Peru (2019)
Inhalt/Content
Arequipa, city of cheese ice cream
From Puno we went, again by bus, to Arequipa. This city really surprised us positively. On the one hand we had in Arequipa our probably coolest AirBnB. It was a bit off the beaten track, although the city center was still within walking distance. Our room was part of an extension on the roof of a residential building and our host was incredibly nice and helpful. The original plan was to go to Colca Canyon, the second deepest canyon in the world, the day after arrival, but when we realized how exhausting the trip would be on the one hand and how beautiful the city was on the other hand, we decided to skip the Colca Canyon and instead explore Arequipa a bit more. On advice of the friendly lady at the tourist information, we visited two places instead. On the one hand we visited the very nice monastery Santa Catalina. There was even a guided tour in German (!), which we could join. The tour guide lived in Stuttgart for one year as an au pair, where she also learned German. The guided tour was really interesting and we learned a lot about the life of the nuns in the convent, both then and now. The convent is certainly worth a recommendation.
Afterwards we went to the Museo Santuarios Andinos. This illuminated an interesting, although very dark chapter of the local culture, namely the human sacrifices (usually children) on the nearby volcanoes in Arequipa. These human sacrifices were a dark tradition of the Incas and the deceased children are mummified by the weather and are very well preserved. In addition, various grave goods were on display. The most famous mummy was that of Juanita. However, it had just been restored when we were there, so another mummy was on display.
Arequipa was also the place where we said goodbye to the alpacas of Peru. There was a place called “Mundo Alpaca”, translated it means as much as alpaca world, where we could feed and pet alpacas. Additionaly, there was also some information about the production of alpaca wool.
In Arequipa there was also a funny event that showed us how small this world is. At the same time as we were in Cusco at the AirBnB, there was a US couple with whom we talked from time to time during our stay there. When Kevin and I walked along the Plaza de Armas in Arequipa, we actually met the man again. We talked briefly about our experiences in Cusco and how funny it was that we met again here of all places. However, we did not meet a third time.
Culinary Arequipa still has something very special to offer. Again and again shops and stands where “queso helado”, that is cheese ice cream, was sold. As strange as it sounded, at the end, the curiosity won and we each bought a portion of the said cheese ice cream and it was really unbelievably delicious. The ice cream had not much to do with cheese. It was rather vanilla ice cream with cinnamon. The texture of the ice cream was quite special, which was probably due to the production that gave it its name. The salesmen and saleswomen swung it back and forth in large metal bowls in a certain way and the production process seemed to have similarities to cheese production. We have never seen this ice cream anywhere outside of Arequipa, it seems to be a local speciality, but we can warmly recommend it to anyone who comes to Arequipa.
And so the days in Arequipa passed. Ironically, we only saw one of the most famous attractions of Arequipa when we drove to the airport, the volcano Misti. The days before it had been foggy around the volcano and only in the morning of our departure the fog loosened up and opened the view.
The trip from Arequipa to Lima would have taken too long by bus with our tight schedule, so we had booked a flight in advance. While the flight to Ayacucho with the airline Latam was surprisingly pleasant, we had now made the mistake to book Peruvian Airlines. I summarize the flight as follows: The plane window next to me was broken! Nevertheless, luckily we landed more or less safely in Lima.
