Museum Hopping in Arequipa

I’ve spent the last few days visiting the handful of museums that Arequipa has to offer. Hillary and Greg left two days ago for the Colca Canyon, leaving me largely to my own devices. The canyon sounded interesting (being the second deepest canyon in the world), but ultimately, I just didn’t have the drive at the moment to undertake another several-day trek. Plus, the idea of some much needed alone time to wander the city by myself was very much appealing to my loner heart.

So here’s my rundown of the museums worth mentioning (I’m sure there are other good ones, but some were closed for inexplicable reasons when I went to them):

1. Museo Santuarios Andinos

This museum held a rather small, but beautiful collection of ceramics and offerings that were buried alongside sacrificial victims of the Inca peoples. Of course, the artifacts were lovely, but the crown-jewel of this exhibit was the lovely ice maiden herself, Juanita.

Sacrificed to the mountain god Ampato, Juanita was discovered in the mid-nineties when ash from a nearby volcano melted the icecap that had entombed her for centuries. She had been walked from Cuzco to a mountain near Arequipa with her people, drank a sedative drink and was bludgeoned (just once!). She died at top of the mountain, where she was buried.

It’s a rather dark and tragic story until you remember that she likely believed in the process or she never would have been able to walk the long distance or climb to such a height. She probably believed she was joining her gods, or so the story goes.

Juanita’s mummy is kept on display for part of the year in a special refrigerated box in the last room of the museum. It’s funny looking at her tiny body and damaged face, it’s not hard to see that she must have been very beautiful. It’s things like this that make me wonder about the afterlife. If she and her people believed that in order to stop disaster, she needed to be sacrificed and buried at the top of Ampato, and by doing so, she would join her gods in the afterlife, then what happens now that she’s been moved from what was supposed to be her final resting place?

I’m sure you all think I’m nuts for wondering these things, but what’s to say which belief system, current or ancient, was right? How do we know we didn’t disrupt her hereafter by moving her? I guess we’ll all find out when we die (or we won’t, if there’s no afterlife), as morbid as that seems.

2. Monastario de Santa Catalina

They call it a “photographer’s paradise” and they’re entirely justified in doing so. One of the few places to actually allow photography, I filled up a card and then some with images of this scenic nunnery. It was so easy to do, with all its winding alleys and lush fruit trees and cavern-like cells.

The nunnery contains interesting artifacts of how the nuns lived their quiet lives centuries ago. The laundry area was probably the most inventive. A long track, about three meters long feeds water into a dozen or so large ceramic vessels on either side of it, making what looks to be an artful water-feature, but actually serves to wash clothing.

3. Museo Arqueologia Chiribaya

This was a very small exhibit, consisting of just a handful of rooms, but featured some interesting textiles from the Chiribaya culture. I’ve personally never heard of this culture (I possibly slept through the lecture Dr. Raymond gave on it in my South American Archaeology class back in the days when rowing distinctly cut into my sleeping time, leaving my sleeping time to cut into class time), but apparently, they flourished for a short time when the Tiwanaku culture was dissolving. In addition to their incredible weaving skills, they were expert fishermen.

4. Museo de Arqueologia, Universidad Catolica de Santa Maria

What’s this? Arequipa has TWO archaeological museums and Calgary technically doesn’t even have one? Yes, my friends, it’s true. Maybe we should build a nifty new one in Calgary just to show Arequipa up.

This was quite an interesting exhibit, mostly because I was the only one in the Museum and this there wasn’t anyone to disturb my archaeological thought processes. However, they also had a nifty collection of Peruvian mummies and these ones weren’t obscured by three panes of ice and glass like Juanita was. I’m not sure how much that does for their conservation, but these ones weren’t found near an icecap like Juanita was.

Anyway, I love mummies so it was a great exhibit, even if it was really tiny.

So that does it for Arequipa. From here we head to Nazca, then the Pisco-Paracas area and then finally back to Lima. From there, it’s home for Christmas!