Perú day 12 - Travel day from Arequipa to Lima and Lima Day 1

 Travel day and Lima day 1

Miraflores Kennedy Park

After a restful couple of days at Arequipa, we took off to Lima at 11am with a domestic flight that took about 1 hour. We got the right amount of time in Arequipa to do what we want to do before exhausting the touristic zone. 

Funny T shirt designs in Arequipa airport

We got to the Miraflores Pullman hotel and settled in at 230pm. 

Lima has 13 million out of 30 million of Peru's total population. So it's a big city that comes with issues of big cities. Add that it's a desert that don't rain much. 

It's the total opposite of the Andean highlands! 

Our room in Pullman hotel

I was looking forward to the sea level altitude at this point =) 

We immediately went out and try the gastronomy cuisine of Lima once we are settled in. 

Cerviche and calamari at Punto Azul 

We walked down Miraflores 

The busy big stress in Miraflores

After that we walked to Kenney Park and visited the church there. Saw lots of cats there too 

church around Kennedy Park

Church in Kennedy park

Folks trading soccer cards at Kennedy park

We walked around to the Andean markets before heading back to the hotel. 

Andean market

At Arequipa, we were told there's 7 stews, one for everyday. We saw a restaurant that also has 7 stews in Lima =)

7 stews in Lima vs Arequipa

After getting to Lima, my body felt much more relaxed and my breathing got much more normal! 

I was able to go to the gym at the hotel too and took it easy and just walks at 3% incline. But it felt good to get my body blood flow going again. 

Bill was having a bout of food poisoning so we called it an early night

Perú day 11 - Arequipa Day 2

 Arequipa day 2

Today we went to see the Santa Catalina convent. 

The layout of the convent

The convent was not open to the public for 391 years till 1970. They still have 20+ nuns living in the modernized area. But at the peak there's 400 nuns and servants in the convent

But they had multiple restorations over the years with earth quake damages that they are forced to open to the public to raise funds. 

It's curated to show the rooms of the nuns. They are donated/built by the nun's family so some of them look like villas. They have a sitting area with a sleeping area under the arch in case of earth quake. Some of them have a kitchen area and a bathroom. Most of them no longer have a 2nd floor due to damages but they show stairs going upwards. 

The outdoor area is converted to a real cafe that's super cute. And they arranged the water faucets to show the big vats used for washing clothes. 

Saint Catalina convent 

I was fascinated with the high quality pottery seen in the cabinets. 

The high quality porcelain in the convent

The church in the convent

The next place we visited is a Andean museum.

We were curious about learning more of the Inka culture after MP. But this museum it is more about the finds of human sacrifices remains found in the Misti volcanos of Misti and other volcanos. And we are not allowed to take pictures. 

Andean Museum

Apparently the Inca sacrificed the children when they see the volcano erupting. Juanita remains is the one that's being shown in the museum. They showed the figurines made of gold which is for the sun, made of seashells that's red, for water, and silver for the moon. 

They also have figurines of llamas which has straight back and ears vs vicunas which has a slanted back and ears curved in opposite direction. 

They also found alpaca shawl and pins made of silver for Juanita to hold it together. The other 3 children found with her only has copper which speculated that she was the more noble child. 

They have a system to store info using knots etc that nobody could decipher so far. 

We went for lunch at Ricova per Diana suggestion for Chufa. I wanted to try the shrimp stew that they eat during Easter but was told the shrimps are not in season and too pricy. 

Instead we had a adobo stew (which has pork) and a pizza. The waiter told us that we can't eat the Ricotto pepper if we can't take spicy food 😂 apparently he had issues with a tourist eating that at the beginning and complained she can't taste anything for the rest of the meal lol

Adobo stew and pizza at Ricova

St Francisco church was on the list too. But we decide not to visit the museum but to just check out the altar and main church. 

St Francisco church courtyard

Inside the church

We went to the hotel roof top bar to get a feel for the sunset. 

Bill's crazy Machu Pichuu cocktail and my tame pisco sour

We brought our drink to our room to enjoy the balcony and our last night at Arequipa.

Enjoying the last night of our view

 

What I realized is the balcony is great that we can hear the bar music and the view. But it also means we can't sleep with the patio door open till 12pm when the streets are totally quiet. So there's pros and cons but I definitely enjoyed this precious outdoor space and our hotel room! 

