After catching up on sleep (it is luxury to sleep in a comfortable bed after 3 nights on air mattresses) and enjoying a good breakfast (homemade bread and jam), we went for a last tour around the city, although not really "frais et dispos." Our mission for the day was to visit the Pachacuteq monument and the Inca ruins of Saqsayhuaman.
The monument displayed an interesting exhibition on Pachacuteq, the 9th Inca king. Allegedly, he did not inherit the throne, but won it by successfully fighting the Chancas, a rival tribe, in the 15th century. He started the significant expansion of the Inca Empire (later pursued by his son). He is also credited with the construction of cities and monuments, and in particular Machu Picchu, Saqsayhuaman and Qoricancha (which was a very important temple at the time). The top of the monument offered a great view over the city, including an unfinished monument of Pachacuteq not far from the one we were visiting (apparently, there was a political rivalry; once one was finished, the other was abandoned).
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| Pachacuteq monument (plus a food center sign, for some reason) |
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| The second, unfinished Pachacuteq monument |
It was really nice to meet with Donna and Adam (whom we met on the 3 day tour of the Uyuni salt flats) for lunch and to share our respective war stories from the Inca trail. We all agreed that it had been a wonderful experience.
There are four Inca sites very close to the city of Cuzco. However, we decided to limit our visit to the most important, Saqsayhuaman. This large temple complex allegedly forms the head of the puma, the body of which is represented by the city. Some of the walls contained huge stones, which made moving them an incredible achievement. The site is greatly depleted from its original state, as some of the stones were taken by Spanish colonists to build their houses. Apparently, the site still plays an important role; local people still worship Pachamama on the ritual tables at the top of the hill.
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| Looking small inside one of the huge gateways |
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| The walls, several metres high, were constructed from huge chunks of limestone |
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| The womb-shaped hill where Pachamama (fertile mother earth) is still worshiped |
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| Fossils in the limestone from which Sacsayhuaman is built |
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| View of Cuzco's Plaza de Armas from Sacsayhuaman |
Back at the hotel, we had a relaxing time in the café catching up on the blog and organising the rest of the travel. A few hours later, we went to the bus station to catch our luxurious Cruz del Sur Cruzero Suite bus. The seats were fully-reclining, which does make a difference on a 10-hour night bus. However, service was a bit poor (we only had a sandwich for dinner...). An enjoyable feature was the careful driving: no brusque movements.
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It was six o'clock when we arrived in Arequipa. The taxi dropped us at the hotel (thankfully we had called the previous day to confirm our online booking; apparently the hotel had moved...). The lady who welcomed us was friendly and helpful and, even better, our room was ready and we could check-in. After a few additional hours of sleep, we had breakfast at the café by the Alliance Française. John had croissants, while I opted for the more reasonable yogurt with fruits and muesli (indeed, the name croissant brings high expectations - and although really nice, they were not real French croissants).
The center of the city where we strolled around was characterized by nice colonial-style buildings, mostly in the grey volcanic stone for which Arequipa is called the White City. The Cathedral dominated the Plaza de Armas. It was destroyed by several succesive earthquakes (the latest being in 2001) and was each time re-built.
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| Arequipa's Cathedral, in the Plaza de Armas |
Re-energised, we took a tour around the
Convento de Santa Catalina, spread around 20,000 m2, whose construction was financed in the 16th century by a wealthy Spanish widow. Nuns lived in separate houses (composed of a major room and a kitchen at the back) with their servants, received musicians, and organised parties, until the Dominican order took over and tightened the rules (from then on, they lived in communal rooms). At its peak, it housed 450 people. Strolling along the streets of the convent named after Spanish cities, we saw the shooting of a Peruvian films, with actresses dressed in traditional Dominican habits. Around 20 nuns still live in the modern part of the convent, the rest has been open to the public since 1970.
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| A courtyard inside the convent |
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| Lights, camera, action... |
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| One of the convent's long passageways named after Spanish cities |
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| A nun's room (before they were moved into communal dorms) |
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| View of the church from inside the convent |
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| View from the convent of volcanoes overlooking Arequipa |
Later in the afternoon, after buying John a nice jumper made from baby alpaca wool ready for the cold of Patagonia, we went back to the hostel for a nap.
In the evening, we went to a really nice restaurant serving "alpandino" fusion food, a mix between Andean and French Alps cuisine, called
Zigzag (mentioned in the splurge section of the LP). We were not hungry enough to go for the popular Alpaca steak sizzling on a hot volcanic stone, but nevertheless enjoyed a plateau of cured Alpaca meat, saucisson, and Andean cheese. I also really enjoyed the Quinoa salad that came next, served with an original mix of fruits and vegetables.
We then packed small bags for the trek and went to bed early to be ready for the 2:55 am réveil.
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