Spanish Studies in Arequipa

We have now moved on to the Colca Canyon, up high in the Andes (crossing the divide at 16,108 feet. Definitely, aside from being on an airplane, the highest we've ever been...read that anyway you want to. ;-)  But that is a story for another day.  

Now it is time to wrap up Arequipa.  Arequipa has a lot in common with San Miguel. The altitude, the climate, it's age (Arequipa was founded in 1540, SMA in 1542), the combined influences of the Spanish and the pre-Columbian cultures, the list goes on and includes Spanish language schools.  A difference is that English isn't spoken as much in Arequipa so it was easier for us to use our Spanish there even when not in class. Another is that Arequipa has roughly 900,000 more inhabitants.

The combo of “formal" Spanish classes (outdoors) and touring has worked well.  We are much more comfortable using Spanish now, but still have a ways to go.  Pat  even manages to conjugate things correctly (occasionally).  And Bill’s comfort level with conversation is greatly improved. We hope to continue the progress by having our guides use Spanish much of the time.  

 Below is a shot of Bill in our classroom at Ceica Spanish School.

On one of our early tours we visited the centers of two nearby "districts".  Districts appear to be somewhat independent areas (with their own government) but they feel more like just another neighborhood of the city. The parish church of Cayma is "parroquia San Miguel Archangel". Sound familiar?  Yep, another similarity with SMA. From there we moved on to the nearby cemetery, similar to the Pantheon in SMA except here there are more sculptures.

Parroquia San Miguel Archangel in Cayma, Arequipa

Cimiterio de Cayma

From Cayma we headed to Yanahuara Plaza & Mirador. There's a lovely view from the Mirador and many school groups were there enjoying that view.  We especially enjoyed seeing the kids in their uniforms complete with hats for sun protection.

Another day, another mirador. This one, Carmen Alta  required taking a bus but it was still pretty close and officially in the city (I think). The amazing part was how rural the area was.

View from Carmen Alta

August 15 is Founder's Day in Arequipa, celebrating 477 years in 2017. Arequipa celebrates founders day with a big parade, military aircraft flying overhead, fireworks and much more. The parade features bands, dancers, and groups representing schools, businesses and government organizations of the entire region of Arequipa, and only Arequipa. The parade route is lined with rows of seats, most with a cover for shade. The front row costs roughly $15 per seat. The rows behind cost less. How great to have seats on the parade route without folks crowding in front of you!

Note: The schools represented in the parade included the Steve Jobs Institución Técnica...we wonder if they have approval for the use of Steve's name? We bet not.  Following are shots of a few of the dancers.

Founders Day Parade

Another day we were off to Sabandia to see the Molina, a gristmill from 1627. We were surprised by the horizontal wheel (rather than the vertical where we are familiar with from New England). While we were there Pat got to visit with a cute alpaca and we both enjoyed the local drink …Chica Morada de Maíz. With 0.5% we were not worried about too much alcohol. 

Sabandia

One of the highlights of our visits was the Monasterio de Santa Catalina. a monastery of Dominican nuns. It's like a small, calm, walled village within a city. Founded in 1580, there are still around 20 active nuns there.  At the peak there was a combined population of nuns, novices and staff of around 400. The nuns quarters varied according to their family wealth but most included a sleeping/living room and a large kitchen. The beds were under arches for protection from earthquakes.  See photo following.

Monasterio de Santa Catalina

After our tour of the Monasterio, we had planned to lunch at the Trattoria de Monasterio. We arrived at 3:05. They close from 3pm to 6pm.  We decided to return to Zig Zag where we had really enjoyed our meal a few days earlier. This time we tried a sampler of beef, lamb and alpaca.  All were great...tender, tasty, perfectly cooked.  

On Saturday we hired a driver (a friend of Sonia's) to take us to some favorite local weekend stops.  But first, enroute we drove across the Iron Bridge, designed by Eiffel of the Paris Tower fame.  Below, see the railing of the bridge with El Misti Volcano in the background.

View through railing of Iron Bridge designed/build by Eiffel

Here's the view of the 3 local volcanoes (from left to right, Chachani, El Misti, Pichu Pichu) from the tower at the Mirador de Sachaca.  

Later we had Bunellos in Characato (at Doña Lenny). Here they are, almost ready. All they need is a dose of syrup.

