In the morning, we will pick you up
from the centrally located hotel in the city of Arequipa to start a very
special tour, the Sillar Route. During this half-day excursion, we will stroll
around two renowned quarries to get in touch with the artisans who work with
the sillar stone.
We will take the route towards the
district of Cerro Colorado until we reach the Añashuayco Quarries, located at
the foot of the Chachani Volcano and adjacent to the Chili River. This place
boasts a marvelous natural and cultural landscape. We will walk through the
area of the master stonecutters and appreciate handcrafted works of art, such as
colonial facades and carvings.
We will admire the Pink Sillar, an
area of the quarries that reflects an intense pink color in the sunlight due to
the combination of sillar, sand, and rocks.
We will also visit the artisan
workshops to learn about the work done with sillar and witness how it is
elaborated using ancestral tools. Additionally, we will have the opportunity to
observe the process of sillar extraction. You will have the chance to purchase
handicrafts (optional).
Continuing with this fantastic
journey, we will visit the Culebrillas Quarry and stroll through this
impressive natural ravine formed by water and wind erosion.
We will walk along these narrow
walls and observe the Culebrillas petroglyphs depicting animals such as birds,
felines, and snakes, with heights reaching around 30 meters. These drawings
belonged to the Wari culture, an Andean civilization that thrived between the
7th and 13th centuries AD.
Sillar has been used in the
construction of the city of Arequipa, declared a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage
site.
At the end of the tour, we will
return to the city center of Arequipa.