Hi all, I'm traveling in South America (south-north) and will be entering Peru from Bolivia through Lake Titicaca in a couple of weeks. Was wondering if Arequipa is worth visiting if I'm not doing Colca Canyon (I hear Huaraz treks are better). I'm slightly pressed for time to get to Ecuador though could be returning to Peru later on. I read Arequipa is nice but I've been through a few colonial towns/cities in the continent.
Thanks!
I agree that huaraz is a better area for trekking than colca.
Arequipa is nice enough. Beautiful square, volcano backdrop, good food (picanterias), Juanita mummy museum is pretty unique and interesting. Lots of nice churches and convents. Seeing the condors at Cruz del condor is also good.
It's a nice colonial city, but yes you will see plenty of others in South America. Personally I think there are more interesting places in Peru, but it depends on your interests.
Yes,I pretty much agree with the above...a nice city for a short stay,and seeing the condors was worth it for me,but there are more interesting places to see in the country.
Arequipa is a beautiful colonial city, and the views of the volcanoes from the miradors, and from many guesthouse rooftops are impressive. And it's always sunny in Arequipa, never any bad weather.
Probably the most impressive thing is the Santa Catalina Monastery, which takes up an entire city block, and you walk through the living quarters nuns used for hundreds of years. It really is a unique place.
Arequipa was nice enough for the reasons mentioned above but one day was sufficient for us. To us the highlight in that region was hiking in the Colca Canyon for 3 days. If you are not planning to do that I would not go out of my way to see Arequipa. By the way, you don't always see condors. We saw what we think were condors but far far away while hiking in the canyon and we were lucky to see two juveniles up close at the Cruz del Condor. The wet season from December to March (we were there in January) is not the best season to see condors but the Colca Canyon did have lots of flowering cacti.
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