Wierdest Bus Tour Ever.

We woke on Saturday morning to this view from our balcony. It doesn’t look like much here, but it was cool and crisp and beautiful. That is the town of Arequipa.
 
At this point in the show, everyone knows how I feel about bus tours. Unabashed love describes it best. Well, the bus tour of Arequipa takes the cake for weirdest tour ever.
It started off dandy. We toured about town, but most of what there is to see in Arequipa proper is really old churches and monasteries. That took all of 15 min. But, I did acquire this indisputably amazing Adventure Hat that I intend on wearing on every appropriate (and some inappropriate) occasion.

Then, we headed out of town. Our first stop was a viewpoint of the valley that sits between the two volcanoes closest to Arequipa. The multicolor crops are representative of a pre-Incan farming tactic that created more viable land. They separated tiers of hillside into “terraces” so they could plant the right crops at the altitude at which it would best grow. This practice is maintained today.

Our next stop was an Alpaca farm, where they raise these animals to sheer them and make clothing, blankets, etc. This is a major export for Arequipa and you can tell by all of the shops dedicated to alpaca wears. This leads to another hat I now take pride in owning. This has comes with matching gloves. That’s right, I said it, matching gloves. They are incredibly warm and I’m getting great use out of them each morning and night. The days in this region are a pleasant 70-80 degrees, but the mornings and evenings are bitterly cold and windy. I’m sure we will have a photo of that hat set soon. I know you were wondering, I can sense these things.

This guy was our favorite.
After visiting the alpacas, we ventured out to the mansion of the founder of Arequipa. It was a lovely mission style establishment with a nice chapel, rustic kitchen and beautiful gardens. You either had the option of waiting on the bus, or paying the fee to enter. We paid the 10 soles each and got a quick  tour. Because some people didn’t partake in the tour, we only had 20 minutes to do the whole circuit. That was a bit odd, because I know Jeff and I could have toured the grounds for an hour or more. There was a lot to see!

The stop after this was a place in which you had two activity options- you could see the town’s old  mill or take a horseback ride. This stop was also 20 minutes, so Jeff and I opted for the mill tour. We saw how the people in town used to bring any grain or corn to the mill, which was powered by water, and have it made into flour in a matter of minutes. Not having to execute this process manually saved the people a lot of time and labor.

On site, there was also a 4 year old Bull, the “Exterminador Jr.”. In this small outlying town, a bull fight is the place to be every Sunday. Unlike some other places though, the bulls do not fight to death and no bulls die as a part of this sporting event. The bulls fight each other and not humans.  I thought that was really nice.

The last stop on the tour was a recently inducted UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is one of the first Terraces (for farming as described above) and was critical to growing food for the entire town. Quite spectacular. We didn’t get to stop here, but snapped this photo from the bus. There wasn’t enough time. This qualifies for the weirdest bus tour every because everything was really rushed. The whole tour was put on fast forward. It was still a great time for us! We saw a ton in that 4 hours.

In the background is El Misti, the biggest volcano in the Arequipa area. He is also featured on my cool new hat.
Once we were back in town, we went for lunch. We chose a “top choice” from the guide book and were not disappointed. We got ham and cheese tequenos (which are taquitos served with guacamole), ceviche (of course), calamari, and shrimp chowder, which is a local favorite in the Arequipa region. If you are ever in Arequipa, we definitely recommend Zingaroo.

After lunch, we headed to another establishment recommended by the guide book. This is a museum dedicated to the mummy of an Incan girl who was sacrificed to the Gods long ago.In 1995, when some climbers were scaling the highest peak around here, Nevado Ampato, they came across a burial site at the summit. There they found a miraculously preserved body. After excavating, they discovered that this 14 year old girl was from a socially elite Incan family and was sacrificed for the good of  her people. The Incans believed that the Mountains were Gods, and so when these volcanoes spewed magma and ash, it was believed that they were angry. The Incan people would then sacrifice someone, a special child, to pay homage and make the Gods happy. It was a great honor in their day. The walk from Cusco to this mountaintop took about 6 months. It was an incredibly powerful archaeological find that prompted the discovery of many other gravesites on that frozen mountain. The preservation of these bodies was made possible by the snow. It was something to see. All the blankets and artifacts placed in the graves were also perfectively preserved.They only keep Juanita onsite part of the year though because she needs to be kept very frozen, and many universities are still running studies on her to learn more. Lucky for us though, Juanita was in town and we got to see her. The crazy part was that she was encased behind 3 panes of glass, the last one being bulletproof. Apparently there have been several attempts to steal her over the years, and in Peru, she is a National Treasure. We were not allowed to bring any cameras or cell phones into the facility though, so we don’t have any pictures to share. The museum and tour were both well-planned out and emphasized the importance of this discovery.
On the way back to our hostel,  we stopped by the main square to see the big Cathedral. It takes up a whole city block and is beautiful at sunset.
 
Back at the ranch, we made dinner for ourselves- chicken and broccoli. It was nice to get a healthy serving of vegetables, as that’s  not common here. They eat lots and lots of potatoes. It was a very full day, but a lot of fun.