After
picking you up from the hotel located in the historic center of Arequipa, you
will start the walking tour in the neighborhood of San Lazaro, located just 5 blocks from the Plaza de Armas of Arequipa. This colonial hood has small streets
and houses made of sillar, a volcanic stone used for constructions.
San Lazaro
is an old district and you will admire its beauty through its lovely streets,
small squares and white walls. This are had been occupied by pre Inca and Inca cultures and, during
the Spanish conquer and city’s foundation, the first houses were built here.
This district
belongs to the Historic Center of
Arequipa, so it is considered as a UNESCO
World Heritage Site.
The tour
continues to Barrio del Solar
situated near the River Chili where
you will walk along beautiful streets with traditional and colonial buildings. You
are going to explore different areas known as Tambos, lodging centers where
merchants came to rest during the colonial era.
The first Tambo
to visit will be Tambo El Matadero, a
building from the seventeenth century that was used to sacrifice animals.
Currently, there are about 30 families living in this place.
The walking
tour in Arequipa continues to Tambo La
Cabezona, a colonial group of houses with a communal entrance dated from
the sixteenth century and the place where one of the first mills in the city
worked.
Enjoy a
panoramic tour to Plaza de Armas,
the main meeting point of locals and where the Cathedral of Arequipa is located. This beautiful square is
surrounded by lovely portals and there is a bronze fountain in the middle.
After a
short walk we are going to reach the Santa
Catalina Monastery. This place was founded in 1579 and it has 20 thousand
square meters distributed in cloisters, patios, squares, streets, bell tower
and church.
During the
viceroyalty, Doña Maria de Guzman was a rich woman and she decided to donate
all her properties and start a live as a cloister nun. Most of the women came from wealthy families
and, currently, there still are cloister nuns living at Santa Catalina Convent.
This is a
beautiful place with a lot of history and you will have time to take nice
photos. Walk around the streets made of
ashlar and some parts with natural colored red walls. You will visit many
areas such as the Patio del Silencio,
a place where the nuns met to pray and read the Bible in silence.
Get
impressed with this jewel of the city of
Arequipa, a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site. Later, we are going to
drop you off at your hotel.