To Arequipa by bus

Goodby to Puno and Lago Titicaca

Today I took the bus to Arequipa. It was a long hot 5 hr. ride and I was glad to get there. I was a little bit less than overjoyed when I got to my hostal and saw my room, not quite as nice as the others I have been staying at. I was a bit cranky from the bus ride and wanted to stretch my legs so I decided to stay. I had a private room, the security looked good, and the price was right, s20 or about $7.00/ night. It was 2pm and I had time to get out and explore a little.

Arequipa is surrounded by some of the wildest terrain in Peru. It is a land of active snowy volcanoes, high-altitude deserts, thermal hot-springs, salt lakes, and the world's deepest canyons. Also known as La Ciudad Blanca or "the White City", Arequipa gets it's nickname from the many Colonial-era Spanish buildings built of sillar, a pearly volcanic rock. The historic centre of Arequipa was named a UNESCO world heritage site in 2000, in recognition of its architecture and historic integrity.

The Arequipa Cathedral stretches the entire length of the north end of the Plaza de Armas founded in 1612 and largely rebuilt in the 19th Century having been repeatedly damaged by earthquakes and fire.

 With a population of almost one million, Arequipa is the second most populous city in Peru and lies in the Andes mountains, at an altitude of 7,800 feet above sea level. The snow-capped volcano El Misti, standing at 19,101 ft. above sea level overlooks the city. It lies between the mountain Chachani (19,931 ft.) and the volcano Pichu-Pichu (18,599 ft). Its last eruption was in 1985. In 1998 during a month-long excavation, six Incan Mummies and rare Inca artifacts were uncovered near the inner crater of El Misti. These findings are currently stored at the Museo de Santuarios Andinos in Arequipa.

The first place I went was the plaza de armas and then walked around a bit to get my bearings. I located an awesome open air market and walked around it a bit. They had things in different sections. As you walk in there is a boulevard of fruit then there are other sections with meat, bread, vegetables, a couple fresh juice bars, and all kinds of other products but mostly food.

The smell of fruit was incredible!

The overwhelming smell of meat, not so great!

Next I went to the Museo de Santuarios Andinos to see Juanita, the ice queen, and a few other mummies discovered on Mount Ampato which is near Ariquipa, in 1995 by anthropologist Johan Reinhard and his Peruvian climbing partner Miguel Zarate. The mummies were all children sacrificed to the mountain gods by the Incas to appease them. They were uncovered when the nearby erupting volcano, Sabancaya, melterd the ice cap on Mt. Ampato. If you were wondering why I did not post any pictures, they wouldn´t allow cameras in the museum.