AREQUIPA - PERU

16th - 20th Jun 2011

Plaza de Armas in Arequipa.

The bus journey was uneventful and we arrived in Arequipa at 2030hrs. Taxi ( I always worry about taxis, they are a major risk factor, and I promise to wax lyrical about them sometime later ) to the hotel 'Casa de mi Abuela' ( House of my Grandmother ). It is a most quirky place and quite fun.

Left: The hotel. It is an odd place with buildings spread out all over the place, parrots and budgies in the garden and geese around the back, but good service and value. Recommended if you ever pass this way.

Right: Looking down one of the shopping streets. Most of the old buildings are built out of a pale coloured volcanic rock. It is very attractive. In fact the city, the second biggest  in Peru with 4 million inhabitants, is really beautiful and on a par with any other of the best cities that I have ever visited. Clean, elegant, with impressive old and new architecture, up-market shops and restaurants, it has a cheerful prosperous atmosphere about it. It is head and shoulders above Lima, in my opinion. Of the many attractions listed in it's tourist guide no less than 26 are religious sites of some sort. These Latinos certainly get a bit carried away by churches! On the plus side, it does not have a MacDonalds.

Left: A happy pistol packin' local cop. She told me she would blow her whistle for me if I took her photo, and duly obliged.

Right: A happy looking Arequipan enjoying the sunshine in Plaza de Armas. I sure I recognise her from somewhere. Lots of people, and pigeons, were wandering around and enjoying themselves. So was I.

Left: This is Juanita. She was about 13 years old when sacrificed 500 years ago in an Inca ritual to appease the apu ( god ) of the Ampato volcano near Arequipa. She was walked, in procession, 160 miles, from Cusco and then up the 21,500 ft volcano before being put to death. Her mummified body was discovered by a German anthropologist, Johan Reinhard, in 1995 in a remarkably well preserved state. It is on 'frozen' display amongst other bits of kit in a museum here. I saw it. Look it up. It's an interesting story. Her name is derived from the name, Johan = Juan = Juanita, of her finder. Not, as in the old joke, because she only has one tooth. ( one eater....get it? )

I joined a two day tour of the Colca valley and canyon. We were a party of 10 plus our, again excellent, guide Donnell. This involved a 4 hour mini-bus ride over the highest part of the area, at 15,000ft, before getting there. We stopped at several sites on the way to be pumped full of coca tea! The guide carried altitude sickness pills and oxygen just in case. I think only one of our group felt ill.

Right: We stopped at places like this which looked towards various volcanos. The Incas worshipped the gods ( apu ) of the volcanos. There were always hundreds of little, and some not so little, columns of piled rocks. The tradition was, and is, to make a column, or add a rock, and make a wish to the volcano. I made several. We shall see.

 Left: A vicuna. We stopped to take photos of these in a 'protected area' en route. Vicuna, and the even more rare guanaco, live above 12,000 ft and were nearly hunted to extinction. They are now closely protected, although annual drives take place to catch them and get some of their wool ( only a little bit off their backs ) and to count them. They are of the same camel species as the llama and stupid spitting alpaca.

I am now an authority on these creatures. Llamas. Common as muck, are not good to eat and their wool is poor. Their only purposes are as pack animals ( max load on a llama is 40kg. Remember that, could come in useful. ), for leather and their dung is used as fertilizer. Alpaca. Silly sheep-like creatures that spit and lie down if you try to put a load on them. They are good to eat and their meat contains no fat or bad chlorestorol. Their wool is good too, especially on the 'baby' models. They come in both curly and shaggy long haired varieties. Vicuna. Quite rare, but increasing. Timid creatures that live at high altitude and are protected. Their wool is much sought after and expensive. Incas ( the kings ) wore vicuna. The peasants put up with llama wool. Guanaco. Very rare and live at high altitude near the coast. They look a bit like a vicuna but with a different head and darker colour.

 Right: Gareth and Ann from Merthyr Tydfil. They were on a mega holiday going around the world. Poor Ann suffered a bit from the altitude. If you read this, Ann, hope you recovered OK!

Left: Our lodge, Mama Yachi, for the night. It was a charming place and full up with us and other tours. Just after we arrived here we were taken to a nearby place with volcanic hot springs. There were 6 'pools' of varying temperature. Even I got in. It was hot but remarkably relaxing with a healthy sulphurous whiff. They even had local children doing traditional costume dances around the side to amuse us. 

Right: Inside the lodge, which had a slightly Swiss chalet feel to it. The food was fantastic and both Gareth and I drank freely of a local Peruvian red wine. I think that may have caused me slight altitude sickness.

The next day, on to the Colca valley. Lots of terraced farming on 1000 yr old terraces. Very picturesque and lots of increasingly vertiginous cliff side driving, but I'm getting used to that now. It certainly never seems to worry the drivers.

.......and in the oddest out of the way places there were local women selling the normal stuff from makeshift stalls; mostly at places where tourists stopped to admire a good view. There was always so much stuff on sale and seemingly remarkably few people buying it.

