The Peruvian whirlwind, part IV

22 May 2013

I must have worked up an appetite on the overnight bus trip to Arequipa, because at breakfast in the cool little crepe café (Crepisimo) we all went to after arriving, I managed to put away a large crepe with mushrooms, spinach, goats’ cheese and a fried egg, and a coca tea, before helping out the tour guide with his breakfast – finishing off the leftovers of his six crepes with fruit and ice cream!

With the rest of the day to ourselves, Chris and I explored the town. Arequipa is quite pretty – and again, very European-looking. The main part of town mainly consists of big, imposing stone buildings and wide paths, interspersed with squares and alleys. When we approached the city in the bus this morning, it seemed to be shrouded in a haze of pollution, but once you’re in the city, the skies are clear blue. Around the city are three huge, stunning snow- and ice-capped volcanoes, decorated with rings of cloud. You can’t help but look at them in awe, they are so breathtakingly beautiful. From them, smaller mountains and hills tier down into Arequipa.

The main square, Plaza del Arms, has lots of flowers, trees and a big fountain in the middle. It is a pretty and very popular area, full of tourists, locals, dogs and pigeons. You can buy food to feed the birds, and it was lovely to see the joy on the faces of toddlers and the elderly as the birds hopped and flittered around them, rummaging for seed. Some birds were game enough to take it right out of hands, causing squeals of delight.

The Company of Jesus church features a large, gold covered altar and painting of the last supper South American style – with guinea pig and corn for mains. It always amuses me how religions change things, no matter how small, to suit and attract and convert new followers.

At the Santuarios Andinos UCSM museum, we saw loads of local artefacts from the
Inca period, including dolls, clothes, shoes, plates, bowls, bags and bodies. Yep, bodies. The three girls and one boy are believed to be human sacrifices and were found atop Ampato volcano after some ice had melted, alongside things they’d need for the next life.

The Peruvians called the best-preserved girl Juanita. Her body is on display in a glass freezer, at a similar temperature to that on the volcano, to help preserve her. Juanita is about 12 years old, and would have been raised in a special home from birth to be a sacrifice, and trained to think it was an honour to be chosen. As a sacrifice, she had to be beautiful, pure and innocent. She would have walked from Cusco to Arequipa, and climbed more than 6000 feet to get to the top of the volcano, where shaman or priests got her drunk and hit her on the head to kill her. She would have then been buried in a tomb. And kids today think they have it rough...

Juanita was probably quite well off. Her burial outfit, fabrics and bags are made from beautiful, brightly coloured maroon and creamy white fabrics. She was also buried with gold, silver and copper statues; a huge clasp for her shawl; and three dolls, which represented land, sea and air (or the moon, sun and earth). The feathers on the dolls’ head dresses are perfect, like they’d just been plucked. It’s incredible to think those things and Juanita survived for more than 500 years on the volcano, virtually intact.

On the way back to the hotel, we wandered through the Monasterio el Santa Catalina, a huge convent complex that opened to the public in 1970. There are still nuns who live there in a separate part from the public area. It actually looks like the nuns lived a little too comfortably, with beautiful fancy china, vases, crockery, silver, tapestries and paintings, and loads of kitchens and courtyards. Some nuns even had their own little apartment-type areas, where they shut themselves off from the rest of the world.

Even 100 years ago, these nuns lived better than some of the Peruvian people today. On the bus this morning, we saw the little shanty towns erected on dry, rocky and sandy desert alongside the road. For miles and miles, people have erected tiny houses (single rooms made from wooden posts and palm fronds) and cordoned off surrounding land to form plots, where they squat for a year. After that year, they can claim the land as theirs and build a permanent home there, as long as no one else opposes it. There’s no power, water or sewage in these areas, but they can petition the government for facilities and infrastructure once they have built their homes there. It’s a little sad to think people are so desperate that they’ll live in such a remote, desolate space, with nothing, for a tiny plot of land.

Interestingly, if you don’t finish building your permanent home in Peru, you only have to pay one third of the property tax every year. This legal loophole means most people say they’re going to build another storey on their home, and leave metal poles sticking out from the roof to signal that their home is incomplete. You’d think the government would cotton on to this, no?