Due South
Trip Start
Oct 30, 2011
1
10
39
Trip End
Ongoing
Arequipa, Peru
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
I got a picture of it anyway from the roof of an old colonial house which is now a museum. It wasnīt terribly riveting since it was able a local aristocrat but there were colonial- era maps of The Americas which were cool. There was another museum about an Inca girl whose perfectly mummified body was found at the top of a nearby mountain. She had been sacrificed by the Incas and her and two other childrenīs bodies were discovered in 1995. Due to the mountain being covered in ice, the mummy is thought to be one of the best preserved in the world it seems. However, the tour consisted of seeing the actual mummy for only 5 mins. There was a 20 minute, fairly boring film to start with and the rest of the time was looking at other offerings found nearby. It was way to dry for my taste and the guide wasnīt very animated which was a shame. Also, I had to hand over my camara at the start of the tour so thought that was a bit of a cheek.
I stayed at a hostel for the first time in a while, as the North didnīt have any. The staff and other travellers were great fun and I was glad I was there for my birthday. Although I liked being of the beaten track, it had the downside of not being very sociable. Most people were in Arequipa to see the nearby Colca Canyon, which was formerly thought of as the biggest of its kind in the world but has just been pipped by a nearby site. Anyway, I had a look at it online and read some guides. Virtually everyone passing through Arequipa visits it but it just didnt look terribly exciting. I decided then that I would only visit things that Iīm really looking forward to- its very easy to feel under pressure to visit things just because they are nearby. Anyway, no-one who went to Colca came back raving about it so I donīt think I missed out.
