About Arequipa
Arequipa gleams white against a backdrop of three volcanoes — its churches, mansions, and arcaded Plaza de Armas all carved from pale sillar stone, earning it the name La Ciudad Blanca and a UNESCO World Heritage listing. Peru's second city is proudly its own republic in spirit: distinct cuisine (the picanterías are a food-lover's pilgrimage), a sunny highland climate, and a pace far gentler than Lima's.
The city's treasure is the Monasterio de Santa Catalina, a walled city-within-a-city of ochre and cobalt lanes founded in 1579, where you can wander for hours. Arequipa is also the terminus of the Andean Explorer's grandest journeys and the staging post for Colca Canyon — twice the depth of the Grand Canyon and the best place on earth to watch Andean condors ride the morning thermals.
Pavlus Recommendations
How our planners would spend a day in Arequipa.
Lose yourself in Santa Catalina
A 16th-century monastery the size of a village, painted in ochre and blue — Peru's most atmospheric building, best in late-afternoon light.
Eat in a picantería
Arequipa is Peru's culinary capital after Lima: rocoto relleno, adobo, and river shrimp chupe in centuries-old lunch houses.
Watch condors at Colca
Two hours from the city, the Cruz del Cóndor overlook puts you eye-level with ten-foot wingspans riding the canyon thermals at mid-morning.