The Nazca Lines and the monastery and Alpaca 111, Arequipa

We left the sand dunes of Huacachina  the following morning and headed to the town of Nazca famous for - you guessed it - the Nazca Lines! Spread across an incredible 500 sq km of arid, rock strewn plain in the Pampa Colorado, the Nazca Lines remain one of the world's great archaeological mysteries. Consisting of over 800 straight lines, 300 geometric figures (geoglyphs) and, concentrated in a relatively small area, some 70 spectacular animal and plant drawings (biomorphs), the lines are almost inperceptible at ground level. Its only when viewed from above that they form their striking network of enormous stylized figures and channels, many of which radiate from a central axis. The question is... Who constructed the Lines and Why? Several different theories abound, none of which are short enough to reiterate here!

We duly booked ourselves on a flight early the following morning... Taking off an hour or so late (a rare example of us getting slightly ripped off much to Michael's fury as he prides himself on never letting that happen) it turned out we had paid for 40 minutes of hair raising, stomach churning flying in a plane smaller than the average sized store cupbarod in London. With 5 passengers in total, (Michael co-piloting), we were the only ones who didn't end up puking the whole journey. There were 10 fun minutes at the beginning when we first saw the figures but after that it was a case of, 'yeah, whatever, let me concentrate on not throwing up' when the pilot pointed out the next attraction!

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We promptly left Nazca straight after landing and continued our journey south..

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 .. towards the beautiful city of Arequipa situated at 2325m above sea level in a valley under the perfect cone-shaped volcano of El Misti (5822m) Again, this proved to be yet another volcano we didnt see due to clouds but fingers crossed for the many more we should see further on down the line!

We spent a total of about 4 slow days in Arequipa in a lovely hostel right in the centre whose owners let us squeeze our car into their garage out the back. We had an unfortunate  failed mountain biking day due to terrible weather and lack of waterproof and warm clothes. E-J aborted mission fairly early on and Michael duly followed after putting in a few more brave minutes. The journey down in a 4X4 was spent shivering and we vowed not to venture out of the safety of our car unless the weather was perfect in future! The next couple of days was spent taking in the grand colonial buildings and recovering from our biking experience.

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According to the Lonely Planet, Rough Guide and Footprint guide books, one of the most fascinating colonial religious buildings in Peru is the Monasterio Santa Catalina. So, despite having started to overdose on colonial architecture we paid a visit to it. Not just a building but encompassing an entire block - 20,000 square m - to be exact, it is almost a city within a city. Founded in 1580 by a rich widow who was very selective in choosing her nuns and only took on those from the best Spanish families, the convent was a haven of hedonistic goings on with nuns inviting musicians in and throwing parties and generally living it up in the style to which they had always been accustomed. After about 3 centuries, the pope sent a strict Dominican nun to straighten things out... as such, the convent, which had been shrouded in mystery for so many years, was finally opened to the public in 1970 when the mayor of Arequipa forced the convent to modernize, including opening its doors to tourism.

Today, the 30 remaining nuns continue to live a cloistered life in the northern corner of the complex while the rest is open to the public. It is a complex of incredible buildings (see photos below) and makes you feel like you have stepped back in time. Everything has been beautifully restored and you feel like you are in a little forgotten world.

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One of the best kept secrets we have discovered during our two visits to Peru, has been the wonderful Alpaca 111 store.  Seduced through its doors on realization that baby Alpaca wool is as high a quality as cashmere and pashmina (when made well) but at a fraction of the price if you buy it in Peru where it is produced, we have successfully managed to spend an inordinate amount of money on it. (Michael loving it as much as E-J it is worth noting) Having visited pretty much every single one of the Alpaca 111 stores as we have made our way south through Peru, it was inevitable that we would find our way through its doors once more before we left the country... After a total of 3 hours in there buying gifts for family and friends, the shop ended up inviting us to its factory which happened to be only 15 minutes away. Although we found it hilarious that we had been invited it was actually incredibly interesting to see how the clothes are made and we were suprised to discover that the store has over 1000 employees... as well as several alpacas in its back garden.

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Although again we only scratched the surface of Peru, it was great fun and very easy to travel round (we didn't encounter any banditos despite numerous warnings!) and we would highly recommend it to anyone who finds themselves in this part of the world.

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