Sacred Valley to the Amazon

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Wednesday, 10 April 2024 - Visited the Sillar Route quarries at the base of Chachani Volcano, exploring hand-hewn blocks and seeing makeshift chapels, hiked through the Culebrillas Canyon to view petroglyphs, then spent the afternoon exploring Arequipa's main square, Basilica Cathedral, Church of the Company, and other historic sites, admiring frescoes, carved pulpits, and gold and silver details.

peru2024 — It is at this quarry and ones nearby that the distinctive white stone is quarried for many of the buildings in Arequipa.

You can see the top layer of earth over the volcanic rock, or sillar.

peru2024 — Makeshift chapel in the quarry.

peru2024 — Blocks hewn by hand out of sillar costing less than a dollar each.

peru2024 — A work area in the quarry under the small green awning. The rocks in the foreground are the waste from the quarry work.

peru2024 — We then drove to the Culebrillas Quarry.

In the desert outside town - way outside of town is a canyon which was used for stone.

peru2024 — The hike was easy at the bottom of the canyon, however, we did not see a lot of rock cutting.
It was an interesting walk but overhyped as a good-to-see site.

peru2024 — Virginia Ann hiking and looking great in Peru.

peru2024 — Near the end of the hike were several petroglyphs - here is a snake.

peru2024 — Much older petroglyphs high up on the canyon wall.

peru2024 — The trail through the slot canyon was narrow.

peru2024 — Looking up at the canyon walls. Without much water it is hard to imagine how long it took to carve the canyon.

peru2024 — Cal and Virginia Ann at the end of the canyon hike.

peru2024 — We had the afternoon to explore Arequipa on our own. We began with the towering cathedral in the main square.

The Basilica Cathedral of Arequipa began construction in 1544, on the same day the city was founded by the Spaniards. In 1583, the church was reduced to rubble by an earthquake. It was rebuilt, and in 1604, another earthquake partially destroyed the church. A fire in 1844 destroyed most of the church and it was rebuilt again. In 1868, another destructive earthquake - and then it experienced a period of stability until an earthquake in 2001, which damaged the left tower. The tower collapsed and fell inside the church in front of the organ pipes.

peru2024 — The interior is spacious with 12 columns, representing the apostles, holding up the ceiling.

peru2024 — The organ was made in 1854 in Belgium by Francois Bernar Loret and has survived all the fires and earthquakes. The organ is 40 feet high and has 1206 tubes. It contains three sculptures at the top, one of them represents King David and on the sides two apocalyptic angels.

peru2024 — The Chapel of Our Lord of the Great Power.

peru2024 — Figure in a niche.

peru2024 — The pulpit is wood carved by the French master Buisine Rigot. It dates from 1879. This is the demon under the pulpit crushed by the Divine Word.

peru2024 — The basilica from the second floor - next to the organ.

peru2024 — A sample of the gold and silver filament clothing for the Archbishop of Arequipa SebastiÃ¡n Goyeneche (1818).

peru2024 — The left tower which was completely rebuilt after the earthquake of 2001.

peru2024 — The giant bells in the left bell tower.

peru2024 — The largest bell has the city name, Arequipa, with a very lazy "P".

peru2024 — Cal and Virginia Ann under the bell tower.

peru2024 — The Plaza de Armas Arequipa from the top of the basilica.

peru2024 — Unique door on the second floor of the basilica.

In this picture, you can see the blocks of white volcanic brick used to build the church.

peru2024 — Stained glass inside the basilica.

peru2024 — After the basilica, Virginia Ann wanted another look at the smaller Church of the Company. It is a short walk across the plaza.

The huge door knocker on the church's wooden doors.

peru2024 — This is the Last Supper painted by members from the Cusco School of Art, where the Inca, who knew nothing of saints or elaborate robes, learned to paint European religious works for all the new churches in the new world.

There are several paintings with interesting twists by the indigenous people. In this painting, the fun fact is the animal on the platter in front of Jesus is a Cuy (Guinea Pig) as that dish was considered a delicacy fit for a king.

peru2024 — A small fragment of the frescoes which originally adorned the walls of the church.

peru2024 — Gold and silver leafed altar piece.

peru2024 — A niche outside the church where there is a cross adorned with a ladder and spear.

peru2024 — There is a room of spectacular beauty - the Sacristy. It is only accessed via a fee, and no photography is allowed. Despite the lack of pictures, we visited the room which was beautiful.

While sitting on the first row pew, Cal was able to see into the Sacristy and snap this picture.

peru2024 — A street vendor was selling religious trinkets outside the church.

peru2024 — We walked to the San Francisco Church, which we could not enter as it had closed for the day.

peru2024 — The carvings over the entrance to the side chapel.

peru2024 — It was another short walk to Mundo Alpaca - a retail store which also had several Alpacas and Llamas on display and a very nice museum on the making of products from the hair of the animals.

This is an Alpaca.

peru2024 — Virginia Ann was given some alfalfa to feed the Alpacas.

peru2024 — A pile of Alpaca wool ready to be spun into cloth.

peru2024 — Religious medallion on the wall of the convent.

peru2024 — Dinner at Zig Zag (highly recommended) of Alpaca steak.

peru2024 — The dinners at Zig Zag are served on hot lava rock, so you must wear a bib as the dinner is still cooking when it arrives at your table.

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