Mummies and Nuns

Manchester was in the lobby of the hotel waiting to bid us goodbye yesterday morning as we prepared to leave the Colca Canyon:

This is Manchester the llama. He looks fake in this picture,
but he's very much alive and at the reception desk.  

After only a few hours on the bus, we arrived again in Arequipa. The city is best known for two major sites: The mummy Juanita and the Convent of Santa Catalina.

Jaunita courtesy of Google Images.
We weren't allowed to take photos in the museum.

Juanita is the preserved body of an 11-15 year old girl sacrificed to the Incan gods in the 15^th century. Her body was unearthed when an erupting volcano melted the area in which she was buried, and it was found by chance by some archeologists climbing the mountain to study the volcano. (They returned the following year and found two more sacrificed children, and, I believe they have found 16 children sacrifices to date.) Turns out it was an honor to be sacrificed and the Incan priest chose these children from birth and then sacrificed when it felt like the gods were angry—volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, etc. Interestingly to me, as they were chosen so young, the families kept the umbilical cords of the chosen ones, and they were buried with them. This was to help them return to the next life. According to our tour guide, they also used the stem cells from the umbilical cords for healing. (Who knew?) Anyway, Juanita technically isn’t a mummy as nothing was done to her body to preserve it, per se; she was just frozen. But well-preserved she was, and by studying her, archeologists and other scientists have learned a lot about the Incan society.

The Convent of Santa Catalina is a city within a city, home to many nuns since 1579. Though, the complex isn’t the typical convent. The 20,000 square meter complex is full of individual homes. While the nuns took a vow of silence to the outside world, they definitely had their own luxuries, and there was a hierarchy among the ladies based on social class. At one time it had a population of 500 women, but only 180 of them were religious. The rest were servants, students, or mothers with their children seeking asylum during times of civil war. The tour was really quite fascinating and we had a very knowledgeable guide. After hearing about these ladies and their lifestyles, I did have to ask about whether the ladies had relations with each other. I thought I asked the question very politely, and the guide answered without reaction that there were no records of this, but my fellow travelers told me afterward that there are some questions best left unasked…. I don’t know that I agree.

Room of a nun. Quite large, some of them.

Water filtration system. There is no hole in the top  pan,
but it's made of volcanic rock and the water seeps
through the porous surface, leaving clean water. 

One of the many streets in the convent.

Laundry system using recycled kitchen pots.
The nuns would just put a rock in the stream of water
right after their bucket which would cause the
 water to go through a hole to fill their pots.

View of the city cathedral from the convent

Bought red, delicious looking strawberries at the store
for the bus ride. The ones on top, anyway...

In the evening we boarded another overnight bus for Cuzco. Fortunately, there were no rallies and we arrived here at 6:00 this morning.

Also, fortunately, the hotel had rooms open so we were able to settle right in before taking an orientation walk and getting breakfast in the city. (Interestingly, my roommate and I had three beds in our room when we left for our orientation walk and only two when we got back. I’m not sure how they got the third one out…) I was looking forward to a hot shower after a long night on the bus, but my roommate took one first, and after hearing  her little shrieks from the bathroom as the hot water ran out, I decided cleanliness could wait.

My breakfast this morning: Combo Gordo 

Meet market

I’ve been fighting a cold since I’ve been here and I took a long nap this afternoon hoping to shake it, so I didn’t explore as much as I would have liked to, but we have several days in the city, so there’s still time. I did learn you need to be careful where you step when walking around here:

Hole in the sidewalk outside our hotel, probably 5 feet deep.

Me pretending to fall in it.

On a general travel note, I know it’s just the beginning of my trip and I haven’t been on the tour very long, but I have to say that I’m enjoying traveling this way. Our local guide is fantastic, and I feel like I’m getting a lot more out of the country than I would otherwise. I’m seeing cities I would have overlooked on my own, eating new things (probably wouldn’t have ordered chicken heart on my own), and getting a local perspective there is no way I could get on my own with my limited Spanish skills. I also like knowing that the bus I’m getting on will get me where I need to go (even if I do have to wait for a car rally) and the hotel I’m staying in is in a safe part of town (even if it may run out of hot water). Also, we’re using local companies and guides. The independent traveler side of me says I’m missing out on some of the experiences of traveling on my own (sketchy hostels, dishonest cab drivers, the satisfaction of making yourself understood in a restaurant when you have no idea what the server is saying), but the practical side of me says I’m meeting my travel goals of learning about other places and cultures and that maybe I should start thinking about scheduling other tours with GAP.