Arequipa, Peru

After breakfast, we made our way to Mondo Alpaca, with great service and selections. Don selected a sweater and we bought hats for the boys and scarves for the girls. On the way back, we visited several other stores and Lee found two other selections. One sweater plus one sweater coat. We found toques for Lilah and Callie and one for Lee. We had a lovely Peruvian/Mexican lunch on a patio at a small street side restaurant
Back to the hotel for a washroom break and then off to Bank of Nova Scotia (which is the only bank in Peru that does not charge transaction fees), to top up our money reserves. Off then to see the Mercado Market about 6-7 blocks away. Great market with unbelievably huge stalls selling vegetables, meats, fish, cheese and seemingly thousands of hats. As we were running out of luggage space, due to our purchases, we bought a large woven plastic bag with zipper top, to accommodate our excess baggage. We named her Big Bertha. We all bought some wine as well as ham, cheese and bread for sandwiches the next day.

Don, Lee and Judy elected to continue on to the Museum of the “Frozen Maiden” called Museo Santuarios Andinos. We saw the Juanita Maiden, who was killed as an offering to the Inca Gods sometime between 1450 and 1480 when she was approximately 12-15 years old. She was discovered on Mount Ampato in southern Peru in 1995 by anthropologist Johan Reinhard.
The location was in the bottom of a volcanic cave and she was still in frozen state. We saw a 20-minute movie depiction the ceremony of the offering the young girl to the Gods. and the 1995 discovery by Reinhard of Juanita. In the day, it was an honour to be selected as a "sacrifice". It may have been accepted practise of the day, and maybe even an honour to be chosen, but it was heartbreaking to hear the story.

Recently, they have found more remains, mostly of Peruvian girls, but also some boys found in the mountains. We were led on a tour of rooms containing may artifacts of ceramics, textiles, and objects that have an approximate age of 550 years and correspond to the Inca Culture that were buried along with the human offerings.
Juanita's remains were sent to John Hopkins hospital in the USA to be X-rayed and studied. They were well preserved because they had remained frozen and are now displayed in a clear sealed freezer at -20C. There are 2 female maidens, the other is Sarita found on Sara Sara (Ayacucho) mountain and each one is on display only 6 months of the year.

We met back at the hotel and walked to a restaurant for dinner called Chica. It was in one of the old stone houses not far from the Plaza de Armas.Leia mais