The Newest Doings from Arequipa

Since our latest blog we have been very busy exploring many of the churches and areas of Arequipa as well as venturing out-of-town for a day trip to Sumbay.  Since I work in the very early mornings (starting a class at 7:30) David tends to meet me around 11:00 and we have time for lunch and visiting places in Arequipa.  We really enjoy going to the picanterias, which are the little hole-in-the-wall restaurants which serve great, cheap local food.  And Arequipa has a wonderful tradition of soup-of-the-day. Each day a certin soup is served in every picanteria in town.  Sunday is our favorite.  That's adobo which is a very rich stock made from boiled purple corn and other  things including giant, thick pork chops.  It is the only soup served with bread and it is only served from 6:00 am to noon on Sundays.  We have gone to several and hope to find the best one in Arequipa eventually.       The picanteria is in a lovely square surrounding this church.

We spend time visiting local churches because they are so, so beautiful and many of them  have museums with great riches of gold and silver, archeological displays and, of course, religious objects.  Iglesia Ricoleto,which is a beautiful orange and white masterpiece had a wonderful archeological museum.           and St. Theresa, which is for cloistered nuns was just downright beautiful!                  

This weird, hairless dog was the resident mascot.  He stayed in this position the whole time we were there.  Note the coat at 70 degrees and sunny! 

November 1 is the Day of the dead when many folks go to the cemeteries where their dead are buried to clean the graves, lay flowers and remember.  It is a BIG DEAL and the cemetery we visited had thousands of people all shopping in the streets around the cemetery which were closed off for the day and contained stalls selling flowers and things to put on the graves.  Some people even hire bands to play the favorite songs of the dead person.  What a vivid and colorful tradition. And the graves went from simple niches to full crypts.   This looks like a nice place for folks to visit, doesn't it?           And here is what was going on outside the cemetery.    

We are not contained to daytime activities.  We went to the Russian National Ballet one night and a show of Peter and the Wolf (in Spanish) and selected short dances another night.

However, our favorite thing to do is to go to the markets, of which there are many.  At first, we went to the main one downtown, but since then we have found many, many wonderful markets, stretching for blocks and blocks.     When you want a piece of squash, you show the vendor the size of the piece you want and he attacks it with a saw!          Here are the "fruits" of our shopping.   Then there are always the ubiquitous Jello Ladies peddling their wares.  I love them!    Speaking of food, take a look at this.   This is a very common offering, as are the cakes.   And then there was Santa!  There are many things in Arequipa that I don't quite understand!  

We took a long, private tour to Sumbay to see the petroglyphs on a cave there  What a hoot.  After a 3 hour ride, we went off the main road into the mostly abandoned town of Sumbay where the driver tooted his horn and found the very old lady who had they key to the gate that went across the cave.  Then we walked and walked at 4200 meters altitude and got to the caves.  The petroglyphs were not the best we have seen, but the whole experience was just WONDERFUL.         The ride back was through a National Wildlife refuge and we saw lots of alpaca.    

One day we started out on a Sunday to have breakfast and instead heard music right near our apartment and spent the rest of the day watching the dance festival at the nearby private school.  This was not your run-of-the-mill dance festival.  Aside from lasting all day each group put on a stunning and elaborate production!              This is a catholic school, as are most private schools and this was one of the teachers.  We found out about a museum of contemporary art here that is housed in an old mansion which features local Peruvian artists.  It was quite lovely.

 

This is a colorful view looking down from our back balcony.