Silent Nuns and Ice Mummies

Next stop was Arequipa. A fantastically beautiful city nestled in the Andes and overlooked by the volcano El Misti. It is known as The White City because of the stone that all the buildings are made of. It’s surrounded by active volcanoes, snow capped mountains and thermal springs. The town has a very European looking Plaza De Armas on one side of which is a huge cathedral. This is earthquake territory - the last one was in 2001. The spires of the cathedral have already been rebuilt a couple of times apparently.

We went to see a huge monastery that was like a mini Vatican covering 20 thousand square meters. The nuns there keep silence and are not allowed to be seen by anyone. Now they choose that life. Back in colonial times the second born daughters of well to do Spanish families were sent to the convent without any choice aged 14. That would have been Nella in my family. Imagine not being able to speak to anyone or even see another human being outside the convent.

Inside the convent I saw someone that I perhaps shouldn't have - not a nun but Jacqueline - the ass ed from Breakfast. It was really freaky. It took me a while to place her. She was on a three week holiday with her husband. She gave me the low down on the office gossip. Suddenly I was thrown back to London, early shifts and the tube. It didn't take long to leave it all behind again though. There's way too much cool stuff to see and think about here.

One of the most interesting things we saw in Arequipa was the ice mummy Juanita. She was an Inca girl aged 14 that had been found perfectly preserved at the top of Mt Ampato - a volcano 6288 m high. She was discovered with 3 other mummies in 1992. She's been there for 500 years. The Incas considered the mountains to be Gods and would leave offerings for them. In times of drought, as people became desperate, those offerings would be human sacrifices, begging the Gods for Rain. Children were chosen pre-birth to become offerings. They would have to walk to the summit for days on end before they were given a strong alcohol to knock them out and killed by a blow to the brow. I'm so glad I was born in the 20th century.