A Trip To Peru

[merlin]

While on the floating island we took a couple of boat trips in a traditional boat (mainly for tourists these days) with the owners younger brother Joel, who was a really nice guy though he didn't speak much English, so Lisa translated for me, I am so lazy with languages Here are some photos: ​ ​ The boat ​ A chapel on an island ​ Our second trip was to show us one way they fish and how they cut the reeds for island use: Joel wearing his grandfathers jacket ​ Fishing ​ Reed cutting ​ A passing boat with a collection of reeds ​

 

[merlin]

This is the return train from Machu Picchu before it came to a sudden stop because the teachers were again blocking the track.... we had to walk a couple of miles to catch a bus for the remainder of the journey, it was quite an adventure really...

The incident

 

[RadishRose]

Amazing photos, Merlin! I love the way the plane's interior walls are painted.

 

[merlin]

Thanks Rose interestingly the carriage we were in was full of Americans who were all very friendly and seemed to accept the disturbances without any complaints, and just got on with walking, you do get used to arrangements going awry in countries like Peru though....

 

[hollydolly]

Ooooh there's a few pictures on here I haven't seen before.... lovely.... . That's a beautiful picture of you and Lisa on the boat... and I love the one with the guy and the reeds... . Are you still using the little Sony? .. I wish mine the next upgrade from yours with the viewfinder had been any good but as you know it wasn't, I'm still looking for a better camera than my old Fuji....

 

[RadishRose]

Merlin, that's a train, lol? Looks like a plane but it's still pretty. I haven't seen that one before either.

 

[merlin]

Yes I am still using the Sony Holly, but it's coming to the end of it's life, the flash unit popped and died while I was in Peru I am looking at a couple of Canon compacts which look good, but waiting for the price to come down a bit

 

[drifter]

Cee Cee is right. This is an adventure, a vacation of a lifetime. And your photos are out of the park. Thanks for sharing.

 

[merlin]

Thanks Drifter it was truly an adventure, but everything worked out well in the end, I am still sorting out hundreds of photos we took, I will post some more soon....

 

[merlin]

One of the places we visited on our tour was in Arequipa ... Santa Catalina Monastery....... I liked the history of the place:

The city of Arequipa set aside four plots of land for the monastery. Before it was completed, a wealthy young Doña María de Guzmán, the widow of Diego Hernández de Mendoza, decided to retire from the world and became the first resident of the monastery. In October 1580, the city fathers named her the prioress and acknowledged her as the founder. With her fortune now the monastery’s, work continued and attracted a number of women as novices. Many of these women were criollas and daughters of curacas, Indian chieftains. Other women entered the monastery to live as lay persons apart from the world

Over time, the monastery grew and women of wealth and social standing entered the novitiate or as lay residents. Some of these new residents brought with them their servants and household goods and lived within the walls of the monastery as they had lived before. While outwardly renouncing the world and embracing a life of poverty, they enjoyed their luxurious English carpets, silk curtains, porcelain plates, damask tablecloths, silver cutlery, and lace sheets. They employed musicians to come and play for their parties.

When Arequipa's frequent earthquakes damaged portions of the monastery, the nuns' relatives repaired the damage, and with one of the restorations, built individual cells for the nuns. Occupancy of the monastery had outgrown the common dormitories. During the two hundred years of the ViceRoyalty of Peru, the monastery continued to grow and flourish.

By the mid-1800's, word that the monastery functioned more as a social club than a religious convent reached Pope Pius IX who sent Sister Josefa Cadena, a strict Dominican nun, to investigate. She arrived at the Monasterio Santa Catalina in 1871 and promptly began reforms. She sent the rich dowries back to the motherhouse in Europe, dis-employed the servants and slaves while giving them the chance to leave the monastery or stay on as nuns. She instituted internal reforms and life in the monastery became as other religious institutions.

​

We both loved the place and spent most of the day there, here are a few photos I took, as you can see it's a lot more plush than the usual monastery....​

One of the confession cubicles, there was a whole corridor of these maybe a dozen, a lot of sinning must have gone on

​

The laundry area...

​

 

[HappyLuk]

Thank you for sharing your wonderful trip. Beautiful pictures. Hope we can visit Peru one day.