Arequipa... Awakening My Spirit

In my time in Lima, I crammed as much as I could within a few short days. Honestly, I was feeling kind of exhausted already in my trip. Between just finishing the school year, going back to Milwaukee immediately after, and then beginning this trip right after returning to South America... I hadn't had proper time to relax and recover. But, I was on a high after my time in Lima and seeing as many sights as possible. I also felt like I hadn't made the effort to get to meet other people while in Lima because I was constantly on the go. A goal I had for Arequipa was to begin branching out and meet other backpackers in my hostel.

Plaza de Armas

I honestly don't know why I chose Arequipa in the first place beside looking at a map and trying to figure out the logical way to wind up in Cusco while still being able to visit southern Perú. After "blindly" selecting Arequipa as my second destination, I soon found through my research that this was a great selection. It turns out that this is the second largest city by population in all of Perú. Lima is home to around ten million people, followed by Arequipa with just-shy of one million. I knew the bus ride would be long and arduous, so I planned a brief stop in Pisco... a place I will definitely need to go back to, because I simply didn't have (or make time) for Islas Ballestas and Reserva Nacional de Paracas. 

Rocoto Relleno & Pastel de Papas

On my first full day, I continued my trend of packing a ton of "stuff" into a short period of time. After arranging for a full-day tour to Colca Canyon (Cañon del Colca), I set off to the Santa Catalina Monastery, to find street art and authentic cuisine, and to get a beautiful view of the city. The monastery, which you can see in the video below is absolutely breathtaking. While in there, not only is it shielded from outside sounds, but within the walls themselves I found myself getting lost in serenity. The maze-like hallways and rooms within rooms distracted me from time, of which I was more than happy. It is probably the first time in my trip where I realized that I needed to start slowing down. After departing the monastery, it is exactly what I did. An employee at the hostel recommended to me a place to eat where locals go, and I set off to find it. Her directions kind of sucked and I ended up eating at some hole-in-the-wall for an average meal. It was alright because this cafeteria happened to be near a mirador that boasted panoramic views of the city and its surrounding volcanoes. After meandering and absorbing as much as I could, I did end up finding another place to eat lunch... yeah, two full lunches no more than an hour apart from each other. And this second meal was KILLER: rocoto relleno and pastel de papas. Not once after this point in my trip did I find anything as rich and delicious as this dish.

My View of AREQUIPA

The day was long, and I barely got any sleep the night before because of my 14 hour bus ride from Paracas to Arequipa (average speed the bus went was 55 mph...), AND I had a 3 AM call-time to embark on my full-day canyon trip. So I went to bed early and tried to get some rest.

3 AM came quick. And it took us a good 2-1/2 to 3 hours to get to our first stop in our full-day adventure. I really had no idea of what to expect except that we would have an opportunity to see Andean Condors. What we did in reality was spend most of our time in transit from one lookout point to another, take a ten minute break to look and take pictures, get back in and repeat. Had I known it would be this physically brutal, I might have opted for a slower and more-relaxed version of the adventure. It was definitely worth it because I did fulfill a life dream of mine to see the condors in flight, making it a really emotional experience for me.

My view of CAÑON del COLCA

After these two days, I only had one left before shuffling off to Cusco. Yet again, I fit as much into one day. This included going to the Mercado San Camilo, Museo Santuarios Andinos, and the Cathedral. This city blew me and my expectations away. There is so much history. People were very caring and respectful. I don't understand why I didn't just change my mind and my plans to stay here for a couple more days, but later that night I would be off to Cusco, one of my least anticipated parts of my entire trip... I only went there because I felt obligated to do Machu Picchu. With low expectations, I was off again.

P.S. at my hostel, a guy from Wisconsin was sleeping in the top bunk of the bed I was assigned. We ended up sharing a taxi to the terminal the night I was leaving. As it turns out, he is a current student at UWEC, my alma mater. Small world!

Mirador de Tunturpay

P.P.S. I realize that I am not being very descriptive in these posts. At this point, I wrote 45 pages of notes in a notebook about my experiences and my stream of consciousness. It's easier for me to just go through this on the more-objective side than to figure out how to summarize that many pages of single-spaced writing. And this was, in general, a very emotional trip for me. I was being confronted with a lot of things in my life that I was conveniently ignoring, and using my workload as an excuse to not deal with it. While I enjoyed my traveling, the experiences were more about getting me out of my comfort zone so that I could begin exploring my own identity.