May 26 - Arequipa

Cannot get enough of the delicious breakfast at our hotel - bread, fruit, scambled eggs, ham and cheese. Honestly, it's a feast. And, of course I'm drinking coca tea because of the high altitude Arequipa is at. Bruce is drinking this also, although he doesn't go through as many cups a day as I do. The locals say it's good for the digestive system, and any other medical condition - who knows. Frankly the taste is similar to chamomile tea. It really has very, very little cocaine in it. We certainly will not get high on it, but we are making sure we do not drink it in the evening. One may not be able to sleep!

Museum day! This morning we visited the Monasterio de Santa Catalina, a huge convent, and spent a couple of hours touring with our own special English guide. The site is extremely well preserved, a small city even existed within these walls in its time. Modern day nuns still live here, although it no longer is a cloistered society. The nuns serve the poor and the community.
English guides recite the required information, but we cannot ask questions, as they do not know the answers, but at least we are getting additional information that the books do not tell us about. We have been very fortunate to meet restaurant and hotel personnel who help us with all other details, and provide us with a great deal of extra information.

After lunching on the Peruvian hamburgesia, we visited the Museum of the Ice Maiden - Juanita. The university supports this museum, and much research was and is being done by archeologists, delving into the history of the Incas. We discovered that many children were sacrificed to the gods during 'bad' years, referring to lack of rain, food, and agriculture. Definitely an interesting perspective, but scary to think about it now.

Tonight we wanted to taste more local food, but the choices we made were not great. I had the recommended Pastel de Papas, which really is reheated scalloped potatoes, and Bruce had pork, which was heavily fatted. Not good, but we will keep trying.

Interesting thing happened today. We withdrew money from a recognized ATM and I had received a counterfeit $50 soles. I discovered this when I went to pay for our dessert and tea at another restaurant, after our unsuccesful main course meal. I thought this particular little bakery did not want to take the bill because it was too large a note, so we left it at that. We then paid our hotel bill with it, but they brought it to our attention, so we knew this was counterfeit for real. I just could not understand how this could ever happen... it was a little 'shocker' for me.

Packed our backpacks, as we will be leaving for the Colca Canyon tomorrow morning for an overnight trip. We're looking forward to this....