La Casa de los Pinguinos - Journal from Fri. 7.17.09

When we woke up this morning – Señora Pauca was here! It was the day we were leaving Puno, and she had arrived. So, as we were getting dressed, she was cleaning up the kitchen and generally putting the apartment back in order. She laid out bread and cheese for our breakfast and amiably talked with us (in Spanish, of course) while we ate.

Ivan came by for the last time, and we took a few pictures with Ivan and Victor, and then they were gone! We caught a taxi, headed to the bus station, and were on our bus by 8am. Oh, also, Victor and Ivan had doubts about our bus situation because it was with a bus company they were not familiar with. It ended up being a new, double-decker bus. We sat in the first row of the second level and so had a panoramic view. It didn’t fill up with locals until we stopped in Juliaca, but because we were at the front, it didn’t feel crowded. I’ll admit that our driver was a little bit of a maniac, but hey, the price was right, and we arrived in Arequipa in record time!

I have forgotten a major characteristic of this day – we attempted to only speak in Spanish! We did slip up a few times and revert to English, but for the most part, it was great practice. Spanish quickly begins to come so much easier when you aren’t constantly switching back and forth with English. By the evening when we took a taxi ride to dinner, our cab driver even complemented us on our Spanish abilities. Imagine that!

In Arequipa, our hotel is bright yellow and called Casa de los Pinguinos – and yes, it has a penguin motif in the décor. It’s a 10 or 15 walk from the Plaza de Armas, and we set off soon after arriving to find lunch. Our tourist desination for the day was el Museo Santury. The main attraction at this cultural museum run by la Universidad Católica de Santa María is ‘Juanita, the ice princess”- a frozen body of a young girl that was sacrificed by the Incas on the summit of Nevado Ampato over 500 years ago. This practice occurred throughout the Incan empire, was an attempt to placate the mountain gods, and was considered an honor for the children who were chosen for this purpose at birth. And yes, we got a very close look at Juanita. I’ve seen mummies before, but the fact that she was murdered with a blow to her head made it a very singular and chilling experience for me.

By the way, the city of Arequipa has a much different feel to it than the other large cities I’ve seen in Peru so far. It seems to have much less indigenous influence – no women walking around in Andean dress and very few darker skinned Peruvians at all. It is much more prosperous than Cusco or Puno, and the Plaza de Armas is grander and with palm trees! The architecture has a very grand colonial feel with balconies and white sillar rock (from the nearby volcanoes) buildings. Finally, the volcano Misti and the ragged, snow-capped peaks of Chachani and Pichu Pichu majestically peer over the town.

For dinner, we picked out a restaurant that Lonely Planet advertised as a favorite hangout of the locals. The restaurant was called Tradición Ariquipeña, and we did appear to be the only tourists there! We opted to sit outside under a shelter in the garden so that we could watch all the people dancing to the band inside the main part of the restaurant. Our waiter was very professional but the only drawback of being the only ones sitting outside was that at one point, these two creepy Peruvian guys came over and tried to make friends with us. They were at least 30 years old and wanted us to go out clubbing with them. We made up some excuse about how we had to get up very early tomorrow, so no, we couldn’t join them because we were going to bed! Sometimes, having an old lady’s schedule can come in handy, haha.