Talking of locals, there are two 'clans' in the Colca valley. The Collauhas and the Cabanas. Historically they fought each other relentlessly, but now almost co-habit. The Collauhas speak Quechuan and wear white hats ( as on the right ). The Cabanas speak Aymara and wear coloured hats. Believe it or not, before the Spanish put a stop to it, the different clans 'shaped' the heads of their babies by strapping wooden blocks to them. Because the Collauhas worshipped the apu of a cone shaped volcano ( Mt Misti ), their children were given cone shaped heads. The Cabanas worshipped the apu of a flat topped volcano so their children had flat fronted heads. How weird! But true. They were persuaded that wearing different hats was a more sensible option.

On to the Colca canyon proper. This is the deepest canyon in the world. Where we stopped it was about 4000 ft from the edge to the river Colca at the bottom. From some adjacent volcanos and mountains it was much more. It is famed for the condors which nest in the cliff faces. We arrived on a good sunny condor spotting day, amongst quite a crown of fellow gawpers.

Right: A juvenile condor . I now know that the mature male has a large crest on it's head, the female doesn't. The juveniles are a brown colour without the white collar and start to turn black at about 5 years old. Condors can live to about 50 years old in the wild. A bird in a German zoo is, or was, 70.

 

 Left: This old man quite obligingly sat down on a rock only about 20 yds away from the tourist 'gallery'. The sound of clicking cameras was deafening but the bird didn't seem to care! He was a bit of a poseur, probably to feature in Condor Monthly as Condor of the Month.

Condors, of the vulture family, are scavengers of carrion. This one thought my cap was road kill perhaps. I ducked.

I remember when I was in the army our soldiers only recognised three types of bird namely, spuggies, craws and shitehawks. This definitely comes under the 'shitehawk' variety.

On the edge ( left ). We were taken for a short hike
along the lip of the canyon.
There are several villages dotted about on the canyon floor. They have to be pretty self sufficient because there are no roads and it takes them about three days to walk out, with donkeys, to get any supplies from the outside world. Apparently some of the inhabitants never ever leave their village which has no electricity or modern gizmos that we 'need', and they are perfectly happy. Another lesson here?

Right: Most of our group. Gareth ( Wales ), Donnell ( guide ), Tina ( Germany ), Bill and Beth ( USA ), 2 x Peru, kneeling Susan ( Germany ). We were a jolly crew, I like to think.

Left: We stopped at various villages like this one; name escapes me. As always lots of tourist tat on sale plus llamas on strings to be petted and kissed, as here, yuck, and captured large birds to place on tourists' heads with which to have their photos taken

Right: In this village they sold a variation on pisco sour called 'colca sour'. They used a local fruit ( that green one in the bowl, haven't a clue what it is ) instead of lime. It was OK but rather 'sharp' on the palate. The lady making it is a Cabana. She is wearing a coloured hat.

Left: Would you believe it! In a small town called Chivay, pop. about 1000, on the way out of the valley, there was another Oirish bear; McElroy's. Amazing. I went in, of course, but did not find an Irishman present. Day off perhaps. How on earth an Irishman came to start a bar here is worthy of  explanation.

.....this place boasted of being the highest Irish pub in the world. I seem to remember that Paddy's bar in Cusco also made that claim. Chivay is at an altitude of 3651 meters which, by my calculation, is 11,975 feet. Paddy's bar claimed it was at 11,156 feet. I think Paddy needs to change his sign. Maybe, and I wouldn't be surprised, there is a higher one in the Himalayas. Anyone know any different?

....and so back to Arequipa. This volcano ( left ) is Mt Misti, overlooking the city. It's summit is at 18,760 feet AMSL. Apparently not too difficult to climb if you have the time, and the inclination. There's probably a f*****g Oirish bear on the top.

From Arequipa it was Cruz del Sur bus overnight ( 16 hours ) back to Lima. I had the upstairs front 'panoramic' window, which was not much of a benefit due to it being dark for most of the journey. I was again most generously looked after by Pepe and his family for a couple of days before returning to Panama City from where I write this at an outrageously expensive hotel computer. Many thanks Pepe and Milly. Panama is almost American prices.

Pepe, Milly, Emily and Sandy happily saying good-bye.

I won't bore you with the details of my flight from Lima, suffice to say there was again some hassle at check-in. At least my bag wasn't broken into this time and they didn't make me take off my shoes! Progress. Everyone waited at the baggage carousel at Panama marked 'Lima baggage' for half an hour before someone said that the baggage was on another carousel at the other end of the building. I'm sure 'they' do these things deliberately just to amuse themselves. I can imagine some bored jobsworth watching us from a window and laughing his head off.
 I am due to catch a ship, the Cap Cleveland container vessel, tonight at Balboa port en route to Auckland, New Zealand. No internet on board so this will be the last report until Auckland in 18 days time. I shall be keeping a 'Ship's Log'.

PS The last vid link for Peru was the wrong one. I have been instructed by the Peruvian Tourist Board ( ie Pepe ) to show the correct one. I haven't checked it because I'm in a hurry. For all I know it might be from an Inca Porno site. If so, apologies. Must dash.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFtmSE5oPDA