Nuns and Coca leaves

We are gathered here today, to ponder on holy life in Peru. And to chew coca. But first, religion.

I spent most of today at the Santa Catalina monastery, founded in 1579, less than 40 years after the Spanish landed in Arequipa. It housed a large amount of cloistered nuns - and still does, though aparently there are only 15 nuns left and there would be an opening for more. Tempting?

Well, maybe not, but I have to say today has been an eye opener. Reading about the life of nuns or monks in monasteries their private sleeping quarters, or cells, are often mentioned. I always imagined that the cells of nuns and monks were much like the cells of prison inmates. Not so - if you happened to come from a wealthy family that is. These girls could really live it up! The cells at Santa Catalina mostly had private gardens, their own private kitchens (good enough for the novices to eat at the communal dinner, but none of that for the more wealthy nuns), pens to house guinea pigs (the European equivalent would be chicken coops), bedroom, their own chapel/livingroom equipped with and altar and often some truly disturbing holy statues.

Of course the wealthier nuns had their own servants with them, so the cells had servants quarters as well. Some cells even had private toilets, running water and fountains in their courtyard. Despite all this, some of the wealthier nuns seemed a bit disgrunteled, as a picture of one of the owners of an opulent cell reveals.

But Santa Catalina monastery was rather stunning - like a hidden city behind walls thick enough to deter a Norman invasion. 

There were long street lined with cell-apartments, fountains, a bathing house, huge communal kitchens and much more. And until 1970 only the cloistered nuns had access. Since then the place has been open to the public as a museum and the nuns now live in just one part of the old monatery, which obviously is still closed to the public.

Generally speaking, if seems to me that a sort of religious laxness was widespread in Peru. 

In Lima I visited a monastery, which had during its history had housed three saints, including the first ever black saint, san Martin de Porres. What struck me was that none of them had been decapitated, boiled in oil, skinned alive or in any other way mutilated for their religion. They seem to have lived quiet lives as respected monatery doormen, or flower-loving nuns and died at a ripe old age surrounded by their loved ones. It seems a bit lax of the Roman church to give away sainthoods to just any old nun, however much she loved little animals or gave bread to the poor. Just saying...

Tomorrow morning at 3.30am (this is getting more and more unlike me!) I will be off for two days of trecking in the Colca canyon. 

We will be heading for the highlands - close to 4km - and mountain sickness is a real possibility. But luckily the locals know how to handle that. 

We are all being cocad up before we go high. I come prepared with my own leaves - readily available just about anywhere in these parts. In the name of science I chewed a few leafs today and if I had to guess, I'd say the taste is about the same as chewing up tea leaves. And the apparent effect was about the same too. Hopefully coca works better for mountain sickness though.