Arequipa Day 2

We woke up and packed our bags before heading up for a quick breakfast on the terrace. After breakfast we made our way to the basilica. Our hostel was about a block from the square, so it was a very short walk.

The basilica is a huge building, but only a small part is used daily. Most of it is blocked off, including the main altar, and only used for special occasions. After we walked around the open sections, we went outside toward the entrance to the museum. The guide brought us back into the cathedral and explained about some of the decor and purposes for the different sections. He then brought us through to a couple of rooms that have different artifacts for the church, most of which are not used anymore. There was a huge silver pelican that holds the host on Easter that is still used though. There were a few items with some diamonds and some crowns for statues of Mary made I'd pure gold holding jewelry donated by citizens.

He showed us the front and back of the massive organ, the tallest in South America, and so difficult to play only 3 people know how. It was interesting to see what the organ looked like from the back as they are normally stuck onto walls. We also continued up the stairs to the beautiful bell towers, one of which collapsed in the 2001 earthquake, but was replaced.

After the basilica we went to the Museo Santuarios Andinos. This museum is dedicated to the perfectly preserved mummy Juanita found on the volcano. She was not the only mummy found, but the most well preserved, all the way down to the frozen food still in her belly. While we walked around the museum we saw a lot of artifacts that were found with the mummies, many is great condition due to the temperature preserving them. The things found offered very valuable insight into Incan life and sacrifices. Some of the fabrics were still so vibrant! It was really cool to see all the different things. I got some pictures of pottery found with the girls before I remembered we weren't supposed to take pictures.

We had lunch at the same place as yesterday, good deal and all, but the food was definitely more tasty yesterday. They also just bring it out so fast I can't keep up! We made our way back to the hostel after lunch and had a bit of time to look at Puno before we headed for our bus there at 2:15.

The bus was awful...we got on and the sun was beating down making the bus super warm. We stayed stuck at the station for almost half an hour before we moved, much to the appreciation of all the locals shouting for us to go and to turn the AC on. We did eventually go, but there was no AC leaving the bus hot, full of sweating people. To add to that, shortly after we left the traffic of the city, we for stuck for an hour and a half on a mountain road which backed traffic up and made our journey much longer. Thankfully by then the sun has gone down so it wasn't as hot as before. But unfortunately the bus driver turned the heater on! It was so uncomfortable 🥵. All of a sudden an hour from Puno we had to change buses! At least the bus we changed to for less than an hour wasn't absolutely roasting.

When we finally arrived in Puno, taxis were scarce and Uber doesn't operate in Puno. All of a sudden, a man in a tuk tuk appeared and we negotiated him to take us to the hostel. It was a bumpy, tight ride, but it got us there without much waiting. Once we had checked in at Huaytusive, we had quick showers after sweating on the bus for 8 hours and went to bed before an early wake-up for our tour to the islands tomorrow.Baca lagi