The White City

From Nasca, I took the night bus to Arequipa. I decided to be thrifty, and take the economic bus. Note to self: Spring for the luxury bus on overnight trips. The bus was cramped, dirty, and it smelled bad (although I am not one to point fingers, as I pointed out in a previous post about my hygiene going down hill) and there was no bathroom. And the bus ride was 10 hours. Luckily, no disasters occured.

I arrived in Arequipa about 7 this morning. Arequipa is beautiful. I went from the desert, back to the mountains. Arequipa is surrounded by snow-covered mountains, and behind the Plaza de Armas sits El Misti, a snow-covered cone-shaped volcano. Very cool.

First stop was the museum to visit Juanita, the ice princess. Juanita is a perfectly preserved, frozen 12-14 year old Incan girl, who was given as a sacrifice to the gods so that the volcano wouldn´t erupt and kill them all. She was found near the top of the volcano, frozen, but in tact. Despite being several hundred years old, she still has skin, hair, and fingernails. (I have certainly gotten my share of dead bodies in the last two days, eh?) Naturally, pictures of Juanita are strictly verboten. So much so that I couldn´t even find a postcard. Highly unusual. But the tour (which consisted of me, as I was the only English-speaking person around this morning) was very interesting. Juanita is just so... creepy. She actually has ice all around her mid-section, which is how she was found. Also very sorry for the poor girl. That sacrifice didn´t stop the volcano from erupting, or earthquakes from happening. There was one here just a few weeks ago.

After Juanita, I went to the Monasterio Santa Catalina (also one of the 1,000 places to see before you die). It´s huge, a city within the city. Colorful walls, lots of flowers, lots of courtyards. Photographers were going crazy, there was even a model shoot going on. I spent the better part of 2 hours wandering around the maze. Definitely worth the admission fee, that´s for sure. While I was in the monastery, I started talking to a couple of Canadian medical students on their summer vacation. We chatted for awhile, then decided to grab lunch on the Plaza de Armas (even prettier than Cusco´s plaza, I have to admit) followed by ice cream afterwards, before they caught their bus to Puno.

Tomorrow, I will be finishing up with Arequipa, and with it, Peru. Tomorrow night I will take the night bus to Tacna, which is the end of the line for Peru. From there, I´ll cross into Chile. So long, Peru. It´s been a trip!