Tag Archives: Arequipa

Peru, South America

Casa de Avila

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We stayed at the cutest place in Arequipa. The Casa de Avila was more than accommodating for all of our requests. We arrived in Arequipa at 5am. They had arranged for a taxi to meet us at the airport, and to have our room available for early check-in. They also arranged for our 2 day Colca Canyon trip and our bus tickets from Chivay to Puno. The room was super cute too. Casa de Avila was within walking distance for everything we wanted to see and do in Arequipa which was a huge convenience. I love this little place!
Casa de Avila
Peru, South America

Santa Catalina Monastery

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On our first day in Arequipa, one of the first places we went to was the Santa Catalina Monastery. This is a functioning monastery with approximately 20 nuns still living on site today. It was built in the 1500’s. Back in the day the nuns lived it up with quite the luxury and privilege. Most had to pay a huge dowry to enter the convent. They also had servants and fancy things like china dishes, art work, silk curtains etc. I don’t quite understand how that works with the religious vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

Apparently the Catholic Church didn’t quite get it either, and in the late 1800’s the monastery was reformed, slaves/servants were freed and the riches were sent to Europe (hmmm, that doesn’t really go with the vow of poverty either now does it?!?) Nonetheless, the monastery was pretty interesting. If you check out the site, be sure to read about Sor Ana de Los Angeles.

Here are some photos:
Santa Catalina Monastery Arequipa Peru
Santa Catalina Monastery Arequipa Peru
Santa Catalina Monastery Arequipa Peru
Santa Catalina Monastery Arequipa Peru
Santa Catalina Monastery Arequipa Peru
Santa Catalina Monastery Arequipa Peru
Peru, South America

Did you get your license out of a cracker jack box?

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On the first day in Arequipa we were met at the airport by our taxi driver. He was the cutest dude and he only spoke Spanish. ps: The car had working seat belts which none of the other taxis have had so far. He put on the radio to some typical South American music and we were off. It was straight out of the movies!

Since then we have taken a few other taxis. I would like to tell you that we have driven 100kmh in a maximum 45 zone, passed on double solids, or while going over speed bumps and railway tracks. Nearly hit a dude driving a bike cart, and couldn’t even count the number of pedestrians or dogs that have been narrowly missed. It appears the most important part of the car, truck, moto-taxi, bus etc is the HORN!

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Update

Obsessed much?

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unesco bookFor some reason, I’m obsessed with UNESCO sites. I want to see them, I want to know about them, I want to visit them. It is an odd little phase I’m going through. FYI: There are 890 UNESCO World Heritage Sites as of 2010. Jon thinks that our apartment might as well be a UNESCO site, everything else is, so why not is his view point. Really, the dust balls and smudgy windows are hardly an attraction.

Because I’m a total nerd, and also slightly addicted to Chapters, I bought this book. I’m sure as we continue to travel (IF we’re fortunate enough to be able to travel), we’ll select sites that we’re interested in, and if I’m lucky enough, that’ll have one more site to cross off the humongous list.

So, if we’re keeping tally, and I am, I have been to 10 sites so far. The Palace and Park of Versailles, The Historic Centre of Rome & the Properties of the Holy See, Vatican City, Venice and its Lagoon, Westminster Palace & Westminster Abbey, Tower of London, Banks of the Seine France, Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Archeological Areas of Pompei & Herculaneum, and the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks.

After Peru, if everything goes according to plan, the count will be 17. Cusco, Machu Picchu, Chan Chan, Historic Centre of Lima, Historic Centre of Arequipa, Historic Centre of Mexico City, and Teotihuacan.

Too bad if I finally went to the Dinosaur Museum in Alberta and visited Dinosaur Provincial Park, I’d get another site crossed off the list.
Peru, South America

30 More Days!

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It almost doesn’t seem real yet because Jon’s been the one doing all the research and planning for this trip. I can’t even picture the complete itinerary, but he could tell you times and numbers for all the flights and busses we’ve got to take.

We’re pretty organized this time around as we’ve already got the bulk of our travel supplies. We’ve gone to get the appropriate vaccines and pills, and now just have to wait. (ps: my arm hurt like a mofo for more than 2 weeks after the travel shots!)So here’s the major attractions that I can remember from the plans we’ve got:

We fly from Vancouver to Lima and then to Arequipa. Then there is a tour of Colca Canyon, which thanks to Wikipedia I now know Colca Canyon is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, but not as vertical. This is where we hope to ease into the altitude while we see the Andean Condor. Nothing like jumping to 3300m right away. (FYI: We live at 377m, and people start feeling altitude sickness above 2400m)After Colca Canyon, we’re off to Puno and Lake Titicaca. At 3800m,

Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world. It looks bloody cold, yet all warnings say wear loads of sun screen to prevent sun burn. Apparently high altitude = no sun protection from the atmosphere. I suppose I should add sunscreen to the list of stuff we still need.From Puno we’re flying to Cusco. Cusco looks amazing. I’m looking forward to just wandering around and taking tons of pictures and checking out all the beautiful buildings. Cusco is at 3310m altitude. Let’s just hope we’re acclimatized by now and not feeling like death.

The next obvious place to visit from Cusco is Machu Picchu. You can’t really go to Peru and not visit Machu Picchu. That’d be like going to Paris and skipping the Louvre or the Eiffel Tower. After all the turmoil Peru has been going through from horrific mudslides this winter, I’m relieved that we’re able to get to Machu Picchu at all. We’re not doing the 4-day Inca Trail trek as we only have 16 days for the entire trip.  Once we’ve finished our tour of Machu Picchu and Cusco, we fly back to Lima for 2 more crazy days packed full of plans. They’re going to be insane, but we’re going to try to visit Islas Ballestas and the next day Chan Chan. (Bonus: Cusco, Machu Picchu and Chan Chan are 3 more UNESCO World Heritage Site to cross off my list!)

The tour of Islas Ballestas will take us along the coast on a boat. Hopefully we’ll see all sorts of birds (penguins, pelicans, flamingos) and dolphins, sea lions etc. Most of the travel books warn that it is stinky and that we’ll probably get pooped on.

From Islas Ballestas it is back to Lima for a flight to Trujillo which is adjacent to Chan Chan. I’ve read a bit about Chan Chan, and it seems like it’ll be worth the visit.We had a choice of flying the Nazca Lines or visiting Chan Chan. It was a tough decision, but ultimately, I didn’t really want to fly over Nazca and feel like vomiting for the entire flight. (Almost every review, blog, article about the flying the Nazca lines includes vomiting.)

So that’s a little recap of the Peruvian leg of the journey. We’ll have 2 days in Mexico City visiting Teotihuacan. And then home.