And along the way we spotted a Peruvian cowboy enjoying the day and a farmer tilling his fields.

Rural views around Arequipa

On Sunday, our last day off during our 2 weeks of Spanish lessons, Pat developed some “crib sheets” of Spanish phrases & usage (for review by Sonia), Bill worked on photos, and then we went downtown to Museo Santuarios Andinos to visit " the Ice Maiden.

The "Inca" Ice Maiden aka the Lady of Ampato, is an amazingly well-preserved frozen body of an Inca girl who was sacrificed to the Inca gods sometime between 1450 and 1480 when she was approximately 12–15 years old. She was discovered on Mount Ampato (approx. 50 miles north of Arequipa) in1995) when she was exposed to the elements due to a recent eruption that caused her centuries old ice enclosure to melt. She is on display in the Museum in Arequipa during the high season (winter here in Peru).

The story of how she & others were selected as infants (or before) as worthy of appeasing the gods (volcanoes) and how, once the volcano started showing its displeasure, they made the months long journey to the summit of the volcano (a journey that is treacherous even with modern climbing equipment) was shared via a National Geographic film. Following the film, we had a guided tour. It was quite impressive to see  the well preserved textiles that she had been wrapped in, the delicate figurines (1-2” llamas made of gold, and even a 6” high replica of the Ice Maiden herself with her feathered headdress still intact) all of which were for her enjoyment in her after-life as a god. And finally we saw the Ice Maiden herself, cooly relaxing in her below freezing glass case. You could see her braided hair and her long well-trimmed finger nails. Her facial skin was dried due a few weeks exposure to the sun after her tomb was so rudely melted by the eruption and before her discovery by modern explorers 1995.  (No photos allowed in order to maintain proper conditions to preserve the invaluable artifacts.) 

We grabbed the following from the web. It gives the sense of what we saw but given the details of the eye, we suspect the photo was enhanced significantly.

After our visit with the Ice Maiden, we went to Trattoria de Monasterio de Santa Catalina, They offer a menu of nicely prepared Italiano & Arequipan dishes. 

Bruschetta at Trattoria Monasterio

On our last day of touring/Spanish class, we went by car 2.5 hours toward Corire to visit Toro Muertos (Dead Bulls) in the Peruvian coastal desert. We also visited Querulpa  to see the dinosaur tracks and views of the Valle de Majes.

The Toro Muertos site features petroglyphs. Petroglyphs are normally considered “cave paintings” but these decorate roughly five thousand large & small pieces of volcanic tuff strewn around the vast arid landscape. The designs, likely to have been carved between 500 and 1300 B.C. are the work of pre-Incan cultures (Chuquibamba, Wari) and  include figures of dancers, animals (snakes, alpacas, vicuñas, condor, foxes, jaguars, llamas, deer, parrots), plants, as well as  geometric designs, sun discs, etc. These remains of ancient cultures date back more than 1000 years old. (Directions from the ranger standing in a field of large rocks: "Walk straight toward that large rock up there” We thought, “Huh, which of the many. Oh well, it probably doesn’t matter.” So we walked in that general direction.  It worked. 

Petroglyphs at Toro Muertos

From Toro Muertos we drove through Corire to Querulpa to visit the Parque Jurasico. From Querulpa it’s a hike up hill (in the full sun) to the dinosaur footprints, vestiges of the prehistoric giants. Here there are tracks of dinosaurs dating from nearly 1 million years apart.  From the Jurassic period (199.6 to 145.5 million years ago) there are footprints of the Diplodocus-an herbivore. The diplodocus is the longest of the dinosaurs measuring 88 feet long and weighing 12 tons herbivore ). From around 99.6-97 milion years ago, there are footprints of the Giganotosaurus, a carnivore that was slightly larger than a T-rex and weighed up to 14 tons. 

Giganotosaurus Footprint

We drove along above and through the highly cultivated Valle (Valley) de Majes observing the crops of potatoes, rice and onions. This vast oasis of green is surrounded by desolate mountains. The rugged terrain combines red, yellow, white and grey stone with drifts of white & grey sand. 

It is late summer here and the potato harvest was in progress. Potatoes are dug up and then picked by hand into bags that are later loaded onto large flatbed trucks) 

Potato Harvest

Valle de Majes

We truly enjoyed our time in Arequipa, Spanish lessons and touring along with wining and dining.