Our favorite things to do in Arequipa

Arequipa was our first stop in the "Let's skip Cusco" trip, and it ended up being one of our favorite places in Peru. Here is why!

Before you question my sanity, we had a short time in Peru overall, and we felt that Cusco would deserve more time than we have, so we decided instead to visit places less traveled by the masses. Arequipa was the first of those, and what a place to start! Self labeled as the rebel city (they have their own passport!) and rich in history, here is what we liked in our 2 day stay:

The free tour

The city is full of history, the best introduction you can have is someone that will explain some of it to you. There are several tour companies that offer the free tours, we did the one that started at Plaza de Armas at the time (October 2019). All the ones I know are taking you around the streets of the city, through Mundo Alpaca - a local alpaca farm that shows the history of alpaca wool and how it is used (and you can feed the alpacas!). The tour usually ends at one of the best viewpoints in town (you will meet it in the next section).

Having a beer in the most amazing locations

Arequipa is known for many things, beer is not one of them. Me being me, the first thing I did after arrival is to look for the best beer places, here is what I found:

• For the beer - Chaqchao Chocolates A chocolate shop that also has one of the biggest varieties of Peruvian beers that I have seen in the country. A true beer lovers gem!

• For the view - Waya Lookout This is the final stop of the free tour that I was mentioning before. The rooftop is looking over the main square, and you can see the mountain view all around. The choice of beer is not impressive, you'll probably have a few of the local commercial beers, but it is known that the view makes the beer tastier!

• For the chill - Puku Puku A coffee shop with a terrace on the roof, filled with couches and pillows. A great place to chillout for a couple of hours, especially if you spent the last hours walking or being on the bus. The place has some commercial beers and some local craft.

The Chupe de camarones in La Nueva Palomino

La Nueva Palomino is a Peruvian cousine restaurant located out of the city center, in the north. We walked for about 25 minutes from the center to reach it. Chupe de camarones, or shrimp soup in translation, is a typical dish originated in Arequipa and sold around the country, mostly in the southern coast. Traditionally, the shrimps are river shrimps and should be caught in Peruvian rivers. The soup contains a variety of ingredients added historically, from the local stuff like potatoes, tomatoes and peppers to some mediterranean ingredients brought in by the Spanish conquests like cheese and evaporated milk. This is hands down the best dish we have tried in Peru!

When you order it always ask how big is the bowl, we ended up ordering one bowl for the two of us and we couldn't get up from our chair for the next 2 hours after we finished it. The dish and the place were recommended to us by a local friend, but it is sold in many other places around the city.

Final thoughts

As all of our Peruvian adventures, it was a short one, we spent in Arequipa only 2 days! There are plenty of other interesting things to see and to do, but these were our favorites. Did we miss anything? Did you have a different experience in any of the places I've mentioned? Tell me!