Sunday, October 12, 2008

22nd September - Arequipa centre and bike ride

A quieter day today with only a trip to Arequipa centre for a few things and then a bike ride around the area where Luz´s parents live which turned out to be more eventful than expected.

We wanted to visit the Colca Canyon whilst we were here as neither of us (including Luz who was born in Arequipa and lived there for 23 years!) had been there so we planned to visit a few tour agencies in the centre of Arequipa to look for a good value 2-day trip. The first tour agency offered a trip at a reasonable price of 105 sols (around 25 euro) plus a few extras per person but we wanted to go the following day and we were told that there were no other customers for that day so we decided to look for another agency instead. We found one, the Wayra Travel Agency (Portal San Agustin 145, wayra_touraqp@hotmail.com), on the Plaza de Armas which we managed to get for only 70 sols (around 17 euro) each, plus it had a full group for the next day so we booked with them.

Whilst we were in the centre Matthew and I got our hair cut as we were both getting rather shaggy. The barbers we went to was a very old fashioned, traditional place employers and my hair was cut by a distinguished looking gentleman wearing a suit and tie who did his job very well and very carefully, using manual clipper rather than electric ones and splashing me regularly with aftershave. Matthew had his hair cut whilst sat upon a small horse (not a real one!) and, apart from a few tears at the beginning, behaved very well.

I wanted to buy a good map of Arequipa so we had a look around a few bookshops for one. I could easily have bought many of the books on Peru but I managed to control myself and eventually I managed to find the map I was looking for. It was quite expensive, 40 sols (10 euro) but it showed all the streets and districts of Arequipa which is exactly what I wanted.

I would later use this map when I went on a bike ride around the southern part of Arequipa. I started in the La Campiña (countryside) part of Socabaya, where Luz´s family lives. All the streets in La Campiña are named after flowers with the street on which Luz´s family live being called Pasaje de los Amapolas (Passage of the Poppies). La Campiña is located on top of a large hill and so I had a down-hill ride to reach the valley of the Rio Socabaya river below. This hill, the Alto de la Puna was the location of the Battle of Socabaya in February 1836 during the War of Confederation between the Southern Peru-Bolivian Confederation and the joint army of Chile, Argentina and Northern Peru. In this battle the former army, led by Andrés de Santa Cruz won a crushing victory against the latter, led by Felipe Santiago Salaverry. However, in the end the latter army won and the Southern Peru-Bolivian Confederation was dissolved.

I then crossed over the bridge leading to Socabaya village where I came across a religious procession had just started. A large group of people were walking along the road with a group of them carrying a large statue of some Virgin whilst at the back girls were dancing and a band was playing. A police car waved all the oncoming cars (and me) to the side of the road until the procession had passed. Shortly afterwards I came to the main square, the Plaza de Armas, of Socabaya which housed the main church of Socabaya, La Iglesia de San Fernando which was brightly decorated with blue and white flags for the procession. It was also missing its left tower, a result of the strong earthquake of June 23, 2001 which caused extensive damage to the city of Arequipa and its surroundings.

Leaving the square I made my way east, up a steep hill until I passed the Regional Police School before entering the Umapalpa area along the southern ridge of the Socabaya valley, home to a large farming community. This area was very rustic with poorly built house and terraces containing various plants. There were also no proper roads only dusty, stony paths which made cycling very difficult. This, along with the steep slopes meant I had to push my bike most of the way. I also ended up getting a bit lost and had to make my way across an area of terraces in order to reach what appeared to be a main pathway through the village. As I did so a farmer appeared from his small cottage and shouted something at me. I didn´t quite hear it but shouted "Lo siento¨ (sorry) back at him just in case.

Once I reached the pathway I stopped for a drink of water as the going was quite difficult and the temperature in the late afternoon still very warm. I sat on a low stone wall to rest, drink and observe the surroundings. Across in the fields opposite a number of farmers were at work on their terraces using a small waterfall to irrigate their land. Up on the hill above was a large ruined structure in front of which stood another farmer who was watching both the two workers and myself. He probably wondered just what this gringo was doing there on his bike. Shortly afterwards another withered old gentleman came down the path from the top of the hill leading his cow down to the valley below. I exchanged a short greeting with him but he showed no surprise upon seeing me.

