Arequipa Peru

This week we stayed in arequipa and explored the “White City”

ARCHITECTURE AND MONASTERY

During our time in Arequipa, we went to Santa Catalina Monastery. While we were there we took a guided tour of the Monastery. What was interesting to me, is that the monastery also sort of served as a community center for that part of the city. It had a bakery that was used for the people in that part of the city. There was also shelter for the city if there was ever war.

 The Santa Catalina Monastery is like its own significant city, within a city! It represents the city’s history and contains preserved colonial architecture !  It was very cool to see the difference in architecture between the Catholic Spanish, and the rest of the city. It is cool to see how they blend! The city’s architecture was very strange. All the buildings are made from volcanic stone and are built out of white volcanic stone. I know Arequipa is very close to volcanoes, but it is amazing they can produce so much stone! Arequipa is literally called the white city because of the massive amounts of volcanic stone which, obviously is white! The picture to the right is the cathedral of the city. Which is white!

FOOD

We did go out to lunch and dinner many times, but we never ate the street food. We did walk by some though. We walked by a fried guinea pig. Although, I don’t think I could ever force myself to eat one! Every time we walked by a restaurant or bakery we would be drawn in by the smells. The Peruvian food there is some of the best food I have ever had! Highly recommend chicken soup anywhere in the andes. Also, note that wherever you go, potatoes will be served on the side.

MUSEUM OF CHILD SACRIFICE

The moment that stuck with me was when our mom took us to the Arequipa museum of child sacrifice. That was really cool! There we learned about Junita, a frozen child mummy. During rough times the Incas used to sacrifice the children. They believed the mountains were gods! So what they did is they would take the children up to the top of a volcano or mountain. Then they would feed the kids fermented corn juice. The alcohol would make the kids black out very quickly. Then they would beat them to death with a club by fracturing their skull.

GEOGRAPHY!

The volcanoes were gods to the Incas; they were the place for child sacrifice. Much of the stone that is nearby is a volcano. The main volcano there is El Misti, a stratovolcano. This volcano is still active so it is a constant threat to Arequipa!  Almost all the stone in the city is white volcanic, the buildings, the walls and more! The El Misti volcano is expected to erupt anytime soon and nobody is doing anything about it. Freaky! Arequipa is also prone to frequent earthquakes. So, in some places, there is special architecture to protect from them. In the monastery, there are arches over beds to protect from them!

TOURISM INDUSTRY

There are many things to do there, although we didn’t get to do all of them. For one, Arequipa has a major alpaca wool industry. Which you can visit and take tours of. We got to visit a museum. The alpacas are SOOOO SOFT! Also nearby people hike Misti Volcano, and there is the Colca Canyon not too far from Arequipa. It is known for its depth and soaring condors up above.