Talk about a long, exciting, busy, and exhausting first day in Peru! Mary, Liz, and Kathy landed in Lima at 11:30 last night, but thanks to the Lima airport’s wonderful engineers and logistics specialists it took them TWO hours to get through immigrations, baggage claim, and customs (and this was WITH Mary in a wheelchair going to the front-ish of the line). MacLucker Misadventure Numero Uno. Spencer misjudged the 40 minutes he thought it would take them to get through the airport and so spent 1.5 hours hanging out in the hotel waiting for them. Luckily the hotel is closer to the airport than the parking lot is! LIM was a madhouse! However, it was wonderful for the family to be reunited again.Bright and early, with about 4.5 hours under our belt, we began the long journey (across the street) back to the airport for our flight to Arequipa. We arrived two hours before our flight and the line for LAN (Peru’s major airline) was about three hours long. As Spencer describes, this is typical and it’s obvious that LAN does not employ any engineers to combat their efficiency issues. Once again, thanks to Meme’s two knees we made it into a shorter line and were able to just make it through security and to our gate in time to board the bus for the airplane across the tarmac. 2 hours later we are taking off from Lima (an hour and a half of sitting on the tarmac and 30 minutes of further “maintenance checks”). MacLucker Misadventure Numero Dos.
Spencer spent the flight next to a couple who were experiencing their first flight, which we discovered from the crying that ensued as soon as we took off…that was fun and entertaining. A short hour later, we landed in Peru’s “White City”. Still in the “coastal” desert of southwestern Peru, Arequipa is the first step at 7,600ft in our altitudinal climb up to eventually 16,000 feet over the next two days!
Our guide for the next few days is Eduardo, who is from Arequipa and obviously brilliant. He hasn’t stopped giving us information about everything about Arequipa and Peru: fascinating! He showed us beautiful views of the desert oasis that is much of Arequipa. They have perfected the terrace system of farming utilizing the rich volcanic soil from the mountains above and the natural springs throughout the area.
Our first site in Peru! The oasis of Arequipa and terraced farming
We toured the beautiful Santa Catalina Monastery, which is no longer used but a great representation of Arequipa’s history and the traditional life of a cloistered nun in pre-20th century Peru. Mary was terrified of the idea of being cloistered and subjected to full days of inward thought and prayer and decided she would’ve run away; Liz fell in love with the beautiful rose garden that they still maintain; Kathy was impressed with their massive community kitchen that had all shapes and sizes of baking pans; and Spencer enjoyed every bit of his chicken, bacon, and spinach pita prepared by some of the current nuns. Nothing surprising here.
Our next stop was to see Juanita, the preserved corpse of a young Incan girl who was sacrificed over 500 years ago at the top of a mountain near Arequipa, Mt. Ampato. We received a wonderful lesson on pre-colonial culture and Incan traditions in the area and were able to see the body (through two glass panes and some icicles) of Juanita. The young girl was used as a sacrifice to the apus (mountain gods) at the peak of over 20,000 feet. Mary is still feeling horrible for poor Juanita.
Spencer in front of the Cathedral of Arequipa in the Plaza de Armas
There was a Christmas festival with many different children's groups singing Christmas songs
There was a Christmas festival with many different children's groups singing Christmas songs
We ended our long day with some shopping in the alpaca markets (we each got a baby alpaca sweater-PETA, don’t worry, no animals were killed in the making of our sweaters) and a wonderful first Peruvian meal at Chicha, a restaurant of Gastón Acurio (famous Peruvian chef). Mary had the typical dish, Aji de Gallina (chicken strips with yellow pepper sauce); Liz enjoyed chicharrones (fried pork); and they all tried some mazamorra, a typical Peruvian dessert often made from purple corn. Happily informed, clothed, and fed, we finally got a full night of sleep.
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