Moving Onward
Heading out from Arequpia (very big, very spanish, pretty in parts but mostly big and crowded city) to Chivay to visit the Colca Canyon and the Condor Cross today. I think today is just Chivay and the hot springs then at 5am tomorrow head to the Condor Cross to see the biggest birds (15 ft wingspan) in the world ride the thermals up above the 2nd deepest canyon in the world. Ah so many records here in Peru.
I did actually like Arequià somewhat, much nicer weather and the colonial part of the city is really beautiful but this weekend happened to be the 466th Anniversary of the city so everything is packed with people. Also, good food is lacking (same for coffee) and after months of weekly if not daily parades in Cusco I have to say that Arequpia just can´t hold a candle to the Cusquenans in terms of celebrations. For days we´ve been hearing about the big parade which finally started around 11am today and hysterically was lead by the city garbage trucks. If this were Cusco the parade would have started at 7am a week ago and still be going. LOL. The party at my local church for the Saint´s birthday a week ago was bigger than this! I´ve always been told Arequpia was pretty but boring and that advice was spot on. BUT I did get to see the Ice Maiden, Juanita who isn´t really a mummy just really well preserved and frozen (in the past three years she has actually collected some perma frost that looks like freezer burn in her fancy state of the art glass freezer and it doesn´t look like it can possibly be good for her!) Also visited the GORGEOUS Santa Catalina COnvent which takes up several city blocks, is completely walled and still has sections which house nuns that have taken vows of solitude and cannot be seen by the public. But the older sections, dating back 400 years have been incredinly restored and were fascinating to walk through- I think we easily spent 3 hours there just wandering about.
So, things are winding down and looking forward to catching a bus out of Arequipa in the next hour or so...hopefully will post pics before I leave Lima. Stay tuned...
I did actually like Arequià somewhat, much nicer weather and the colonial part of the city is really beautiful but this weekend happened to be the 466th Anniversary of the city so everything is packed with people. Also, good food is lacking (same for coffee) and after months of weekly if not daily parades in Cusco I have to say that Arequpia just can´t hold a candle to the Cusquenans in terms of celebrations. For days we´ve been hearing about the big parade which finally started around 11am today and hysterically was lead by the city garbage trucks. If this were Cusco the parade would have started at 7am a week ago and still be going. LOL. The party at my local church for the Saint´s birthday a week ago was bigger than this! I´ve always been told Arequpia was pretty but boring and that advice was spot on. BUT I did get to see the Ice Maiden, Juanita who isn´t really a mummy just really well preserved and frozen (in the past three years she has actually collected some perma frost that looks like freezer burn in her fancy state of the art glass freezer and it doesn´t look like it can possibly be good for her!) Also visited the GORGEOUS Santa Catalina COnvent which takes up several city blocks, is completely walled and still has sections which house nuns that have taken vows of solitude and cannot be seen by the public. But the older sections, dating back 400 years have been incredinly restored and were fascinating to walk through- I think we easily spent 3 hours there just wandering about.
So, things are winding down and looking forward to catching a bus out of Arequipa in the next hour or so...hopefully will post pics before I leave Lima. Stay tuned...
posted by WanderLust at 8/15/2006 01:49:00 PM
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