Fourth week Peru

Fourthth week, Peru

Tuesday, February 12 I met a couch surfer called Udo in the evening for a cup of tea. He is German, merried to a woman from Arequipa and has been living here for 5 years. He introduced me in the dangers of travelling in Peru. He told me here are fake taxis that look like real ones, with a taxi shield perfectly imitated who will take you somewhere and rob you if you take one of them and that you should only take taxis which you order by telephone from certain companies. Well, I guess it does not happen often. I trvelled so much by taxi in Peru as it is so cheap and only had positive experiences.

As I got a very upset stomach the day before yesterday I resolved to give myself a treat to a beautiful 4 star hotel at the edge of Arequipa and just rest for 2 days.

The hotel Estelar el Lago is beautiful and I think I got the room with the prettiest view, to a.pretty little lake with beautiful birds, just about 3 meters from my room with a large glass door in between.

I spent a very relaxing day at the pool, enjoyed the beautiful hotel restaurant which is built on the lake and feel much better now. Here you can see the restaurant on the lake and the Misti in the background, very faint

But if I go up to the second floor I can see the Misti and also the Chachani. Here the Misti to the left and the Chachani bellow. I can't help it, I just love volcanoes.

By the way, I found out hat several Arequipenos don't even know their 3 volcanoes. They confound the Chachani with the Pichu Pichu. So I was misinformed and got it wrong in my last blog.

The Puchu Pichu is he flattest of all 3 volcanoes as its top was blown of in a violent eruption, it is supposed to have been much much higher than now ( now only 5664 m.)

The Chachani is 6075 m high.

It is so relaxing to lie at the pool and watch the hotel's lawn mower, 3 sweet alpacas, cutting the grass

After 2 days of rest I had the unfortunate idea of making a guided city tour through Arequipa. The bus looks like the hop on, hop off busses in other cities only that you cannot hop off at most places and at the few stops where you can they give you at most 15 minutes, so it is just frustrating. Besides, the top of the bus was broken and made a lot of noise while travelling. The whole bus is what you call in German a "Scheberkistn". It felt like it was fallibg apart. And it was falling apart.

I can't hekp it, I don't like Arequipa. I really don't. It is supposed to be beautiful. I have walked around so much looking for the beauty and did not find it. The only beautiful things in Arequipa are its volcanoes, especially the Misti, Plazza das Armas, the Cathedral and the monastery of Santa Catalina. Then a few nice houses and that's it, the rest really ugly. It is called the white city, I have not figured out why. As in many other cities in Peru, it looks as if 80% of the city is nder construction, the tax avoidance strategy so common in Peru.

The Plazza de Armas, photo above, is really pretty. Always full of people feeding the pigeons, sitting on the benches or just strolling along.

The monastery of Santa Catalina is interesting. I liked the colors of the buildings, I would not have liked to live there! To give you an idea:

There is an nteresting story to that monastery. It was founded in 1580 by a rich widow who chose her nuns from the best Spanish familes. In this privileged convent, nuns had servants or slaves and would often nvite musicians to have parties and live it up. After 3 centuries of these hedonistic gongs on , pope Pius Ix sent a strict Dominican nun to straighten things out, who freed the servants and slaves

In the Cathedral in Arequipa we find again a black Jesus. Interestingly his mother Maria is white and Jesus himself as a baby is white too in all pictures. I suppose he must have gotten too much sun!

And a lat picture for tonight: my beloved Misti in all his majesty.

Tomowwow I am flying to Sao Paulo. Good night.

16.2

Today I left Arequipa to go to Sao Paulo. I took a taxi to the small arport in Arequipa and as soon as I got into the row to check in a woman asked me to open my suitcase. First thing she took my bottle of oxygen out. She said it was forbidden as it could explode in the plane. Then she took out my bottle of whiskey from which I had taken my first sip last evening and said I was not allowed to take a bottle that had been opened. I looked at her incredulously and explained her I was not taking it in my carry on luggage, I was handing it in in the suitcase. She insisted that I leave it there. I refused. She went to the man in the check in counter , they exchanged some words, grinned, and I had the unmstakable feeling they were planning a party with my whiskey that evening. I went on to the check in counter. The man told me I was not allowed to take the whiskey in my suitcase. I refused to give it to him. I told him to call his boss . He did. A nice young man came out and repeated the statement that regulations forbid that I take an opened bottle in my suitcase. I asked him to explain me what was the logic that I could take an unopened bottle but not one I had taken a sip from. He said he could not explain it in English. I told him in Portuguiese to explain it to me in Spanish. He could not explain it in Spanish either. He called the man of the check i n counter to his room and they made a conference, me with my bottle of Whiskey in the hand waiting at the counter and all the other passengers waiting behind me. After 5 minutes the guy from th e check n Counter came out, smiled and made me a sign to put the bottle in my suitcase. The woman who first wanted to take it away made a very sour face and I left smiling happily. And all that without having to bribe anyone.

The taxi driver who took me to the airport had told me that the police in Arequipa is very corrupt. When they catch you driving too fast or crossing by red light etc. You can avoid a penalty if you give them some money. They must earn real well!

When I came to the X Ray control I decided to leave my bottle of water in my bag, to see if they would notice it. They didn't!