Peru the third
Went to Nazca. Climbed towers and saw several of the famous Lines - the Tree, the Hands, and various trapezoids. Bought a few rocks with symbols on for use as props souvenirs.
This was followed by a really long -12 hours - bus ride to Arequipa. This would have been better without the REALLY LOUD films, with speakers we couldn't turn off or down, and in English, making it impossible to ignore. Worse, it was a horrible film. I desperately tried listening to Doctor Who audios as loud as my headphones could go, and still failed to drown out the sounds of people shooting each other, several torture scenes, and that bit with the guy chained to a bathtub being eaten to death by rats. Of all films to force on us, why pick that one?
In any case, made it to Arequipa still mostly sane. It's 2300m altitude here, and you can really tell the air is thinner, it's easy to get out of breath. Have been panicking about altitude sickness, bit so far both OK, and staying here 2 days to adjust before going higher.
Arequipa sits in this nice green valley, which is richly fertile on account of being in the shadow of 3 flipping huge volcanoes, which the early inhabitants thought of as gods. The city is built largely from volcanic rock which means the buildings are white.
We have seen a convent which is practically a whole town in itself. Girls originally were sent there from pretty rich families, so their families paid for all the then modern conveniences, and some even had servants, probably not a bad option for a young woman at the time. Then the Vatican decreed all nuns should live communally with no servants, and suddenly it became much less popular.
Also saw some cathedrals incorporating local symbols into the Christian ones. I quite liked the Last Supper where Jesus was earring guinea pig and corn. Speaking of which, I ate guinea pig for lunch, and H had alpaca ribs.
Afternoon, we went to a monastery with a famous library, and had fun looking at books and maps. Yay for old books!
This was followed by a really long -12 hours - bus ride to Arequipa. This would have been better without the REALLY LOUD films, with speakers we couldn't turn off or down, and in English, making it impossible to ignore. Worse, it was a horrible film. I desperately tried listening to Doctor Who audios as loud as my headphones could go, and still failed to drown out the sounds of people shooting each other, several torture scenes, and that bit with the guy chained to a bathtub being eaten to death by rats. Of all films to force on us, why pick that one?
In any case, made it to Arequipa still mostly sane. It's 2300m altitude here, and you can really tell the air is thinner, it's easy to get out of breath. Have been panicking about altitude sickness, bit so far both OK, and staying here 2 days to adjust before going higher.
Arequipa sits in this nice green valley, which is richly fertile on account of being in the shadow of 3 flipping huge volcanoes, which the early inhabitants thought of as gods. The city is built largely from volcanic rock which means the buildings are white.
We have seen a convent which is practically a whole town in itself. Girls originally were sent there from pretty rich families, so their families paid for all the then modern conveniences, and some even had servants, probably not a bad option for a young woman at the time. Then the Vatican decreed all nuns should live communally with no servants, and suddenly it became much less popular.
Also saw some cathedrals incorporating local symbols into the Christian ones. I quite liked the Last Supper where Jesus was earring guinea pig and corn. Speaking of which, I ate guinea pig for lunch, and H had alpaca ribs.
Afternoon, we went to a monastery with a famous library, and had fun looking at books and maps. Yay for old books!