Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Peru - Arequipa and Puno

(Continuation of previous blogpost)

From Lima we flew to Arequipa, which is named the 'white town'. It is situated on 2000 meters of heigt and got its name from the lava stone (coming from the three volcanoes Misti, Pichupichu and Chachani which are all above 6000 m high). We were welcomed at the airport by our local guide Hilda who first brought us to our hotel (near the cozy Plaza de Armas) and afterwards took us on a guided tour of the town.


We saw the Santa Catalina convent - a town within a town, with streets and all - the cathedral and a Jezuiet convent. We lunched in a typical restaurant and tried a chicha, a drink made out of corn. In the afternoon we were supposed to have some free time, but Jan and we hired Hilda for another tour. We drove through the environs with a 4x4 jeep and gasped at the beauty of this region. The rocks showed many different colors and here and there we saw farmers on their fields. We made a stop at a place where only locals come to eat and tasted the biƱelos, a sort of beignet with honey. It was so good we took a taxi back to the place at night and tried other specialities of the region.

The next morning we had to board a plane to Puno from Juliaca (the airport of Arequipa). We literally flew between the high peaks of the Andes! Due to a delay at the airport, it was rather late in the afternoon when we reached Puno and so we couldn't do the planned tour. Instead the three of us went to an Indo market, where we bought some local products.


The following day we did a boat trip on Lake Titicaca to visit the floating islands of the Uro indians (or better: from the Amaya, who are descendants from the Uro) and were invited to lunch there. In the afternoon we saw the Chullpas of Sillustani - old tombs of pre-Inca's - on the holy Umayo island. The old indian legend that entering the graveyard brings bad luck must carry some thruth after all, be because it was there my glasses broke!



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