The Road To Arequipa...

Having had a great day in Lima hanging out with Renee, Jen, Alistair, and some other guy´s from the hostel, I got the taxi to the coach station in time to get the 7.30pm overnight sleeper to Arequipa.

The first part of the journey was on the famous Pan-Americana Highway - which is the world`s longest road - at nearly 30,000 miles. The only problem was - it was dark, so there wasn´t much to see.

Coaches are the way to go in South America if you want cheap transport across long distances - the only problem is they have an appalling safety record and accident`s are common. So I booked with the safest company in Peru - just to be on the safe side.

It took 15 hours to do the jounrey - non stop (they have two drivers who take it in turns) and they serve food (containing more meat - which I ate but didn´t enjoy) and play movies. They also have a game of bingo to win a return ticket - but it was all in Spanish so I quickly gave up. I managed about an hour`s sleep all told - but it was fun to watch the scenery go by through the front window of the top deck of the bus.

The terrain was mainly mountainous desert, and the bus takes so long because the road has to wind through the mountains.

At 11am the next day - we pulled into Arequipa.

I must say my first impressions were not great. The town is heavily industrialized, and we drove through the industrial part of the city on the way in. Having spent some time here - it`s actually a great place to hang out for a few days.

Here`s some pictures of the Plaza Amera (Mayor`s Plaza - every town seems to have one):

Arequipa is known as the "The White City" because the main buildings are built of a white volcanic rock which is common in the area. It`s certainly picturesque - but there`s another side to Arequipa. Part of it`s beauty are the volcanoes that literally hover over the town, bringing with them not just the fear of an eruption, but earthquakes. The last one was in 2001, and the next one is due in the next 5 to 10 years - add to this the fact that the volcanoes are due to erupt at some point in the near future.

Here`s some pics of the volcanoes:

There doesn`t seem to be much of a "travelers scene" here, so I took a few days out checking out the sites.

The main draws - apart from the UNESCO World Heritage Site main square - are the Juanita Museum and The Santa Catalina Monastery.

The Inca`s were active in this area over 500 years ago, and believed that the mountains were god`s. In times of trouble (e.g. drought or earthquake), they would sacrifice children to the mountain, usually a girl, usually aged around 12 to 14. Juanita was sacrificed and buried at the top of Mount Ampato - one of the mountains near here. You couldn´t take pictures (seems fair enough) - and all of the information was presented sympathetically, before they took you to see the mummy Junaita. Anyone who is interested can find out more here.

The second main draw is The Santa Catalina Monastery where nuns still live. The main part of the monastery is now open to visitors (paying for the bit you can´t look around). It`s a city within a city, with streets which have their own names. It took a good couple of hours to walk around.

Here`s some pictures:

Legend has it that the nuns who first went to the monastery lived a life of leisure and luxury, so they had to send in a tough nun to whip them all into shape. It didn`t mention anything along those lines in the guide book - but it was a fun story anyway.

Here`s a good one of slightly confused looking man with flowers on his head - which is probably what happens if you hang around nuns for too long :-)

You can find out more about Arequipa here.