Never a Dull Moment - Peru, Alpaca My Bags!

 

Peru - Land of the Incas, or at least it used to be.

We've been in Peru now for three days, stepping up our plans since Bolivia didn't work out.
And it's been a busy time.  We are back in the mountains with snow, for a while anyway. 

 

Unfortunately, a lot like northern Chile, you have to drive a long way in between cities, to find a place to lay your head.  Once you get somewhere it's interesting and quite nice, but in the meantime, you have to cross a lot of desolate landscape.   Like in the picture below, if you see green, you stop and get a photo.

So we find ourselves for the last couple days in Arequipa, after crossing the border into Peru, and spending a night in Tacna.

 
Arequipa is a big city, the second largest in Peru, with over a million people, and a lot of history.  When you get here after miles and miles of empty dry hot mountains, you wonder how people ever settled here in the first place. 

 
In order to answer that question we have to go back a long ways, before the Spanish and other Europeans showed up.  First there were the Incas.  

The Incas established a lot of what has become modern Peru.  Their civilization was remarkable, and they had great cities and marvelous and ingenious agriculture.  
Then the brutal Spanish conquistadors showed up and laid waste to the Incan empire.  It didn't take long. Arrows and spears are no competition for bullets and cannonballs.

On that happy note, Peru achieved independence from Spain in 1819 and then fought a series of wars against the Bolivians, Chileans, and anyone else close by.    This created the "modern" borders of Peru, one of which we crossed a couple days ago. 

We went about exploring our new host country. Arequipa (Are-ee-KEY-Puh) is tucked up against the Andes, with Volcanoes and snowed capped peaks.  And did I mention that we're over 8,000 feet high here?  You find yourself out of breath pretty easy.

These woolly Alpacas are cousins to the Llama,
their fur is prized world wide. 

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The Spanish settled the place fairly quickly.  
By 1540 Arequipa was a city.  (Keep in mind that Columbus just showed up in 1492)  Many of the buildings are from that era -  that is, the ones that have survived innumerable earthquakes.  This place is on the same fault line that runs from Chile all the way up through Mexico and California. 

There are 31 million people in Peru, which gets its name from the ancient ruler "Biru".  At this point in their history, they are peaceful and have a growing economy.  However, there is a fair amount of poverty, which we have witnessed in the last few days, like in the hills around Arequipa, below.

Like I mentioned before, Arequipa is a significant city in Peru and is kind of an oasis in a mountainous region at the north end of the Atacama Desert.  But once you're here, it's very pleasant with a wonderful sunny climate that gets cool at night (50 degrees at night, with a high of around 68).  We got our sweaters out, first time since Patagonia!

 

 

The Amazing Monastery of Santa Catalina

I have woven pictures into this post of the city and the surroundings, but we had a real sublime and noteworthy experience at a Monastery here today.  

It's built right into the middle of the city, or more correctly, it was established in 1579 and much of the city developed around it.  That's 438 years ago if you're counting. 

Over those years, it has been the home of countless devoted cloistered nuns, and there are still several to this today.  What's a cloistered nun?  It means "kept away from the outside world; sheltered".

As a testimony to history, this place is priceless.  It is said to be one of the most beautiful and well preserved sites in Latin America.  

We were so impressed with the architecture and classic design of the place, with intricate layouts and wonderful colors and flowers.  It was really special.  I took a million pictures.  It's a photographers paradise, especially on a day like today with the Andes Mountains in the background. 

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Oh, and one last thing ... actually two. 

Our hotel has a rooftop terrace where they serve breakfast, and here is a shot of the morning meal with a nice background.

I just can't resist ending a blog post with a sunset picture.  This was tonight in the Plaza.  It really was this colorful.