After I had rested sufficiently I continued up to the top of the hill where I saw a number of other cows and horses and also a small truck which was delivering bricks which were to be used to build and repair some of the buildings there, including what looked like a small church. I then made my way along the path which ran along the edge of the valley, sometimes walking with my bike and sometimes riding it if the quality of the path allowed it. I passed through some agrarian smallholdings containing a few domestic animals such as cows and dogs which usually barked loudly as I went past. By this time the light was beginning to fade and when I looked back down to the west I could see the sun appearing just over the mountains on the horizon. There was also a nice view of the La Campiña area of Socabaya, where I had begun my trip, across the valley with Chachani volcano visible in the distance.

A little way along the path I saw a young girl coming down from one of the cottages further up the hill. She was carrying two small buckets which she was obviously going to fill up from the small water channel which ran alongside the path. When she first saw me she appeared a little afraid and stopped but she soon overcame her fear and continued down the hill until she appeared on the path just on front of me where she again stopped and stared at me. I said hello and asked how she was and she replied she was very well thank you. I smiled at her, she smiled back and I carried on along the path leaving her to collect her water.

Not much further on I saw a large sign saying that all trespassers to the area at the top of the hill were at risk of being arrested. I saw on my map that this area belonged to the P.I.P (Policía de Investigaciones del Perú), the detective branch of the Peruvian police force. There were no fences separating that area from the rest of the hill but I wasn´t planning to go that far up anyway.

I then left the district of Socabaya and entered the neighbouring district of Sabandia, a very rural part of Arequipa. I soon reached the Molino de Sabandia which we had visited as part of the Arequipa bus tour a few days previously. This time it was around 5:45pm and so the place was deserted apart from a few young herders trying to round up their horses and cows some of which broke loose and ran down the small lane sending clouds of dust billowing after them. Another herder was trying to persuade his horses to cross the small stream which crossed the path just before it turned up towards the entrance to the mill. I stopped briefly here to observe the view across to the small village of Yumina with the Pichu Pichu volcano lit up by the setting sun behind the hills at the back of the village.

At the top of the small hill I reached the entrance to the mill and saw a small girl who was just returning home from school to be met at the gate by her mother. I then made my way along the small road which connected the mill with the main road which would take me through Sabandia, briefly through the district of Paucarpata and then into the district of Jose Luis Bustamente y Rivero (named after the Arequipa born president of Peru between 1945 and 1948, who later became President of the International Court of Justice in The Hague) from which it was only a short way back to Luz´s house. Just before I reached the end of the path I came across a young boy of about 11 who was also dressed in his school uniform. He was walked originally buy when he saw me he decided to run alongside me as I cycled. Luckily for him I wasn´t cycling too fast so he was able to easily keep up with me. At the main road I turned left whilst he turned right and continued up the hill towards Canchimayo village.

By now it was almost dark and as I didn´t have any lights on the bike I was quite worried as the road was quite busy. But then I saw a few of the cars didn´t have lights either! There were a few small hills which caused some difficulty and a taxi driver who cut a corner very fine and passed right in front of me but eventually I managed to reach the Bolivar part of the Jose Luis Bustamente y Rivero district and then turned off down a side road to avoid the heavy traffic on the main road.

As I was just about to enter the Socabaya district I encountered a large group of dogs at the top of a large hill. Once they saw me all hell broke loose and they started barking loudly and running after my bicycle. I was quite worried that they might bite me as I had seen a similar dog bite a cyclist the previous day whilst we were taking the taxi to Arancato. He responded by throwing some large stones at the dog but fortunately missed. I was cycling as fast as I could down the very bumpy road which ran down the hill but the dogs were keeping up with me and I lifted my legs up so that they couldn´t bite. Luckily, once I reached the bottom of the hill they gave up and I was able to escape in one piece.

It was then only a short distance to La Campiña and I made it back home without any further adventures.