One of the streets within the monastery

We continue our chill ways in Arequipa. This morning we had a leisurely, and very late breakfast, in one of the most charming alleys I’ve ever stumbled upon in South America. We walked to the local market, the truest place to find out what and how the locals eat and to get a sense of the “real” Arequipa (always make the local market your first stop as discovering the real foods of a place gives you a lot insight to the culture).

In the afternoon we checked out the Santa Catalina Monastery, which was described as a “city within a city”. Have to admit, my first thought when considering touring a monastery was a big, fat “Yawn”. But it was a remarkably interesting thing to see the labyrinths of streets and alleys and tiny passageways that really did make up a… wait for it…. city within a city. The architecture and the colors they used were really beautiful and calming. But it also never fails to defy my comprehension of just what about that life appealed to the women of that day, the idea of giving up everything you know and everyone you love and leaving them behind, knowing that you would never see them again (as is how it was back in the day) so you could spend your days living alone in a cold, stone “cell”. To me it seems like voluntarily admitting yourself to prison but Laura said she could kind of understand it, craving that sort of simplicity and uncomplicatedness (I know, that’s not a word) and knowing that THIS thing is all you have to think about and set your focus on for the rest of your days. Yeah, yeah. It remains a big, fat “No, gracias” from me. (Even though it doesn’t seem quite so stringent these days as, no lie, today we saw of group of 6 nuns walking around a place taking pictures with their iPads. Uh, what was that about a vow of poverty?)

"A city within a city"... just as claimed!

In the evening we finally met up with Laura’s friend, Diana. Last year a group of orphans from Peru and Africa were formed into a choir and toured the US for nearly a year. Laura volunteered as a chaperone for a few months of their time in the States and Diana was the one who escorted the kids from Peru. How nice for Laura to see a familiar face down here, especially one she had shared such an intense experience with. We caught up over coffee and a late dinner of traditional Peruvian food. So we have a local connection in Arequipa…  ¡que bién!













 

One of the nun's "cells", although I think they're preeetty
nice, as cells go

 

Steps to nowhere

 

Laura and her Peruvian friend, Diana