Economy of Arequipa

Arequipa is predominantly tourist-related because of the geographical diversity and historical importance of the region. Arequipa also functions as a critical center for communications, economic growth and cultural and political leadership in Peru. Other products of the region include primarily textiles, agrarian goods and metallurgical products for which Arequipa has been working progressively to create international markets.

Shopping in Arequipa

Arequipa is an excellent place to buy alpaca clothing. Good quality items are available cheaper than in Cusco or Lima, as most of the firms are based in Arequipa. Bear in mind that even for the best items, the quality is not usually up to the standards of clothing in the west (Alpaca 111 is an exception), and all alpaca items must be hand washed and carefully cared for. Cheaper items are much the same as elsewhere in Peru, and are not usually 100% alpaca.

Alpaca is a soft, warm wool, not unlike cashmere. Better than alpaca is baby alpaca, the first shearing of a baby’s wool, and is softer and warmer than alpaca, but is more expensive. The best of all, and probably the most expensive wool in the world, is that of the vicuna. Until recently it was illegal to shear vicuna wool, as the vicuna was nearly hunted to extinction in the 1960s, but under tight control this law has been slightly relaxed in recent years. Vicuna wool is the finest in the world, having a diameter of 11-13 microns, as opposed to 30 microns for sheep wool, 17-19 microns for alpaca and 16 microns for cashmere. A scarf made of vicuna wool costs upwards of USD 400. Recently, wool from the guanaco, another relative of the llama, has begun to be used in the production of clothing. This is between alpaca and vicuna in quality. Llama wool is not used in the production of clothing, as when it gets wet is gives out an awful odour.

There are many places selling alpaca clothing. Crafts stores sell cheap, generally low-quality jumpers and other items, although these are often mixed with lambs’ wool. There are more upmarket shops in the cloisters of the Compania church on Moran, ½ block from the Plaza de Armas, and in the Pasaje de la Catedral. Alpawool, at Santa Catalina 116, has good quality products. The best items are from Grupo Inca, the only company in the world allowed to work with vicuna wool, with high quality, although expensive, clothing. They sell in their Alpaca 111 shops at Zela 105 and in the cloisters of the Compania church. Their factory shop in Tahuaycani has a small zoo with llamas, alpacas, vicunas and guanacos on show. Grupo Inca also has shops in Cusco, Lima, the US and South Korea.

Crafts
A good crafts market is the Fundo El Fierro next to the San Francisco Church, especially in August when many extra stalls are set up. Not found elsewhere are the woven alpaca carpets, typical of the Cotahuasi area. Other craft markets include the one in the Portal de Flores, and crafts are also found in the Comercial market in Mercaderes. There are many craft shops on Santa Catalina and in the Pasaje de la Catedral.

Jewellery
Much gold and silver jewellery is imported from Italy, and is therefore slightly more expensive than in some other countries. However, excellent reproductions of Inca and other pre-Hispanic jewellery can be found. Oro Pesa, in the Panoramico shopping centre and Oro Fino in the cloisters of La Compania, have some very fine examples. Try the Comercial market next door to the Panoramico for cheap 14-karat gold-plated jewellery. (more…)

Nightlife in Arequipa

Bars, clubs and discos

For a large city, Arequipa does not have a very active night scene. However, things have picked up in recent years, and there are now a number of good bars and clubs open most days of the week. However, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays still tend to be the most popular days with locals, with places filling up around midnight. Nightlife is concentrated in two main areas. In the centre there are a number of smart bars as well as some good clubs and discos. This tends to be where most tourists go in the evening. However, many young Arequipenos head for Avenida Dolores, where there are many discos and bars.

There are several lively bars on Santa Catalina and San Francisco in the centre. Siwara (Santa Catalina 210) is an attractive bar, which is lively at night. It specialises in beer cocktails, and gives free passes to the Kibosh disco. Don Quixote (Moral block 1) is quieter, but has a pool table. La Casa de Klaus (Zela block 2) is a small German pub, with a few German beers for those fed up with Peruvian ones. There is traditional live music at weekends.

Le Bistrot, in the Alianza Francesa (Santa Catalina 208) is a rather relaxed bar with good cocktails, and it also prepares excellent crepes. Le Cafe Art Montreal (Santa Catalina 300) also has a pleasant, relaxed atmosphere. On the first block of San Francisco, near the Plaza de Armas, there are several small pubs serving beer and pizzas, normally with MTV.

The liveliest club in the centre is the Forum (San Francisco 317), with a surprisingly large dance floor with a good atmosphere. There are quieter rooms if you don’t fancy a dance. A live band usually plays at weekends. Cover charge on these days is around USD 3, and the place starts filling up around midnight. Another very popular disco is the Kibosh (Zela block 1) with a small, crowded dance floor and loud rock music.

