Intermezzo: Chicago

Apologies for the slow posting of holiday pictures. Last weekend we were in Chicago where we saw Soumyadip, Oni and Tuncay...



... and ate lots of wonderful food.







We also saw a little bit of the city.

Lima

It turns out Lima is much more beautiful than I realized. On the way back to Germany, I stayed a night in the Barranco neighborhood, which is gorgeous.

Unfortunately, my stomach was quite upset after a week and a half in Peru, and apart from taking these few photos, I spent the day lying on the couch in my guest house...

Hiking in Colca Canyon

On Friday afternoon, I took a bus to Cabanaconde. We went from 2300 meters in Arequipa, across a pampa at 4500 meters, and back down to Cabanaconde at 3300 meters. The pampa was a vicuña reserve, but unfortunately, I was not able to take any decent pictures of them. I did manage to capture this rainbow, that "landed" right next to the bus.
Another thing I did not take pictures of, is the peasants on the bus, who were wearing beautiful outfits. I thought I'd have plenty of time to take pictures later. Turns out I did not. So, I'll just refer you here.
People in Peru are very nice, even the young local woman sitting next to me on the bus started a conversation with me. There was a time when I pretended I could speak Spanish, but nowadays, my Spanish contains mainly Chinese words, so conversing was not very smooth. Still, we managed to talk about how many children we have (and she told me I should have some, since "they are not hard to make"), and how many cows our parents have.

 

My hiking plan was to hike into the canyon (from 3287 meters down to 2100 meters), go up to San Jean de Chuccho, and then head on to Malata via Cosñirhua at 2450 meters. Easier said than done.

The hike down the canyon was beautiful, and I saw one lonely condor on the way. (Again, no photo, unfortunately.) When I arrived at the river, I was shaking with exhaustion. I can tell you that it is no walk in the park to descend 1200 meters in the burning sun with a 10kg backpack on your shoulders.

I somehow managed to continue on to San Juan de Chuccho, where I had lunch at a wonderful little guest house. I would have loved to stay there, but since I wanted to make sure I was able to get back up to Cabanaconde the next day, I needed to head on to Malata.

Fortunately, the road was easy and either flat or ascending, because my knees were killing me (especially my so-called "good" knee, which has not had surgery).

In Malata, I stayed with Modesto, who, in addition to an extra room for visitors, had made a little museum. I believe he told me that these were tools the Incas used, but as far as I can tell, they are still used by the locals today. At least Modesto's stove in his kitchen looked exactly like this one, except that it was blackened.

I was glad I did not have to continue beyond Malata, because while I was taking a shower in the outdoor shower stall, the rain started pouring down.

The next morning, I headed down to the Oasis at 2100 meters, and then got to climb all the way back up to 3287 meters again.

I was back in Cabanaconde at 11:15, just in time for the 11:30 bus. I figured I would not be the only stinky person on the bus, so I sat down for the 5.5 hour ride back to Arequipa.

Conferring in Arequipa

For our first lunch during the conference, I joined a group of people and headed to the Plaza de Armes, Arequipa's main square. We did something which I normally never do: we went into a restaurant that had a guy standing outside to lure the tourists inside.

You throw away your principles, and in return, you get a free pisco sour (and yes, that contains alcohol!)

The conference was held on the campus of the Universidad Católica de San Pedro, which is beautiful. It is very small, has a nice lawn next to the river and it has a beautiful view of the volcano.

In exchange for getting to study and play at this beautiful campus, the students take 12 (!) courses in religious studies, ethics and other things the catholic church requires.

Our talks were held inside, but apart from the class rooms and auditorium, the university did not have much in the way of indoor spaces. Everything happened outside, including our coffee breaks.

Sunday Afternoon

Yes, yes, I am still in Peru, and I am hopelessly behind in posting. This post covers last week Sunday afternoon, and hopefully I will be able to post some photos of the past week later today or tomorrow.

On Sunday afternoon I was exhausted, but nonetheless dragged myself through the Monasteria de Santa Catalina. It is a huge monastery, that used to house a large number of rich nuns. They had nice little apartments filled with nice furniture, music instruments, and servants. At some point, the pope sent over some party pooper nun, who freed the servants and made the nuns give away their material possesions.

Half way through the monastery, the combination of jet lag, lack of sleep and high altitude (2300 meters) almost made me fall over, but fortunately, they had a nice little cafe where I had some espresso and lime pie.

After finishing the rest of the monastery, I headed to a restaurant in the suburbs which was supposed to have excellent Arequipena food. I ordered a gigantic plate which had all the specialties (except for guinea pig). I can't say I thought it was very good. Maybe it was jet lag, or the fact that I had eaten a huge piece of pie earlier, but I again only finished a fraction of my plate.

I felt quite guilty about that, so I kept apologizing to the waiter. He then offered me some anise liqueur to "settle the stomach" and just when I thought the Peruvians are really nice people (which, in fact, everyone I have met since then has been) he proceeded to "accidentally" overcharge me. Even when drunk and overtired, I can still remember what the right price is, mister!

Rest of Sunday Morning

After the parade, I had a craving for ice cream, which I consumed in this beautiful courtyard. One of the flavors I tried was beer, which was surprisingly delicious.

Strengthened by the ice cream, I checked out a few churches, beautiful facades, yada yada yada.

I walked by a small restaurant with this interesting clay pot in front of it. The restaurant was packed with locals, and everyone seemed to order what was inside. Unfortunately, the restaurant was so packed that there was no table left, so I continued on my way and found a market.

One wall was covered by the Jugos section, where girls were standing behind giant piles of fruit, and young couples were sitting in front of the fruit drinking fruit juices.

The alpaca heads made me really hungry, so I decided to try the clay pot restaurant again. Fortunately, they had not run out yet, so I got to try some Adobo Arequipena.

Parade

As they say in the Netherlands, I fell with my nose into the butter on Sunday morning. I arrived at the central plaza in Arequipa at 8am, to see lines and lines of guys in military uniform lined up for a parade.

At 9am, they raised the flags of Peru and Arequipa.

While everybody was being all respectful and singing their national anthem, I was standing on a bench with my sun hat on, taking photos. So disrespectful. Kudos to the Peruvian people -- rather than being attacked by a lynch mob, I was only asked to take off my hat by a friendly soldier.

Not only the military got to be in the parade, it was a very inclusive affair which included teachers, and little children...

...and what is a parade without hundreds of administrative professionals in green t-shirts?