Arequipa

I made it to Arequipa this morning at 8 am and have been scoping out the city. Arequipa is bigger than Nasca and much more touristy. The locals are relaxed and helpful, as opposed to those who yank at your sleeves and bags. The Plaza de Armas, typically the main plaza of any town or city in Perú, is grand and lovely here. The main cathedral extends an entire city block of the plaza, the only one in Perú that large and on the main square. The city walls are built of white, volcanic rock that glistens in the sun. Arequipa is known as the white city for that reason.

I just got back from the Monasterio de Santa Catalina, a convent dating back to 1579. The convent and the city of Arequipa have been destroyed by earthquakes time and again. The city is surrounded by three volcanoes that have also caused collapses of entire parts of the city. The convent and the city are riddled with evidence of rebuilding. False staircases in the convent lead nowhere. There is something more alive, intense, magical about living near active volcanoes. It's as though you can feel the energy, the heat, brewing beneath the earth.

The convent was founded by a widow who took on the responsibility of the second daughters of wealthy Spanish families. The first daughter was married off, as was the first son. The second daughter, however, went to a convent; the second son's fate, the priesthood. One of the men in my group joked that he would have preferred to be second, male or female. I'm guessing he's married.

Once an under-study of the convent, daughters were only allowed to speak to their families from behind a thatched wall, 3 to 4 feet from their visitors. After a 1-4 year novice period, the daughter would be asked a series of 3 questions to confirm that she wanted to be a nun. If she didn't really feel like being a nun, she could leave the convent at that point, only to the shame of her family. How's that for options? Nuns and their servants (slaves, really) lived in the convent until the 1870s when the pope sent over a new mother superior to do a little house cleaning. Most of the 400 some-odd nuns left the convent under the new mother's rule. By her orders as well, slaves were freed, many of whom stayed on as nuns, and dowries were no longer accepted, only those women with serious callings to the church admitted to the convent. In the 1970s it was opened up for tourism, after a hundred years of silence and solitude.

While, the nuns live in a more modernized environment now, with washing machines, and telephones, the convent still has its own morgue, cemetery and laundry dating back to the 18th century. The oldest part is from the 16th century, a chapel.