Monasterio de Santa Catalina. Santa Catalina Monastery is the most important and impressive religious monument of Arequipa.
founded in 1579 under the sponsorship of Santa Catalina de Sena was closed to the world until 1970.
Plaza de Armas,Main Square, Cathedral & City Hall, beautiful architecture rounded by “sillar” arches.
Iglesia de la Compañía, Compañía Church, founded by Jesuits in XVII century. Has a sculpted façade and sacristy, both true works of art.
Iglesia y Convento de la Merced. La Merced church and convent, baroque architecture from the end of XVII century. They have a coloniall library and very valuable paints.
San Francisco. San Francisco convent, from XVI century, has a library with more 20 000 volumes.
Franciscan convent “La Recoleta” founded in 1648.
The churches San Agustín, Santo Domingo, hermitage San Lázaro, Santa Teresa Monastery.
Antique and colonial houses as “La Casa Moral”, “La Casa Tristan del Pozo”, “La Casa de Irriberry”, “La Casa del Pastor”, “La Casa Goyeneche”, “La Casa del Mendigo”, “La Casa Ricketts o Ugarteche” and “La Casa de la Moneda”.
Arequipa, districts and its country are beneath the skirts of volcano “Misti”, beautiful peak that during cold days is covered by snow.
Yanahuara: 2 Km from the city, famous for its Andalucian Style churches.Caima. 3 Km away, famous for its “picanterías” (typical food restaurants) where you can find a beautiful church from XVII century.
Sabandía: Sabandía is a small valley with crystal clear waters. You will find a water driven flour mill still working.Baños termales de Yura: Yura thermal baths: 30Km from Arequipa. Its water comes from inside Chachani volcano. Also near the city you will find medicinal fountains Jesús and Socosani.
Socosani: termal waters 7 km from Yura.
Huasacache: Huasacache is a village on the banks of Socabaya River, where colonial house “Mansión del Fundador”, from XVIII century, is located.
Jesús y Tingo: Thermal waters 9 and 5 Km from the city.
Cañón del Colca; located in Caylloma province is 3400 meter deep canyon, one of the deepest in the world. To get there, take a gravel road to Chivay going behind Misti and Chachani volcanoes, and cross “Pampa Cañahuas” a vicuña reserve.
Majes Valley, located in Castilla province, famous for “Toro Muerto petroglyphs” 5000 big stones representing geometric drawings, flora and fauna.
Toro Muerto petroglyphs are remarkable for their carved stones. Here, volcanic stones are scattered in a 5 km2 area, probably by violent eruptions of the Coropuna and Chachani volcanoes during tertiary age, 50 million years ago.Within an area of 3876 X 250 meters there are petroglyphs representing animals and plants.
The Valley of the Volcanoes is located in Andagua, 377 Km from Arequipa. You will see an incredible landscape formed by about 80 small volcanoes and resembling the moon’s surface.
National Sanctuary of Mejía Lagoons is located on the Pacific Ocean shoreline, 20Km from Mollendo. Its 690 Hectares of shallow waters with different salinity, marshs, “Totorales”, salt marshs and “gramadales” harbour up to 157 bird species.
Sumbay Caves located 88 km from Arequipa City conserve valuable cave paintings from Paleolithic age.
Imata Stone Forest is a unique stone formation located on the road to Puno. Natural stone columns resemble a mysterious enchanted petrified forest.
Cotahuasi’s Valley and Canyon. Interandean forest is located in La Unión Province where there are many tourist attractions sach as Sipia waterfalls, thermal waters, Corupuna and Solimana snow covered peaks and geological faults of Cañón. There you can enjoy rafting, trekking, mountain biking and taking impressive pictures.
