Arequipa: The White City and the Colca Canyon Trek

Getting In

It was quite a journey to go from Huaraz in the north of Peru to Arequipa in the very south. I took an overnight bus from Huaraz to Lima and Kenza from my Santa Cruz trek happened to be on the same bus so we sat next to each other. I was completely exhausted from doing the Nevada Mateo mountaineering experience that morning so after chatting the first 15 minutes we both slept the entire way. I had booked an 11am flight to Arequipa to give myself 6 hours of bus delay wiggle room and for once the bus was even early. Kenza and I sat in the Lima bus station at 5am for a bit waiting for the sun then went our separate ways. I got to the airport 5 hours early but just killed time eating and chilling. Peru is very strict about their mask policies and you have to either wear a N95 mask or two regular masks.

The City

Arequipa is a really beautiful colonial city sitting at 7,550 feet high in the Chili Valley Region of the Andes. It is the commercial, political, and military center of southern Peru. It feels like a colonial European city with its Baroque style, sillar (white volcanic stone) buildings but it still has a Peruvian energy. The landscape behind the city is the gigantic Misti Volcano whose summit surpasses 19,000 feet. Earthquakes have damaged the city several times with the last one happening in 2001. The city is very walkable and can be seen in one day but you can also just relax and spend a few days here. It’s the type city where you can just get lost aimlessly strolling down alleyways and streets. My first day I walked all around town from the Mercado de San Camilo to the Plaza de Armas then through the San Lazaro to Mirador Yanahuara.

The main plaza and market areas are hectic with people but it doesn’t take long before you get out of the crowds and feel like you have the whole city to yourself. Overall it was a very tranquil and relaxing city especially compared to the hustle and bustle of Lima. Most people outside the travel community have never heard of Arequipa but it’s the second biggest city in Peru with a population just over 1 million people. I could have spent a few more days here just relaxing but my buddy Matt was coming in from Denver in less than a week so I had to be more schedule oriented than usual.

The Lodging

I stayed at Arequipay Backpackers Hostel which was full of people from France and Belgium so I heard more French than English or Spanish. For whatever reason I wasn’t feeling super social during my 2 nights at the hostel so aside from some short convos with people in my dorm, I didn’t really meet anyone. Both days I just went around exploring the city by myself. Although the 2nd night I met up with Alana, an Irish girl that I was friends with at my Spanish school in Medellin. She saw my Instagram story post being in Arequipa and she also was in town. It was really nice to see a familiar face and catch up with her.

The Food

Arequipa is known to be a foodie hub where you can eat well. It has a variety of local dishes that are worth trying. The rocoto relleno is a spicy local pepper stuffed with beef, onions, garlic, veggies, and melted cheese. It is typically served with pastel de papa which is cheese, onion, and potato layered like lasagna. I tried it on my first day at the market and quickly fell in love.

Another local favorite is the adobo which is a hearty broth served over slow roasted pork chop that I tried for just a few dollars at a little hole in the wall for dinner my first night.

I also ate aji de gallina which is served all over Peru but this was my first time trying it and probably the best one I had. This dish is a poached chicken with a creamy nut-based sauce served over white rice and boiled potatoes. The sauce is bright yellow like a curry thanks to the aji Amarillo.

The craziest dish I had was at Picanteria La Mundial, a restaurant recommended to me by both Maria and my taxi driver. I ordered the Triple which was a combination of a lot of different dishes on one plate. It had some of the traditional dishes I talked about above plus multiple others. I had no clue what half the things were that I ate but it was big enough to feed a whole family. I think there was some pig feet in there somewhere. It was a bit overwhelming and I didn’t like everything but it was certainly an experience. A bit too much food for a late lunch though. I ended up skipping dinner that night.

And of course no trip here would be complete without queso helado. Well it’s not actually frozen cheese as the words translate, it’s milk, coconut, sugar, and a few other things frozen together and served with cinnamon on top. It was incredibly delicious and made for the perfect daily snack in the afternoon.

The Experience

Plaza de Armas

The Plaza de Armas in the center is huge and incredibly picturesque. It’s a perfect square of white buildings with a large fountain, giant palm trees, and the Basilica Cathedral de Arequipa. The plaza is full of energy and people; every bench was always taken no matter what time of day it was. The surrounding streets are closed to street traffic and there aren’t too many vendors so it’s a great place to relax.