The parking garage below our hotel room provided lots of entertainment! Small lots, lots of endless big cars, busy exit street that's a death trap! 

The busy garage that provided lots of entertainment

Peru day 10 - Arequipa Day 1

 Arequipa day 1

After waking and thankful that we don't have a 6am tour, we took our time getting breakfast. This hotel is famous for a roof top bar and that's where we have our breakfast every am. 

Hotel buffet at Arequepay Hotel on 4th floor

Arequipa has 1 million people but it's one of the wealthiest town in Peru. (My analogy is Catalunia in Spain).  They have less population and a lot of agriculture and mining but not quite big enough to be autonomous. The outcome is a very pretty city around the Plaza Mayor area and the high areas with a lot of wealthy families. 

The city has a slower pace than Lima. And it's also around 2000 meters in altitude so not enough to have high altitude issues but has great weather. 

It's also a UNESCO heritage site with the entire city made of white sillar stone (hence called the White city) 

The city sights of Arequipa

We wandered around the city before a food tour. 

First is we went to a cloister area that's been repurpose as a shopping area, next to a Jesuit church.

Jesuit church and cloister area 

Cloister influenced by Spanish architecture

Victor has suggested El Dorado for more alpaca shopping.  

We got a good view of Misti at the top of the cloister

View of Misti Volcano on top of cloister

After that we make our way to the market to meet our guide Diana. She's fiercely supportive and proud of Arequipa culture. She also explains that Arequipa has so much wealth from the mining and agriculture that they want to have more say. But Lima doesn't allow them to grow the tourism as much by not allowing an International airport

First stop is we went through the local market. She showed us the hats that men get when they turned 18. And the remedy stores that people go to before seeing a doctor. 

Hat stores and remedy stores

She also showed us the cookies that look like macaroons and the crackers with honey drizzled on it. We bought some and they are yummy! 

She pointed out all the different grade of anise alcohol as they settle the stomach (as part of the issues from high altitude) 

The yogurt drinks are interesting as she said they sell out within a day so they don't bother to refrigerate it. And that gave us a clue to try at the hotel breakfast and they are indeed very good. Rich and thick but tasty. 

Anise alcohol, cookies and food stores in the market

She also showed us a Arequipa drink that's in response to Inca kola! There's a rivalry between Arequipa and Lima so they tend to have competitive things. Then we went to the chicha stores where we can see the chicas moradas being sold. In there we were told the chicas have 1-3% alcohol content due to the fermentation process. 

Energic drink that's competitive to Inca Cola and fresh Chicha store

After that we tried some fruits at a fruits store including the chimorra that's super sour, chimorra that's similar to passion fruit and finally a fruit that I don't know the name but didn't quite enjoy. 

The colorful fruit stores where we tried Maracuya (passion fruit), Tumbo (not our favourite) and Chiramoya

Next stop we walked to restaurant and had tea with dried pineapple slices for sweetener. We are also given a shot of anise alcohol to go with the black tea. But I am not a fan of anise so we just sipped the alcohol instead of mixing it in. After that they gave us a deep fried guinea pig which is a very fresh and well executed. So it's not gamey at all. It also came with 3 slices of alpaca with chimichurri sauce. 

Rogoto restaurant with good Guinea pig and Alpaca

After that we walked through the square and she gave us some info on the cathedral. The left side was totally destroyed during one of the earthquakes. So they had to rebuild using the right side as a model. But they discovered Catacombs under the church during the restoration! 

It is one of the biggest cathedrals in South America that has a facade that extends in a plane. 

Arequipa Cathedral

Our next stop is the rocotta pepper with scalloped potatoes. It's stuffed with 2 kinds of meat and baked in the oven with scrambled egg and milk on the base to protect the peppers from burning. It's one of the tastiest thing I tried during this trip. 

She told us that the peppers been boiled to remove the spiciness which is why it's not spicy when we have it. We tried the real peppers the next day in the same restaurant and it's definitely spicier than a jalapeño! 

Recova restaurant with the stuffed Ricotta peppers 

Next stop we went to the mirador in the Yanhuri region where we can see Misti! 

Yanhuri Mirador

There we walked to a resturant where they showed us how to make a "ocupa" with a stone batun. After that we were served that as a dip to go with eggs or veg. It's not the most appetizing looking dish but very tasty. They mash it with the batan so that you can still taste the individual ingredients. 

