Arequipa and the Colca Canyon.

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Arequipa and the Colca Canyon.

Arequipa City.

Also called the white city, its located at 2400 mts. over sea level and 17 Km from Misti Volcanoe (5800 mts high), it has a nice architecture and a beautiful city center, the best places to visit here are the Frozen Mummy Juanita (Santuarios Andinos Museum) and the Santa Catalina Convent, both on the center. Another option is to make a trip to Colca Canyon, the deepest canyon in the world (3500mts deep) , and try to spot a Condor, the biggest bird of the andes.

Condor at Colca Canyon

The buildings of the city center are made is the volcanoe ashes, this material is called Sillar, so the color of the old buildings is white. You can walk around the city center as its safe and a good place to spend the afternoon. Another good option is to visit the tipical restaurants and try the local food. 
Arequipa is famous for its volcanoes, the most famous is Misti, with 5822 mts. its  still active.
Other famous volcanoes are Chanchani with 60575 mts, Pichu Picchu with 5664 mts. and Ambato with 6318 mts. high.

Arequipa has some nice traditional restaurants called ¨Picanterias¨, I recommend two of them, Nueva Palomino and La Lucila, you need to take a taxi to this places. About security, Arequipa is a safe place to walk around but be always careful at night and with taxis.



Colca Canyon.

Is the deepest canyon in the world with about 3500 mts. deep, its located next to the Colca Valley, 4 hours far from Arequipa city.
In Colca Canyon you will have the chance to see the Condor, the biggest bird on the Andes, there are also deers, alpacas, llamas, Vicuñas, fox and vizcachas. You need to hire a tour company to visit it.

On the way to Colca Valley you will see some volcanoes and white capped mountians like Ambato where Juanita, the forzen Inca Mommy, was founded in 1995. You can also see Mismi mountain with 5597 mts. this is  where the Amazonas river starts.





The Andean Condor.
The world´s biggest flying bird and a sacred bird for the Inca civilization, its a huge animal with 3 mts. long wing to wing, can weight 12 to 14 Kg and has about 1.3 mts from head to tail. This big bird can fly up to 10000 mts high and lives on the highlands of South America. The Condor only eat death animals that find on the mountains. You can see them on the Colca Canyon and in some other places of the Andes, lives in high dry areas, close to rocks, mountains and cliffs. This is a endangered animal and local people are trying to preserve it. 

Colca Canyon, Arequipa

Puerto Inca.

A few hours from Arequipa is Puerto Inca, a nice beach next to the Inca ruins that were used by the Inca to rest, there is a little hotel with bungaloes here and you can also camp and have a bbq after a swim. You can drive from Ica to Puerto Inca as well.