Well we thoroughly enjoyed our traditional Island meal that is cooked in a fire pit, ceremonially opened and then eaten – delicious fish, chicken, pork and sweet potato with salads followed by banana cake also from the fire pit. Prior to this all the guests, about twenty of us, were given facial decoration in the form of clay paint by two local tribal men wearing body paint and a thong! Apparently the main guy used to be a tour guide and decided his mission in life was to help preserve his culture, so he and his wife opened this ethnic restaurant where all the food is prepared in the traditional manner and he and his friends perform the songs, stories and dances of the island. They run a couple of these evenings each week and the meal is followed by energetic dancing by men and then with women also. The instruments were not native to the island but he explained how the old and the new traditions were melding which was interesting.
The next day we had a leisurely start as our pickup for the airport was not until 11.30am. It’s a lovely little airport that reminded us of Skiathos (how it used to be), very relaxed and easy. Our flight to Santiago was uneventful except that we didn’t have sound on the in flight entertainment but we watched Pan’s Labyrinth which had English subtitles. We arrived at our hotel about 8.30pm with the time change and so it was pretty much straight to bed as our taxi was picking us up at 5.30am.
The Santiago airport check-in was in a marquee and we then joined another queue for nearly an hour only to discover it was only for domestic flights and we should have walked over to the terminal building for the international police checks etc. We still had plenty of time though as the plane had been rescheduled for an hour later than the original 8.40am. We were grateful that we had arranged an arrival transfer at Lima as we were both tired and ready for a bite of lunch which we had at the hotel. Iain then had forty winks whilst I caught up with e-mails and pottered. We met with the group at 5pm and with our guide Daniel. They are only seven of us but we will be joined in Cusco by another seven. We then found the local laundry, had an early dinner and bed (a main course with pisco sour for 25 soles (7 dollars) a head - good eh?).
The next day we had a drive to down town Lima, passing various buildings and stopping at the main square to visit the Cathedral, Franciscan monastery and church (with catacombs) and the library where they have 25,000 books dating as far back as the fourteenth century and with little apparent care being taken to preserve them. We then drove a short way to the Anthropological Museum which was interesting. By 2pm it was more then time for lunch and we went to an all you can eat buffet with free juice and pisco sour for 35 soles a head (12 dollars). The food was excellent.
Iain and I decided to take up the option of a private tour of Pachacamac, a nearby archaelogical site in the desert. As we were leaving the restaurant to hurry back to the hotel for a 3.30pm pickup we were met by the guide and the minivan so we even got a lift to the hotel to fetch our water and the other camera! The site closed at 5pm so we were a bit tight on time but our guide was good and we drove to see most of the important parts of the site. It was well worth seeing it and enjoying the views from the top platform of the Inca temple to the sun. The other pyramids and temples are partly reconstructed in places and some date back to 1500BC with small mud bricks whilst the Incas used adobe. The whole complex is vast and was a ceremonial sacred site and oracle for centuries dedicated to the Earthquake God before the Incas came along.
Early next morning we had a short hour or so flight to Arequipa and after a short rest we all had a tour of the city including a couple of viewpoints for the El Misti volcano, Chachani and Pichu Pichu volcanoes. The valley is irrigated from water from the highlands and the River Chili, and contains many fields and terraces where they grow alfalfa, potatoes, maize and beans. We visited the cathedral and an amazing convent complex, the Monastery of Santa Catalina dating from 1579. Many of the original houses have been restored from earthquake damage, where women from wealthy families, after paying a large dowry to the church, lived in separate houses of varying sizes served by several maids, in considerable comfort but segregated from outside. Communal living was only insisted upon much later in the latter part of the nineteenth century. There are also cloisters with painted walls and many pictures from the ‘Cusco school’ of painting representing fusion of Inca and Spanish culture. We then paid a short visit to the Jesuit monastery and church where they had (?have) a school. We were able to wander through a couple of courtyards and looked at the facade of the church but couldn’t go in, which was a shame.
Having walked back to the hotel we all met up again at7pm to go for dinner. I only fancied something light and had sopa criolla which was delicious. We were going to share a starter of Cebiche but Iain had a huge plateful of different regional foods including various potato dishes, stuffed chilli pepper and meat which meant I had to eat more than I really wanted to. I was feeling really tired and bloated so was glad to get back and have a good night’s sleep.
The following day (today) some of us did an optional tour around some of the outlying districts of Arequipa including a couple of good viewpoints. The old Inca terraces and irrigation channels are still used today as are old Inca trails between the villages. Unfortunately regulation on building houses on the field area has only recently (this year) been introduced and there are many new buildings dotted around. The slopes of the surrounding hills are covered in shanty towns where many have no water or electricity. In contrast to this we visited two very opulent colonial style houses, one of which was an old water mill with some beautiful old trees and the other the hacienda of the Spanish founder of Arequipa City, which has fairly recently been restored. As well as various articles of furniture there are a couple of interesting line drawing of Chilean foot soldiers that were drawn during the brief occupation by Chile during the war between Chile, and Peru and Bolivia, in 1879-1884. We are back now at the hotel having a rest before going to see the local museum which contains the mummified remains of an Inca girl (?princess) sacrificed by the Incas so we will say goodbye for now and I'm sorry, Alan, we didn't find any Easter eggs on Easter Island. Do drop us a line to let us know how everyone is going. Lots of love Ann and Iain.