AREQUIPA AND COLCA CANYON

Arequipa is the most important city in southern Peru and it is situated in the valley of the Chili River, forming a fertile oasis in this arid southwestern land at the foot of the western slopes of the Andes.

The city was founded in 1540 by the Spanish conquistador Garcí Manuel de Carbajal, who named it Villa de la Asunción de Nuestra Señora del Valle Hermoso de Arequipa. Today Arequipa is known to many as the White City, due to the use of the white volcanic rock sillar in the construction of the grand and majestic buildings of the colonial and republican periods.

Within the city it is the historical centre which is without a doubt the main attraction for visitors, boasting as it does viceroyalty houses and palaces, churches and convents in what is now the busiest area of the city, with its family homes, businesses, offices, hotels, restaurants and museums.

Some of the most important museums are: the Museo Santuarios Andinos de la Universidad Católica de Santa María de Arequipa, which houses and displays the mummified remains of the human sacrifices the Lady of Ampato and the Mummy Juanita. Juanita is in an excellent state of preservation and her remains are kept in a specially temperature controlled room and protected by a glass chamber. These mummified remains were discovered by the mountaineer and archaeologist Johan Reinhard in 1995 near the summit of the Mount Ampato volcano in the department of Arequipa, and according to studies it would seem that she was sacrificed by the Incas in 1466.

The Convent of Santa Catalina is a religious citadel founded in 1579 and built over an entire city block and it has been inhabited by nuns from the Order of Saint Catherine of Siena since 1580. The complex’s architecture was heavily influenced by Spanish architecture, as evidenced by its cloisters, narrow streets, patios, chapels and a religious art exhibition which includes some of the finest canvasses in the Americas.

Beyond the city, to the northeast, the volcanic cone of El Misti, flanked by the volcanoes Chachani and Picchu Picchu, dominates Arequipa and can be seen from the Main Square. Beyond these great peaks is Colca Canyon, one of the deepest and most spectacular canyons in the world and a paradise for those travellers who are lovers of nature and local culture. Colca possesses a huge number of agricultural terraces that were constructed by pre-Hispanic Andean cultures, and today local people inhabit 14 picturesque villages. These people are the descendants of the ethnic Collahua and Cabana cultures, and they retain many of their ancestral traditions and folkloric customs.

Colca is the natural habitat of the Andean condor (Vultur gryphus), the world’s largest flying bird, which delights visitors with its majestic and magical flight over this imposing landscape of vertical canyon walls.