Silken Cells of Santa Catalina, Arequipa

There has always been something rarefied about the air among these convent passages, something more than the crispness lent by the altitude of 7,000 feet. For nearly four centuries, while the wealthiest daughters of colonial Peru retreated to these cells to take on the habit, the Arequipueños left outside of the high white walls whispered that the streets of the nunnery were paved of gold, that the nuns held parties that stretched late into the night.