Arequipa Region Guide

Arequipa is the handsomest city in Peru and the gateway to one of the deepest canyons on earth.

The city is built almost entirely from sillar, a white volcanic stone that gives the colonial centre an unusual luminous quality, and it sits beneath three volcanoes, with the perfect cone of El Misti at 5,822 metres directly above it. The UNESCO-listed centre holds arcaded squares, baroque facades carved in a distinctive local style, and the Santa Catalina monastery — a walled town within the city, closed for four centuries and painted in ochre and cobalt.

North of it, the Colca canyon drops more than 3,000 metres, is farmed in pre-Inca terraces, and is the most reliable place in the world to watch Andean condors.

Arequipa also cooks better than anywhere else in Peru outside Lima, and knows it.

Santa Catalina

A monastery founded in 1579 that housed the daughters of wealthy families, effectively sealed until 1970, and covering an entire city block — streets, squares, kitchens and cells, painted deep ochre and blue. Allow two hours, and go late in the day or on an evening opening when the lamps are lit.

The city

The arcaded main square under the cathedral; the Jesuit church of La Compania with its densely carved mestizo-baroque facade; the Yanahuara viewpoint with El Misti framed through sillar arches; and the mummified Inca girl known as Juanita, recovered from the summit of Ampato.

Colca canyon

Two days minimum from the city. The Cruz del Condor viewpoint at dawn; the terraced villages of Yanque, Coporaque and Cabanaconde; the hot springs at Chivay; and the descent to the canyon floor and the Sangalle oasis on foot — a punishing climb back out.

Volcanoes

El Misti is climbed in two days with a guide and no technical skill but a great deal of altitude; Chachani is higher and easier.

Further out

Salinas lagoon’s flamingos, and the petroglyphs at Toro Muerto.

Arequipa has a strong sense of itself as separate from the rest of Peru, and has had for a long time.

Characato pride

Arequipenos are known nationally for regional pride bordering on separatism — there is a long-running joke about needing a passport to enter, and the city has its own flag and anthem which people actually sing. The city rebelled against central authority repeatedly in the nineteenth century and produced a disproportionate number of Peru’s presidents, writers and lawyers.

The white city

The name comes from the sillar stone rather than, as is sometimes claimed, from the colonial population. The uniform material and the arcaded layout give the centre a coherence unusual in Latin America.

The Colca peoples

Two groups share the canyon — Collaguas and Cabanas — speaking Aymara-derived and Quechua-derived languages respectively, and distinguishable by their embroidered hats, which are a genuine ethnic marker rather than a costume.

Food as identity

Arequipa’s picanterias and its claim to the best regional cooking in Peru are taken entirely seriously and are a live subject of argument with Limenos.

Condor watching at the Cruz del Condor is crowded in the early morning. Keep back from the edge, stay quiet, and do not use drones — they disturb the birds and are banned.

The Colca terraces are a living agricultural system maintained by Collagua and Cabana communities, not a ruin. Village homestays and community tourism in Sibayo, Coporaque and Yanque put money directly into them, and are a better use of a night than returning to Chivay.

Photographing people: the women in embroidered hats at the viewpoints are working, and expect payment for a photograph. Elsewhere, ask.

Water is scarce in the canyon and the desert around the city; use it sparingly.

Trekking into the canyon is steep and hot, and the porters and mule handlers who work it should be paid and fed properly — ask your operator what it provides.

Buy alpaca from cooperatives rather than the identical mall goods; the Colca herders keep the flocks.

April to November is dry and clear, which covers almost the whole year — Arequipa averages around 300 days of sunshine.

May to September is the best stretch for the canyon: dry trails, clear mornings and good condor activity, though nights at altitude are genuinely cold.

Condors are seen year round but are most active in the early morning between roughly May and October, when thermals build reliably.

December to March brings what rain there is, mostly as afternoon showers in the highlands rather than in the city; the canyon is green and trails can be slippery.

Mid-August is the city’s anniversary week, with parades, bullfights between bulls, fireworks and a great deal of dancing.

What a day costs, by how you travel

Relative cost across the region

Arequipa is somewhat cheaper than Cusco and noticeably better value for food; the Colca ticket and transport are the main fixed costs.