The Jenizaro Pub (Melgar 119) also has rock music and a small dance floor, as does deja vu (San Francisco block 3), which also shows videos on a giant screen in the evenings. A slightly more kitschy disco, with lots of mirrors and smoked glass, is The Point (Palacio Viejo 204), which has a small dance floor and a good mix of rock and Latin music. Popular places on Av. Dolores include the Tradicion Arequipena, which has live music on Saturdays, and gets very, very packed, and the Planet, a large disco. (more…)

Getting in Arequipa

By plane

By far the easiest way to get in to / out of Arequipa is by plane. Lan flys twice daily from around USD 70.

By bus

Several buses a day do the long trips to Cuzco, Puno, Nazca, Lima and Tacna (near the border with Chile).

By train

Daily (cold) trains travel up to Juliaca and Puno.

Arequipa Region

Arequipa is a region in southwestern Peru. It is bordered by the Ica, Ayacucho, Apurimac and Cusco regions on the north; the Puno Region on the east; the Moquegua Region on the south; and the Pacific Ocean on the west. Its capital, also called Arequipa, is Peru’s second-largest city.

Geography

This region has a rough surface which is characterized by heavy layers of volcanic lava covering large areas of its inter-Andean sector. It has deep canyons like the ones formed by the Ocona and Majes rivers opposed to medium-altitude plateaus such as La Joya, and high-altitude ones such the Arrieros Pampa and those located in the zones of Chivay, Huambo and Pichucolla.

Volcanic cones are seen in this area emerging above the plateaus and forming snowfalls, such as Misti, Chachani, Ampato, Mismi, Solimana and Coropuna. In contrast with these heights, there are deep and impressing canyons, including Majes, Colca, Sihuas and Ocona where important aspects of the ecological evolution of this zone can be clearly observed.

In the Coast, small plateaus and dunes represent characteristics of the desert of Arequipa, like the ones located in the Majes, Sihuas and La Joya pampas which are particularly beautiful and developed.

From a hydrographic point of view, the rivers draining its territory belong mainly to the Pacific watershed but there are also some rivers belonging to the Amazon hydrographic system. Some of the region’s main rivers are: Ocona, Yauca, Camana and Quilca. The starting point of the Amazon River, the longest river on Earth, is located in the Arequipa region.
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History of Arequipa

Archaeological findings indicate the fertile valley in which Arequipa is situated has been occupied back to 5000 - 6000 BCE. In the 15th century, the region, then occupied by Aymara Indians, was conquered by the Inca and served as an important supplier of agrarian products to the Inca Empire. The modern city of Arequipa was founded on 15 August 1540, by Garci Manuel de Carbajal, an emissary of Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro.

One year later, King Charles V of Spain gave it the rank of ‘city’ and the coat of arms that it still keeps. The arrival of Spanish influence left many relics and colonial architecture, which reminds the visitor of the city’s colonial past, when it was the city with the highest proportion of Spanish population in the whole Viceroyalty of Peru. This led Arequipa to develop a large Peruvian Mestizo population as its demographics changed and grew over the centuries. Since the late 1940’s, however, there has been increasing immigration from the Peruvian sierra, thus changing the demographic character of some parts of the city.

Throughout history Arequipa remained relatively isolated during colonial and early republican times, but that changed in 1870 when a Southern railroad to the coastal port of Tacna was inaugurated, opening trade via the Pacific Ocean. The building and expansion of more roads in the 1930s also led to a direct connection with the Pan-American Highway, strengthening Arequipa’s links to the rest of the Americas. Since then, the city has remained the center of commerce between Lima and all of Southern Peru.

Arequipa served as a bastion of nationalism during Peru’s struggle for independence from Spain in the early 19th century. Later, it served as a rallying point during the War of the Pacific (1879 - 1883) with Chile. (more…)

Introducation of Arequipa

Arequipa is a city in southern Peru and the nation’s second-largest city. It is also the capital of the Arequipa Region and the Arequipa Province. The city stands at the foot of the snow-capped volcano El Misti, in the highlands.

Arequipa has many fine colonial-era Spanish buildings built of sillar, a pearly white volcanic rock used extensively in the construction of the city, from which it gets its nickname La Ciudad Blanca (”the white city”). The city is located at an altitude of 2,380 meters (7740 feet) above sea level, in the Peruvian Andes.

One of Peru’s largest cities, it is the commercial center of S Peru and N Bolivia. Alpaca wool, the city’s chief product, is graded, sorted, and shipped out through the port of Mollendo. Founded in 1540 on the site of an Inca town, Arequipa stands on an oasis in an arid plain and grows crops for local consumption.

In a region prone to earthquakes, the city was almost totally destroyed by one in 1868, but its lovely examples of Spanish colonial architecture were restored. The most recent major earthquake occurred in 2001. The light-colored building stone, sillar, has given Arequipa the name “white city.” It has a university and several other institutions of higher education.