Mercado San Camilo

The market was absolutely massive and a fun place to wander around through the narrow alleyways with vendors selling all different types of goods. I would start out every morning with a trip to the market. Vendors selling similar products were grouped together in the same row and it made you wonder if they were all working together. When there’s 10 fruit juice stands all next to each other selling the same thing it’s hard to decide. You could buy everything from fruits, cheeses, meats,jugos, nuts, potatoes, corns, fabrics of all types, and so many other things. Then even outside the market is hundreds of other shops selling home goods, apparel, backpacks, basically anything you can think of. That whole area is like one giant shopping mall where you can buy everything. It’s also a great place to grab a cheap lunch.

San Lazaro Neighborhood

San Lazaro is the first and oldest neighborhood in Arequipa dating back to 1540. It’s got narrow winding streets, beautiful white houses made of sillar, and many bars and restaurants. I loved walking down the alley ways of this neighborhood and stumbling upon a new spot for a cold beer. I walked through this neighborhood both days; it had the best energy in town. I felt like I was all alone in a distant world walking the streets of this neighborhood.

Afterwards on the first day, I walked across the river to Mirador Yanahuara which is surrounded by palm trees and has an incredible view of the city and the El Misti volcano off in the distance. The plaza also has countless restaurants and roof top bars to check out for a hefty price.

Massage

On my 2nd day in town I didn’t really have any plans since I walked most of the city the day before so I decided to treat myself to a massage. After all the hiking I did in Huaraz I had earned it; my legs were still recovering. For about $15 I got a nice hour long massage.

Centro Cultural UNSA

I met up with Alana on my 2nd night night at the Centro Cultural UNSA which had a cool free art museum with some trippy paintings and really good portraits of local Peruvian people. It was right by the main plaza and the courtyard in the center had Lautrec Café, a nice place for a cup of coffee and to catch up with a friend you haven’t seen in awhile . Would highly recommend popping in for a quick look around.

Colca Canyon (23.5 miles, 7943 feet elevation gain, loop)

Located in the middle of the Andes Mountains of Peru, the Colca Canyon is approximately 3,400 meters at its deepest point, making it one of the deepest canyons in the world (nearly twice as deep as the Grand Canyon). There is a large number of viewpoints from atop the canyon and inside are a number of colonial towns that you can trek between. The ecosystem is the home to the endangered Andean condor.

I decided to do the Colca Canyon unguided because even though the 2 and 3 day tours were cheap, I wanted to at my own pace and choose my own route inside the canyon. And while I do like hiking with others, I also really enjoy solo hiking and the mindset it helps me reach. I was in great hiking shape at this point and didn’t feel like having to wait for a group. Plus there was lodges you could book in the various towns inside the canyon so there was no real need to rely on a tour. In order to be able to hike to my destination inside the canyon the first day I had to take the 4am bus from Arequipa to Cabanaconde. It was rough but at least it was direct. It took a little over 6 hours and I started my hike into the canyon around 10:30.

Day 1: Cabanaconde > Llahuar Lodge (7.6 miles, 500 feet elevation gain, 4500 feet elevation loss)

It was a perfect day with bluebird skies – the sun was shining and there wasn’t a single cloud. The sun was intense and there was no shade on the trail it was windy at the top of the canyon and the temperature of the air was nice so really wasn’t too bad. The views from the top were stellar and the canyon just seemed to go on forever. You had to really focus to see the river at the bottom running through the canyon and it was hard to imagine that I’d be beside it in just a few hours.

Like any good Canyon it was a knee buster all the way down. It started with switchbacks along a dusty trail with small rocks. The flora was very desert-like with lots of dry plants and dead brush. Shrubbery is dead but still many other green trees and patches of greenery. Canyon hiking has a much different look and feel than mountain hiking. The views usually stay the same throughout but there is something strong and magical about canyon energy. The depth and magnitude of the canyon makes you feel so small in comparison to the world around you. I know nothing about geology but there is something so fascinating about canyons. My brain really started wondering more about the topic as I worked my way deeper down.

After a little over an hour I was already about halfway into the canyon and the trail narrowed along the ridge line with steep drop offs on the side. A really cool thing about Colca Canyon is when you look in the distance you see all these different trails going in every which direction and you know that’s how the local people in the villages in the canyon travel around. This is not just a place to hike, but also for people to live.

After a quick lunch break, it was back to crazy switchbacks in the sun. Then I reached a paved road at the bottom of the canyon and crossed the bridge over the river. The route continued uphill along m the road until I could see a tiny village in the distance. I went back downhill along the windy road until I crossed another bridge and arrived at Llahuar Lodge, my destination for the evening. It was only 2 in the afternoon as the hike down took me about 3.5 hours.

