Arequipa City tour with Santa Catalina Convent & Juanita Mummy

At the city’s Plaza de Armas Main Square, visit the Iglesia de La Compañía de Jesús, a Jesuit church with a lovely Baroque façade and chapel. Inside, there are hundreds of works of art from Peru’s Colonial era. From there, you move on the traditional districts of Carmen Alto and Yanahuara. An interesting landmark there is the lookout point with incredible the arches, which are engraved with words from illustrious Arequipeños (citizens of Arequipa), and from where you get a spectacular view of three volcanoes: Mount Misti, Mount Chachani, and Mount Pichu-Pichu, as well as of the city itself.

Next on the itinerary is the Santa Catalina convent, a kind of city within a city. It’s a large complex and includes cloisters, charming streets, and small plazas that have never changed over its more than 500 year history. During the tour, you will learn something of what life is like for the select group of nuns living there.

Lastly, you will visit the Andean Sanctuary Museum on the campus of the Santa Maria Catholic University. It displays the mummified remains of Juanita, a.k.a. the Lady of Ampato, who was a teenage Incan girl sacrificed to the Apus. Her body was discovered on Mount Ampato (6288 m) by Johan Reinhard after resting underneath layers of snow for nearly 500 years.

Note:PVT/available May-December