Arequipa, the second biggest city in Peru, known as the White City. White for two reasons: because of the sillar stone used for the buildings, and/or because its colonial past gave it one of the whitest populations of Peru.
It’s a beautiful city, that feels pretty European aside from the three volcanoes that surround it. On our first day we joined a free walking tour, which ended in the main square at sunset. The main square is one of the most beautiful we’ve seen so far, with the cathedral taking up the entire width of one side. The tour also included a trip to Alpaca World (!) where we returned the next day to see the weavers at work and to make a purchase…




















One morning we took a tour of the monastery – confusingly, in Latin America, monasteries house nuns and convents house monks. It was like a whole little village! Once home to hundreds of nuns, it’s now almost entirely open to the public, save for the private area where the current 16 nuns live.










Weather:
Lovely and sunny, chilly at night.
Where we stayed:
A great hostel in the old town, in a surprisingly grand room with a high vaulted ceiling and a bath!!


Best thing we ate:
We had such a range of food in Arequipa! Our walking tour guide recommended places to get traditional dishes, so we tried rocoto relleno (stuffed spicy red peppers, veggie and alpaca meat versions) and chupe camarones (prawn soup). Both were very tasty!
There were also some good GF options in Gringas (mainly pizzas again), Crepisimo (don’t think I need to explain what they serve), and Tanta. The latter is a more affordable chain restaurant from Peruvian chef Gastón Acurio, where we went back several times.







Coolest thing we did:
While we had a great time exploring the city, our highlight was the day trip we took to Colca Canyon. We ummed and ahhed about whether to do this, mostly because of the 3.30am pick-up time, but we’re so glad we did!
The trip started so early because the Canyon is a good 3+ hour drive away and the best time to see the Andean condors that live there is between 8-10.30am. We made a quick stop at 6am to see sunrise over many surrounding volcanoes, then had breakfast, then made it to the Canyon. Colca Canyon is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon and is full of impressive farming terraces.
I went into the trip thinking it would be great to glimpse just one condor, not wanting to be disappointed, but it turns out I needn’t have worried. We started a short walk to the view point and almost instantly saw three in the distance. It then became absolutely ridiculous, with c.15 condors all flying around, above, and overhead. There was even one perched on a rock right by the view point. I never had myself down as a twitcher but it was staggering to see such huge creatures swooping around.














We made a quick stop to get a better look at the farming terraces (and wear traditional hats, of course). Then it was time for optional activities and we chose the most relaxed: aguas thermales. We had an hour to spend dipping in and out of the hot springs in Yanque before a much needed buffet lunch.



Bonus:
Buying my beautiful baby alpaca wool jumper 😍
We are just back from our trek to Machu Picchu so will be catching up on some posts!
Hasta pronto,
Florence & Chris