The lodge is right on the river with little bamboo huts to sleep in, chairs setup on the grass to chill and enjoy the canyon view, and private hot springs to swim in. I sat in the chair soaking in the views before heading down to the hot springs. I thought I had the whole lodge to myself but when I arrived at the hot springs there was 4 Dutch people in there. Shucks I was thinking about skinny dipping. Oh well. They were really nice and we chatted for awhile in the springs.

After the hot springs, I relaxed for a bit reading. Then dinner was served by the lodge with a few different options for a small price. I ended up sitting at a table with a French couple (I originally thought they were the Dutch couple from the hot springs) and we had some really nice conversations.

Day 2 Llahuar Lodge > Malata > Cosñirhua > San Juan de Chuccho > Sangalle (Oasis Paraiso) (12.6 miles, 3000 feet elevation gain, 2500 feet elevation loss)

I had breakfast at 7am before making my way uphill out of Llahuar. The trail started along the main road but there were shortcuts you could take to get off the road. The first one I took brought me through a cactus field and then peoples’ backyards before getting back onto the main road.

The next shortcut turned out to be crazy and made me second guess always trusting AllTrails. Instead of continuing along the main road and snaking uphill, it showed me a cut through path; however in reality it was straight uphill and didn’t look possible. But there was another trail next to it that seemed to switchback up the mountain so I decided to follow it. This trail clearly hadn’t been used in forever and some parts were so overgrown with cactuses that I had no choice but to go through them. Luckily I was wearing pants and a long sleeve but I had to pull a lot of prickly things out of them after. At one point I was going straight uphill through a cactus field. It didn’t feel right, but I was already over halfway up the shortcut so I had to just keep going. This whole section was crazy but I eventually made my way to the top. Even though it was less distance, the short cut probably took me longer than just following the road. Oh well I made it.

I continued back along the road for a bit and it reached the point where I could turn at the fork and start heading down to Sangalle. But since it was only 10 in the morning I decided that I was going to stay up high and go through some of the little canyon cities before eventually turning back around and going down the lower route by the river to Sangalle. I walked through the small towns of Malata and Cosñirhua and neither was really anything that special other than just getting perspective that these are small towns in the canyon that people live in. After Cosñirhua it was a super steep downhill snake and I passed by many struggling tour groups that were going uphill in the opposite direction as me. I continued through the valley and made it to San Juan de Chuccho which also wasn’t that exciting.

At this point I had stacked on enough extra miles so I started going back the way I came, but this time on the lower section of the canyon. It was super beautiful down here and very isolated from everything. There was the occasional house in the hills where people have been using these pathways their whole life to get around. There was a lot of splits in the path for the locals and I would continually get lost even when using All Trails; it was a confusing network of paths. The afternoon heat was really starting to come in and instead of staying by the river the whole time I had to go back uphill yet again. Just so I could get to the top of this section of the canyon then head back downhill to Sangalle. It was more up and down than I expected. I eventually made it to Oasis Paraiso Lodge by about 2pm.

I ran into my Dutch friends I met the night before by the pool and chilled on a lounge chair besides them. These 2 Swiss girls I met at my hostel in Arequipa were also there so I spent the afternoon chatting with them and this French girl. I took a few dips in the pool throughout the afternoon. It was a very relaxing place to spend the day and talk to my new friends over some beers. Dinner was served that night for a small fee. Afterwards we all called it an early night because you want to start the ascent out of the canyon before sunrise while it’s not too hot. There’s no shade on the way out.

Day 3: Sangalle > Cabanaconde (3.3 miles, 3500 feet elevation gain)

After breakfast, I started the trail at 5:50 with the Dutch couple and the Swiss girls but I told them I go fast and it didn’t take long before I was just hiking on my own. I came on this trail without a group so I could just go at my pace so that’s what I did. It was a crazy steep, non stop uphill battle to get out of the canyon but I was in the best hiking of my life at this point so I kept a fast pace and barely even stopped. I really had a nice rhythm for this uphill part. As I got higher up, I started passing most the tours that started at 4:30 (almost 1.5 hours before me). I finished the trail by 7:30, only about 1hr40min after I started. I’d say I made pretty damn good timing to get from the bottom of that massive canyon to the top. I took the 2 colectivo route to get home because I didn’t feel like waiting longer for the direct route. The first one went from Cabanaconde to Chivay then to Arequipa. It actually cost slightly more than the direct bus but it was efficient. I was back in Arequipa by the mid afternoon with plenty of time to just chill then grab dinner before my night bus to Cusco.

Colin’s South America Trek