At 9:00am we left for a city tour. First we went outside of the city to check out some marvellous views. We also tried more coca products, including two varieties of hard candies, and Maca, which comes in toffee or powder form and is high in protein, raising your energy levels when tired.
Arequipa gets a mild amount of rain, having sunshine about 300 days of the year. As you can see in the background, they had some rain and moisture in the mountains, hence the snow-covered tops. (It is still 25-30 degrees outside, though.) They don't do any skiing here, but there is a bigger mountain in northern Peru where they ski in July and August.
We continued our minibus tour into a small square, where I saw "Queso Helado" signs... I said to Katrina, "That's weird, that signs says cheese ice cream." We figured I must be wrong, but shortly after, there was another stand with the same sign and a block of ice cream that looked like cheese. Well, it turns out that it is called cheese ice cream, or frozen cheese, but it is not made from cheese. Of course, I had to try some, so for only two soles (0.80 cents) I got a small cup. It actually tastes just like vanilla ice cream and was very good.
YOU CAN SEE THE ICE CREAM BLOCK IN THE BACK, AND THE SELLER DRESSED IN TRADITIONAL MOUNTAIN CLOTHING WITH HER HAIR BRAIDED. (The only thing non-traditional is the large hat, which they need to keep the sun off of them; usually they have tiny hats because it is cooler in the mountains.)
After a walk around Arequipa's main square and through a church, we went to visit a beautiful monastery; apparently the only monastery in the world that is a city built within a city. It is over five acres of land surrounded by very high solid walls. They are recruiting nuns here, as they used to have over 2000, and now only have 24. They are also having problems finding priests, with only 8 in this area now (though the lack of nuns and priests in Peru-wide).
Traditionally, first-born sons were married, second-born sons became priests, first-born daughters were married, and second-born daughters became nuns. At age 12, daughters would be sent to the monastery for training until about age 16, when they would "graduate" to a nun. They went home for a short period after graduating, and then returned to the monastery with some simple belongings (tapestries, clothes, etc) where they lived for the remainder of their life. Families paid a one-time dowry of S/1200, enough for a regular person to live off of for ten years. They were allowed to talk to their families, through wooden bars, once per month, and spent their time praying and making goods such as cakes, tarts, tapestries, etc to sell to the public (which they sold through little turn tables in the walls). Now the nuns are allowed to go out into the city at times.
THE LONGEST STREET IN THE MONASTERY
Each nun owns their own little house quarters and the belongings in it. When she dies, her belongings go to the monastery and her house is sold to a new nun. Every three years the nuns vote for Mother Superior, and the maximum term is nine years (three re-elections). Later on (possibly when a Mother Superior came from Spain ??), the nuns all lived, slept and cooked together and lived in a communal way so that everything was equal.
THE MONASTERY STILL HAS A ROOM FOR GUINEA PIGS!!! AND THEY STUNK!
BEAUTIFUL COURT YARDS - THE HALLWAYS AROUND THE YARDS HAD AMAZING PAINTINGS
BEAUTIFUL WHITE WASHED STREET WITH RED FLOWERS
After the monastery tour, Mom went with the rest of clan for lunch and some shopping while I partook in the local siesta. Then Mom had a nap and I went out to catch up on my journal, which I am very far behind in!
I found a lovely place to enjoy a Daikiri Frese (strawberry daiquiri) while I sat and wrote, but was soon invited to join a couple at the next table, who happened to be from Australia (just can't get rid of 'em! Lol). Stephen and Sasha were visiting Peru for his sons wedding. We talked for a couple of hours, until it was time for me to head back to meet the group for dinner at 6:00pm.
We had a lovely dinner - I ate quinoa soup with pumpkin and curry (delicious!) - and celebrated Katrina's Birthday with some cake and coconut pisco liqueur (that we had bought on a Pisco tour).
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Location:Arequipa
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