Making an ocupa

They also showed how the locals has anise and pisco in a shot glass and chase it with chicha morada or pineapple juice. I think the anise with chica and the pisco with pineapple..

Having shots of anise and pisco with juices and Chicha

 

Last stop is queso helado which is cheese ice cream. It turns out it used to be sold in slices at the high land that looks like cheese. But it's really regular ice cream with honey as sweetener. They lower the temp of the ice with salt in the traditional containers. 

Queso helado

After the food tour, we are too full to eat dinner. So we had an early quiet night reading on the patio

Peru day 9 - Colca Canyon and Andean condors

 Colca Canyon and Andean condors  

Colca Canyon

My favourite view of Colca Canyon

We had an early day again at 630am.

After a breakfast at the hotel where the 6 of us got scrambled eggs made to order with some ham and cheese, we got ready to head out to see Andean condors! 

Breakfast before heading out

It's super cold in Chivay and a complicated process to gather everyone from 3 different hotels, including a couple who stayed in another town! 

I think there's a system that tracks all the different tours booked and combined them to fill up the vans as efficiently as possible. 

After gathering everyone, Victor showed us the Yanque town where the girls danced at the town square in front of the church around 7am. They gathered the tips from tourists and disband after a certain time to go to school. So the square clears out! 

Yanque square

We also stop by Pinchollo square where he said we will come back after seeing the condors. He did caution us not to approach the hawk guy as he clip the wings of the hawk and it's cruel. 

Pinchollo town

Coffee and Inka chips at Pinchollo

We then head to the Condors mirador with a couple of stops to see the Colca canyon. We arrived at the Mirador and it's really great seeing all the condors flying

Tickets to the Mirador

The condors flying when we reach the mirador

There, are about 70-80 condors now in the canyon after the protection scheme. They are living in the caves and spend 3 months protecting the egg from Oct to Dec. So the condors don't fly during those times. During Jan to March it's 50/50 depending on the rainy season as they prefer the sun. During April onwards they are usually active when it's sunny as they like to ride the thermal waves. 

I believe that's why we also reach around 8am as it's too cold before that and the condors don't want to fly. I can't upload the videos but they are close and magnificent. 

Their speed can reach 80km/hour and they can reach Cusco for food within a day if they cannot find a big animal carcass like llamas or cows

The Andean condors

Victor then brought us for a walk through the area with great views of Colca Canyon. 

View of Colca Canyon from the Mirador

Amazing view 

He explained that this is not the deepest Canyon in the area as there's another one closeby that's twice as deep. But it's not as pretty as Colca Canyon.  

And showed us the spider bees. They created hives in the ground with honey. And appear in June and disappear by October!

Spider bees and their hive holes

We also stop in various view points to see the views of the area 

More view points 

With the sun, it looks unreal!

We also had tuna which is a local cactus fruits that's really sweet. It has seeds and looks either bright red or yellow. He then brought us to have ice cream with chiramoya and also with the pisco sour using that fruit from the cactus. It's super sour but taste great in ice cream! 

Ice cream and Tuna using cactus fruit and Chiramoya

He also explained the hats which was 2 cultures that lives in Chivay. The cultures used the volcanos as God. So one of them tried to emulate the flat top volcano and they squash the kids face from the top to make them flatter. The other culture tried to make the kids face longer to emulate the other volcanos. The Inca didn't care to stop them but the Spanish did. And they killed the locals when they spotted the practice. So the locals had to switch to hats instead of changing their face visibly. But one of the hats is flattened and the other is straight and high!

Comparing the 2 hats of the local culture

After that we got to another lunch place at Chivay and had another good buffet.

Lunch at Chivay

After that we got out of Chivay and went through the high plain again heading towards Arequipa that took 3 hours. 

The remote views of the high plains

It's quite scary in the mountain road. There's a lot of mining trucks that's slow so the van overtakes them in a crazy driving style! 

We checked into our hotel room in Arequipa by 530pm. We have a very nice room in Arequepay hotel with a functional patio that has a great view of the church and the city. 

A note that we really like Victor as our guide. He never asked for any tips but ensured everyone is taken care of. And he ensured everyone is correctly check into the hotel before he left us. That is why we trusted him in Chivay to recommend a good 100% Alpaca store that's also ethical and local. 

Our nice room in Arequipa

After a long day, we didn't feel like a big dinner. So we got some wine and empanadas for dinner in our room. 

Nice view with Empanadas dinner