Mummies and Monasteries

A day of cruising the streets of Arequipa and taking it all in. We started with a breakfast overlooking the Plaza and then headed for the Museo Santuarios Andines where they have a whole bunch of stuff recovered from girl sacrifices on the massive volcanoes surrounding Arequipa and throughout Peru, Chile and Argentina.
The museum is fantastic with a video about how the girls were discovered, why it all happened and how the preservation is being undertaken. The girl sacrifices were to apease the gods. The Inca thought that the volcanoes were gods in their own right and when they were angry (ie, errupting) a sacrifice of a beautiful and untouched girl would calm them and elevate the girl to being part of the gods themselves. It was really good to see the information presented well and they stressed the point that it was a normal and beautiful part of their lives, not something barbaric.
Then again, the girls were starved, drugged with alcohol and then their skull was fractured with a metal star on the end of a piece of rope when they were killed, not to mention already feeling the effects of altitude sickness. But they were buried with fine garments and offerings to the gods so they were very much venerated by their people.
We didn´t get to see ´Juanita the Ice Princess´who is the most famous and best preserved sacrifice girl as she is not on display from November to April, but we did see one of the others and it was truly amazing to see the preserved clothing, skin and hair - truly mind blowing.

Cath having crepes and Beer, Arequipa

After the mummies we had a bite to eat at a creperie and headed to the Monasterio Santa Catalina which we were told by the guidebook was a paradise for photographers, and they sure weren´t wrong! We reeled off at least 100 photos in less than 2 hours. We then tucked in early before our Canyon del Colca tour tomorrow.

Mr and Mrs Collins at Monasterio Santa Catalina - Arequipa

Monasterio Santa Catalina - Arequipa

Arequipa reflection - more art by Andy

Mummies and Monasteries

Arequipa, Peru