Arequipa

Day 5 Arequipa

The bus ride was smooth, I managed to sleep most of the way. 

When it got light I watched the amazing landscape we travelled through. 

We were climbing up the mountains and the views are astonishing.

We reached Arequipa just after 9.00 am, and were taken to our hotel. Luckily our rooms were ready. But it was no time for resting anyway. After a refreshing shower our guide took us around to show us his home town, and pointed out what to see. He went of to see his family and the group divided up depending on what everyone wanted to see and do.

Some of us started with lunch on a roof top restaurant overlooking the main square, where today it was some Tim of parade with orchestras and people dancing in local costumes (mainly from Puno).

Arequipa is the second largest city in Peru, after Lima. The population is around 1 million. The city is surrounded by three big, still active volcanos. The highest one, Misti is 6000m. There is a lot of earthquakes in the area. Tremors going on daily, and small quakes now and then. Luckily the big ones are more rare, latest one was 2001.

Due to the earthquakes the buildings are not allowed to be more than 3 storage high in the city. So the building where we had lunch was one of the highest and gave a nice view of the city.

After lunch (I had Alpaca btw) the group splitter again and some of us went to a museum to learn the story of Jurgitha, a Nasca girl born approxy 550 years ago and found in the crater of Misti 1995. She had fallen out of her tomb when the vulcano erupted. 

In the are more tombs with children was found. These where all sacrificed to their Gods. 

Jurgitha is approx 13 years old, and was very well kept. When she was found she had been out of her tomb for around two weeks, so her face, that was exposed to the sun was dried out, however the rest of her was frozen. She had apparently become frozen straight at her death why her insides are still kept in very good condition. She still has liquids in her body. 

She is still kept frozen to try and keep her for as long as possible.

This found was great, not only for Peru, but for the whole world.

A very interesting story to learn.

After the visit to Jurgitha, I attended a free walking tour around town. A tour that was suppose to last for 2h30min, but took over three hours. Very interesting. The guide didn't just tell boring stuff about the buildnings we past, he told a lot of great stories about how the people lived and still live, what different ceremonies they have etc etc. we got to see Alpacas and Llamas too, and ended the tour with a taste of cacao tea (no, not coca) and a piece of organic homemade chocolate.

After another traditional dinner bed was calling. It was nice to crawl in to a bed tonight...