• Main Tours Page
• Colca Canyon
• Climbing
• White Water Rafting
• Mountain Biking
• Other Tours

• 1 Day Bus Tour
• 2 Days Bus Tour
• 3 Days Bus Tour

• 2 Days Trekking Tour
• 3 Days Trekking Tour
• 4 Days Trekking Tour
• 6-7 Days Trekking to Valle de las Volcanoes

• 2d Volcano Misti(5822)
• 2d Chachani(6075m)
• 3d Mt Ampato(6288)
• Source of Amazonas
• Coropuna(6425m)

• Rio Chile Rafting
• Rio Chile Kayaking
• Rio Majes Rafting
• Rio Cotahuasi Rafting
• Rio Colca Rafting
• Kayak School

• Volcano Misti Downhill
• Mt. Chachani Downhill
• Countryside Bike Ride

• Valle de los Volcanoes
• Toro Muerto Petroglyph
• Cotahuasi Canyon
• Laguna Salinas
• 2h Horseback Riding
• 1d Horseback Riding
• City Bus Tour
• Countryside Bus Tour

Besides the Colca Canyon, Climbing, White Water Rafting and Mountain Biking Tours, Arequipa and it's surroundings have many other wonderful tours to offer. Many quite off the beaten gringo trail, where you can encounter traditional village life less affected by tourism. Like the deepest Canyon in the world, the Cotahuasi Canyon with traditional villages, thermal baths, a 150m waterfall, rock forest and salt mines.

Or La Valle de los Volcanoes with it's more than fifty small volcanic cones, pre-columbian funerary towers and villages as well as an impressive waterfall. Or Toro Muerto Petroglyphs a collection of more than 2200 rocks carved 1200 years ago by the Wasi Culture. Situated in the deserty hills of the lush Rio Majes Valley.

Or for animal lovers there is La Laguna de Salinas a borax rich mountain lake on 4300m which is the home of all three kinds of flamingoes in the rainy season and dries out to a salt flat in the dry season. The laguna offers spectacular views of El Misti as well. Then there are numerous horseback riding trips that can be made close by or further in the countryside.

And finally there are Arequipa City Bus Tours as well as surrounding countryside Bus Tours on offer. Where you are driven around in a modern and comfortable Bus and get to see the city or countryside and make stops at the major attractions.

• La Valle de los Volcanoes
• Toro Muerto Petroglyphs
• Cotahuasi Canyon - deepest in the world
• Laguna de Salinas - Flamingoes
• 2 Hour Horseback Riding Trip
• 1 Day Horseback Riding Trip
• Arequipa City Bus Tour
• Arequipa Countryside Bus Tour

La Valle de los Volcanoes is an otherworldly valley dotted by over 50 small volcanic cones and lava streams barely eroded. It is located a good 10 hours from Arequipa by public bus. It can be easily done on your own or with a tour operator in town. Besides the volcanic cones the valley as well is home to some pre-columbian funerary towers called chullpas and a pre-columbian village as well as an impressive waterfall.

As it is quite a ways from Arequipa, it is best combined with Toro Muerto Petroglyphs which are right on the way and magnificient. And if you are into adventures a White Water Rafting trip down Rio Majes.

Whether you do it on your own or with a tour it is a trip well worth it's time way off the beaten gringo trail. Where you'll be able to meet local village life that has been less changed and affected by tourism and people and kids will still meet you with a lot of curiosity.

Tours usually are of four days duration, but the first and last day are pretty much spent in public buses getting to the Valley and back. During the other two days you'll visit the Valley, some spectacular lookout points and visit some ancient villages.

More information about how to do the tour on your own will follow shortly in a trip report.

A lovely one day tour from Arequipa or easily combineable with Rio Majes Rafting or to break down the 10 to 12 hours from Arequipa to either La Valle de los Volcanoes or Cotahuasi Canyon.

There are tour agencies that offer this trip, but it is quite expensive considering how easy it is do it on your own as a day trip. Corire the closest town reachable by Bus directly from Arequipa is roughly 3 hours away. And there are buses there and back pretty much every hour starting from 5:30am till 6:30pm. A ticket costs a mere 10 Soles plus the 1 Sol departure tax for a grand total of 21 Soles in Bus fares there and back (less than 7$).

The petroglyphs are up in the deserty hills and can be either reached by foot in 2 hours more or less, or by Taxi. The walk there and back while not really strenuous from an uphill or downhill point of view, does involve A LOT of sun and heat. Don't expect to get any shade at all.

If five to six hours of baking in the sun, including a good one to two hours of petroglyphs sighting, sound like to much sun it might be recommendable to get a taxi in Corire to drive you there and wait while you do the sightseeing.

In either case take a lot of water.

While the Colca Canyon is by far the most visited Canyon around Arequipa, due to it's closeness and the Condors, it is only the second deepest known canyon in the world. The deepest is actually the Cotahuasi Canyon which reaches depths of 3300m, roughly twice the depths of the famous Grand Canyon in the US. The Cotahuasi Canyon is located a good ten to eleven hours from Arequipa by public buses.

A visit to the Cotahuasi Canyon can be easily combined with a visit to Toro Muerto Petroglyphs which are right on the way and magnificient. And if you are into adventures a White Water Rafting trip down Rio Majes.

Due to the popularity of the Colca Canyon and the distance of the Cotahuasi Canyon from Arequipa, it is much less visited and affected by tourism. Allowing a glimpse at more traditional live in this part of the Andes. Well of the beaten Gringo Trail.

Besides it's depth the Cotahuasi Canyon has a lot to offer. Like a spectacular 150m water fall. Thermal baths. Very traditional little villages. Impressive lookout points and views. A rock forest, salt mines and dinosaur tracks. On the other hand, unlike the Colca Canyon, the bottom of the Cotahuasi is only accessible to experienced white water rafters doing a once in a lifetime 5 Day White Water Rafting Expedition.

Tours offered by Operators in Arequipa are most of the time not really pure treking trips, but involve getting between villages in buses or 4x4. Combined with many little excursions of a few hours duration that involve walking. They all include visits to the waterfalls, some of the hot springs, the rock forest and visit to traditional villages

We are planning to get ourselves out there on our own so expect a trip report with detailed information about how to do it on your own shortly.

Laguna Salinas is a borax rich mountain lake close by to Arequipa on 4300m that is home to all three types of flamingoes as well as other andean water birds during the rainy months of January through April. In the dry months the laguna dries out and becomes a white salt flat.

Even though the Salinas is actually very close to Arequipa getting there is acutally quite a daunting task. Public transportation to the laguna itself is non-existant. There are buses to Chiguata a colonial town relatively close to the laguna. But getting from there to the Laguna is the first problem. Or take a bus to Ubinas, on the other side of the Laguna and have the driver drop you off at the Laguna. The second one will be getting back as buses passing by in the evening are more often than not full. We have had more people at our hostel trying to get there and failing than we had people that succeeded on their own.

Thus easiest way is to go on a one day tour with an operator from Arequipa that will go with their own 4x4 transportation. Will cost a lot more, but at least you will make it there (and back) for sure. We will try our own luck shortly and hopefull be able to write a trip report about successful attempt to get there.