NOVEMBER 2019
Arequipa is one of the biggest cities in Peru and you are bound to visit it when you want to travel onwards to Chile or want to visit the Colca Canyon, one of the deepest canyons in the world. Arequipa is often named as the prettiest city in Peru, but we disagreed with that and preferred Cusco. That is not to say we didn’t have an enjoyable time in Arequipa. We visited Arequipa for two nights, after arriving really early with the night bus from Cusco. Effectively we had two days to spend in Arequipa and we found that sufficient time, given that you don’t visit the Colca Canyon. In this blog I will give you an update regarding the things we did in Arequipa.
Practical information
We stayed in Bubamara San Lazaro hostel, we had a private room with bathroom and a little breakfast for € 24 per night. The hostel is located at a very busy street, with cars continuously stinking by, but you don’t notice that at all when you enter the Marrakesh inspired courtyard and garden. Luckily our room also was an oasis of rest. Bubamara Hostel is located in the San Lazaro neighborhood, which is one of the most charming neighborhoods of Arequipa. Here you will find the houses built of the typical white volcanic stones that are quintessential for Arequipa. San Lazaro is within walking distance of all the major sights in Arequipa such as the Plaza des Armas, the Santa Catalina Monastery and scenic viewpoints of the Misti volcano.
From Lima and Cusco there are direct bus connections to Arequipa. We arrived with Cruz del Sur, which was our favorite bus company in Peru. When you buy the VIP seats you are actually able to sleep during the night. The seats recline 160 degrees, the temperature in the bus is okay, you have a private screen for movies (so no noise) and there are obscuring curtains. The ride took us about 12 hours and cost € 36 per person.
In November the temperatures are about 25 degrees during the day, which was perfect for wandering through the streets. At night it cools down really quickly, but that is perfect to get a good night of sleep. It doesn’t start raining in Arequipa until mid December.
Santa Catalina Monastery
One of the most famous sights of Arequipa is the Santa Catalina Monastery. This monastery used to be a really fancy monastery as only rich nuns were allowed to join it. In 1970 the monastery opened its doors for visitors and currently there are only 20 nuns still living there. The Santa Catalina Monastery is a colorful maze, a city within a city and a true sanctuary in the heart of a very busy city. The entrance fee is about € 10, which I found on the steep side, but I would still recommend to visit if you are interested in colonial architecture or if your heart beats faster when in the surroundings of colorful houses and potted plants. We visited around 2PM and basically had the place to ourselves. Unfortunately the lighting was really hard at this time; the sun created really harsh shades in the small streets. At 4PM the photo conditions had definitely improved, so I would recommend to visit later during the day. Some days of the week the Santa Catalina Monastery is open until 8PM, the other days it closes at 5PM.
Plaza des Armas
This is the central square of Arequipa. In this square there are beautiful colonial buildings and from some angles you can also see the volcano rising behind the square. We decided to have lunch at one of the restaurants in the second floor inside a gallery with a nice view of the square. As this is a very touristy thing to do we were surprised that the food was actually good and make sure to bargain for free piscos 😉 Right off the Plaza des Armas you will find Capprici restaurant which has the best ice creams we had in South America. They have good and cheap dinner options too (€4-€7 per dish).
Mercado San Camilo
I always love to visit a market and if you want a local experience you must visit this market. I especially loved the fruit stalls as they were super colorful, even though I don’t like to eat fruit. As not a lot of tourists visit this market, you can score some good deals here. There are also many food stalls if you are in for an adventurous meal.
Mundo Alpaca
This is one of the budget activities of Arequipa. You can actually visit Mundo Alpaca for free, without being pressured into tips. Mundo Alpaca is the showpiece of Sol Alpaca, a big alpaca clothing store. In Mundo Alpaca you can find information regarding the proces of making alpaca wool and clothes. They also have a few really cute llamas and alpacas, which you are allowed to feed. The site also features a museum regarding the history of clothing patterns in Peru. Don’t be put off when you enter via the clothing store, this visit is a lot of fun and it is not a tourist trap.
Yuhara neighborhood
This is a small residential neighborhood within walking distance of the city center. Around golden hour people gather here to watch the sunset. You have really good views of the Misti volcano behind a cool bridge. It was quite busy when we visited, so make sure to visit early if you want to reserve a specific photo spot. We enjoyed walking around through the narrow streets of this neighborhood and enjoyed that there was less traffic than in the city center. This is not an incredible highlight by any means, but it is a nice way to round off your day in Arequipa.
Colca Canyon
Of course a lot of people visit Arequipa because they are preparing for a Colca Canyon trip. Some sights in the Colca Canyon are located at 5.000 meters, so you have to prepare and adjust properly to the altitude before you go on a tour. We originally also planned on doing a two-day trip through the Colca Canyon but opted out of this idea very last minute. In my previous blog post I explained a lot about typical tourist traps in Peru and we were afraid of running into another tourist trap with booking a cheap tour to Colca Canyon. You can visit the Colca Canyon with a tour or do a long hike through the canyon. We already knew that we didn’t want to do a multi-day hike in Colca Canyon as I didn’t enjoy the hike at Humantay Lake. A hike in Colca Canyon would be a lot more heavy, so it would be insensible to book a multi-day trek. One of my friends had a really good two day Colca Canyon tour that included little hikes and a downhill MTB tour where she spotted several condors. We just did a downhill MTB tour in Colombia and discovered we could also try to spot Condors near Bariloche and decided we were not going to do this trip (super spoiled I know). Instead we changed our flights to Chile, so we could be in Chile earlier as we were excited to get to Valparaiso! Rebooking our flight definitely makes our next days in Chile and Argentina much more relaxing and we were looking forward to that after a whirlwind visit to Peru.