Loving Peru (but not the cockerels)
June 8, 2009
Christina writes:
Peru. I am finally here after years of wanting to visit and my first introduction to it is a good one. We’re picked up at the airport by Jose who gives us some information on the city and surrounds, as he drives us to our hotel ‘La Casa de mi Abuela’ (My Grandmother’s House). La Casa is a rambling hotel with nooks and crannies everywhere and beautiful gardens with caged and wild birds singing. There are hammocks slung low between trees, a swimming pool, lots of comfy chairs scattered around the gardens. It feels like we have arrived in heaven! Our last night in Chile we went ‘backpacker’ and although the place was fine it was extremely noisy and we were looking for a quiet haven to chill out in for a few days.
Arequipa’s in the south of Peru, about 200kms from the border with Chile and a bit more than that to Bolivia. As we had flown over it in the plane the first thing that hit me was the green terraces – the terraces built in Inca times and now lush with growing vegetables. It was a welcome break in the mountainous red/brown landscape we had flown over. The view from the air made me love Arequipa straight away and I wasn’t disappointed once I got into the old city. The buildings are colonial, of different colours – some blue and pink – with high walls and others of the off-white volcanic brick the place is so famous for.
The streets of Arequipa old town were packed with taxis, ‘collectivos’ (shared taxis) and buses. The very few private cars on the road seemed to all be VW Beetles . Crossing the roads could be a bit life threatening and it took me a while to figure out there were some traffic lights as they were slung sideways across the street and only visible to those in cars, not pedestrians.
Originally we had had an old guide book for Peru (which thankfully we dumped in Chile for a newer version) that said we would find it hard to eat and the food was pretty bad. What a load of rubbish! The food is fabulous, at last we could eat vegetarian, there were even a few veggie cafes. For our first meal we decided to treat ourselves to a ‘posh’ restaurant and were rewarded with fantastic food and ate ourselves silly for under £30! Peru is cheaper than Chile and I’m sorry Chile you were lovely, but your food let you down. Now this will only mean something to veggies, but they even do soya products – I was in heaven – sad but I had really missed tofu! For the first time in weeks my body felt properly nourished and I soon started to feel revitalised.
Arequipa was not how I imagined Peru to be, I know I will see different sides to it as I travel but the city is quite cosmopolitan and it wasn’t what I expected. It is easy and that was great as all the travelling in Chile had made me weary and in need of some down time. There is guinea pig and alpaca on restaurant menus and some women in traditional dress but otherwise it felt like it could be anywhere with a very European air.
The city has a lot of seismic activity and active volcano. There is a ‘tremor’ every 4 hours on average! The last major earthquake was in 2001 and they are expecting another one at some point ....... so what with that and the volcano it felt like an interesting city to be in! I only felt one or two tremors whilst I was there and had felt a lot worse in Chile. EL Misti a huge classic cone shape volcano sits right on the edge of the city with its mountain friends Chachani and Pichu Pichu. All of them are over 5500 metres high, with Chachani pushing 6075 metres.
Deciding to make the most of our hotel and give ourselves sometime to acclimatise we actually had some days of lazing by the pool, catching up on internet stuff and easy sightseeing. Arequipa is at 2350 metres and felt like thee wasn’t quite enough air to take in. We knew we had to take it easy and not exert ourselves too much or risk altitude sickness (again) so we did.
The only thing that worked against our resting was the hundreds of cockerels that appear to live in Arequipa. Every morning at 5.30am one would begin its morning call, swiftly followed by another dozen and then another, then another and then sleep would be a distant dream. I am a good vegetarian and I don’t hold with killing animals but I have to say even I was thinking murderous thoughts after a few mornings of that.
One of the trips we did manage to pull ourselves away from our hotel to make was to the Monasterio de Santa Catalina, a convent that is like a town within the city. It has lots of different types of architecture due to the damage caused by earthquakes and new bits being added over time. Inside are lots of streets and courtyards filled with flowers and fruit trees, it’s all beautifully kept and restored. We spent one afternoon wandering around the buildings, peeping into cells, kitchens and storage rooms. It was very tranquil with a stern ‘silencio’ written above the entry arch. We were given instructions to ‘keep left ‘throughout, as it is such a maze it would be easy to get lost and go round in circles. A silent order of nuns still live in a new part within the monasterio and it was interesting to think they were so close as we oohed and aahed at the older areas. It felt very calming and spiritual and was a lovely way to spend an afternoon.
Too soon though it was time to hit the road again, but this time we guaranteed ourselves some comfort by ‘splashing out’ on luxury seats on the 6 hour bus to Puno for about £15 each - love this country! Before we set off though we joined in the ME North east global tea party via Skype and before technology got the better of us we were able to talk to some of the people at the party. So we set off happily for Puno and Lake Titicaca feeling refreshed and ready to face the higher altitude to come.
Cock a doodle bleedin’ do. Christina.
Posted by Trai Anfield. Posted In : Peru
