.50 Soles each).

Cheap accommodation is hard to find in he city centre. Finally settled on “Le Foyer” – Ugarte 114 (hostalllefoyer”yahoo.com) for 18 Soles a night in a large twin bedded room with a window. Also situated around a nice courtyard. Gave in my dirty laundry for 5 Soles a kilo and started my sighseeing.

“Arequipa is 1,020km (632 miles) south of Lima and is the second largest in Peru, may be the most handsome in the country. Foundded in 1540, it retains an elegant historic center constructed almost entirely of sillar (a porous, white volcanic stone), which gives the city its distinctive look and the nickname la ciudad blanca, or the white city. Colonial churches and the sumptuous Santa Catalina convent gleam beneath palm trees and a brilliant sun. Ringing the city are three delightfully named snowcapped volcanic peaks: El Misti, Chachani, and Pichu Pichu, all of which hover around 6,000m (20,000 ft.).

As beautiful and confident as it is, Arequipa has not escaped disaster. The latest devastating earthquake (which registered 8.1 on the Richter scale) struck the city, and other points farther south, in June 2001. Though international reports painted a picture of a city that had caved in on itself, thankfully, that wasn’t the case. Poorly constructed housing in some residential districts was destroyed, but the colonial core of the city survived intact. The major structure damaged, the cathedral on the Plaza de Armas, is already undergoing repair, its asymmetry of towers no doubt a serious aesthetic offense in this stately city”.

Firstly I visited the monastery of San Francisco, five minutes from my hostel. I was the first tourist in the doors so I had the place to myself. It was 4 Soles in and I had my own English speaking Guide. He was good and he showed my the various courtyards, monastic life (monks still live and work there) and paintings. It was damaged in the 2002 earthquake and many cracks (which he pointed out) have appeared. It took about an hour and I tipped him 2 Soles. I would return later that night to visit the church.

Accross the road was the small but interesting “Municipal Historical museum” whose entry was 2 Soles. It had photos from the aftermath from various earthquakes (not from 2001), paintings and information on the war with Peru. Stayed there for about 30 minutes.

Next I visited the famous “Monasterio de Santa Catalina”, which has an entrance of 25 Soles.

“Arequipa’s stellar and serene Convent of Santa Catalina, founded in 1579 under the Dominican order, is the most important and impressive religious monument in Peru. Santa Catalina is not just another church complex; it is more like a small, labyrinthine village, with narrow cobblestone streets, plant-lined passageways, and pretty plazas, fountains, chapels, and cloisters. Tall, thick walls, painted sunburned orange, faded blue, and brick red, hide dozens of small cells where more than 200 sequestered nuns once lived. Built in 1569, the convent remained a mysterious world unto itself until 1970, when local authorities forced the sisters to install modern infrastructure, a requirement that led to opening the convent for tourism. Today, only 30 cloistered nuns remain, out of sight of the hundreds of tourists who arrive daily to explore the huge and curious complex.

Santa Catalina feels like a small village in Andalusia, Spain, with its predominantly mud?©jar (Moorish-Christian) architecture, intense sunlight and shadows, and streets named for Spanish cities. In all, it contains three cloisters, six streets, 80 housing units, a square, an art gallery, and a cemetery. Though the nuns entered the convent having taken vows of poverty, they lived in relative luxury, having paid a dowry to live the monastic life amid servants (who outnumbered the nuns), well-equipped kitchens, and art collections. Today, the convent has been nicely restored, though it retains a rustic appeal. Visitors are advised to wait for an informative guided tour (in English and other languages), though it’s also fun just to wander around. Among the convent’s highlights are the Orange Tree Cloister, with mural paintings over the arches; Calle Toledo, a long boulevard with a communal lavander?a at its end, where the sisters washed their clothes in halved earthenware jugs; the 17th-century kitchen with charred walls; and the rooms belonging to Sor Ana, a 17th-century nun at the convent who was beatified by Pope John Paul II and is on her way to becoming a saint. Visitors can enter the choir room of the church, but it’s difficult to get a good look at the main chapel and its marvelous painted cupola”.

I spent about 2 hours there. It is a city within a city with various laneways and houses for baking, weaving etc. It wa very nice. After lunch I visited the local tourist office where I met an American and his Cuban girlfriend who had been travelling for THREE years and were intending to travel for two more. He was offering me advice on my visit to Mendoza in a few weeks.

Anyway I went to the “Monasterio de la Recoleta” next. Its is a 10-minute walk from the Plaza de Armas across the Chili River, distinguished by its tall brick-red-and-white steeple, is the Recoleta convent museum.

“Founded in 1648 and rebuilt after earthquakes, the peaceful Franciscan convent contains impressive cloisters with sillar columns and lovely gardens; today, just four of the original seven remain. The convent museum includes several collections. In one room is a collection of pre-Inca culture artifacts, including funereal masks, textiles, and totems; in another are mummies and a series of paintings of the 14 Inca emperors. At the rear of the convent is a small Amazonian museum, stocked with curious items collected by Franciscan missionaries in the Amazon basin. The missionaries were understandably fascinated by prehistoric-looking fish, crocodiles, piranhas, and the clothing of indigenous communities. These souvenirs pose an interesting contrast to the Dominicans’ fine library containing some 20,000 volumes, including rare published texts from the 15th century”.

They give you a map to self guide through five or six courtyards and you can hire a guide. Most of the material I had seen before in various museums accross the nation. The library was interesting but I enjoyed taking my time. As I was first in after lunch (3.00pm), I was the only tourist and I took my time. I spent about an hour there.

Fir the rest of the afternoon I visited many churches (who only open during that period). They included the Basilica Cathedral (in the main square), San Agustin, La Compania (2 Soles to see the decorated Sacristry)

“La Compa??a, just off the plaza at the corner of San Francisco and Mor?n, opposite the cathedral, is a splendid 17th-century Jesuit church with an elaborate (Plateresque) facade carved of sillar stone. The magnificent portal, one of the finest in Peru, shows the end date of the church’s construction, 1698, more than a century after work began on it. The interior holds a handsome carved-cedar main altar, bathed in gold leaf, and two impressive chapels: the Capilla de San Ignacio, which has a remarkable painted cupola, and the Capilla Real, or Royal Chapel. Painted murals in the sacristy feature a jungle motif in brilliant colors. Next door to the church are the stately Jesuit cloisters, of stark sillar construction, now housing upscale boutiques (enter on Calle Mor?n). Climb to the top for good views of the city’s rooftops and distant volcanoes.”

…………………. San Francisco and the Claustros de la Compania. It was 8.00pm when i finished all this and headed back. Felt a bit tired and had a shower. Felt like an early night. Dinner (chicken, chips, salad) was not sitting well.