Arequipa, Colca & the South

The south was settled by farming peoples long before the Inca. In the Colca valley the Collaguas and Cabanas carved the slopes into terraces still farmed today, and near Moquegua the Wari built a fortified outpost on the flat-topped mountain of Cerro Baúl. The Inca brought the region into their empire and made offerings on the high volcanoes, where child sacrifices such as the girl known as Juanita, found on Ampato in 1995, were preserved in the ice.

The Spanish founded Arequipa in 1540, and it grew into a wealthy colonial city of Spanish families, wine estates and churches built from sillar, the white volcanic stone. The eruption of Huaynaputina in Moquegua in 1600, the largest in the recorded history of South America, buried villages and damaged Arequipa, and earthquakes have struck the city repeatedly. Arequipa later earned a reputation as a rebellious city, the launch point of several revolts and coups in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The War of the Pacific reshaped the far south. Chile occupied Tacna and Arica after the Battle of Alto de la Alianza in 1880, and Tacna remained under Chilean administration until the Treaty of Lima of 1929 returned it to Peru while Arica stayed Chilean. In the 20th century large copper mines opened at Toquepala and Cuajone, and a severe earthquake in 2001 damaged Arequipa, Moquegua and Tacna.

Arequipeños are known across Peru for their fierce regional pride, and the city has long seen itself as a counterweight to Lima. Its local speech, loncco, the rural dialect of the surrounding countryside, is celebrated in verse. The city has produced writers and politicians out of proportion to its size, most famously the Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, born there in 1936.

Religious life centres on the Virgin of Chapi, whose sanctuary south of the city draws a huge pilgrimage every 1 May, and on the historic convents. The founding of the city is celebrated each August with parades, fights between pairs of bulls, and music.

In the Colca, communities descended from the Collagua and Cabana peoples keep their own dress and traditions, and the Wititi dance, a courtship dance of the valley, is recognised by UNESCO as intangible heritage. Tacna's identity is shaped by its half-century under Chile, and the flag procession every 28 August, when a huge Peruvian flag is carried through the streets, is its most emotional day.

Arequipa is Peru's second-largest city, with more than a million people, and the commercial and industrial centre of the south, with universities, breweries, textile and food industries, and the services for the region's mines. It has grown fast into the desert and up the flanks of its volcanoes. Tacna, with a few hundred thousand people, lives from trade with Chile, and its markets and clinics draw visitors from Arica. Moquegua and the port of Ilo are smaller.

Copper is the economic backbone: the Cerro Verde mine outside Arequipa, and Toquepala, Cuajone and Quellaveco in Tacna and Moquegua, make the south central to Peru's exports. Water is the constant issue, shared between mines, farms and growing cities in a desert, and the Tía María copper project in the Tambo valley has faced repeated, sometimes deadly, protests from farmers.

Farming thrives in irrigated valleys such as Majes and Tambo, which grow dairy, rice, onions and garlic. In the Colca, alpaca herding, farming and tourism support the villages.

Arequipa has one of Peru's great regional cuisines, served in picanterías, traditional restaurants that open for lunch. Rocoto relleno is a hot red pepper stuffed with minced meat and baked under cheese; chupe de camarones is a rich soup of freshwater prawns from the coastal rivers; and ocopa is boiled potato in a sauce of huacatay herb, chilli and peanuts. Adobo arequipeño, pork marinated in chicha and spices, is a traditional breakfast, and solterito is a salad of broad beans, cheese, onion and tomato. The picanterías' set lunch starts with a hearty soup.

The favourite sweet is queso helado, which despite its name is not cheese but a cinnamon-scented frozen milk dessert sold on the street. Chicha de guiñapo, made from black maize, is the traditional drink of the picanterías, and the anise liqueur Anís Nájar is served with breakfast adobo.

Moquegua and Tacna are two of Peru's designated pisco regions, with old bodegas making pisco and sweet wines. Tacna's picante a la tacneña is a spicy stew of tripe and meat, and the Colca adds alpaca meat, grilled or in stews.

Arequipa's historic centre, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is built of white sillar: the cathedral on the Plaza de Armas, the carved facade of La Compañía, and the Santa Catalina Monastery, a small walled town of painted cloisters. The Museo Santuarios Andinos shows Juanita and other high-altitude offerings, and the viewpoints of Yanahuara and the old mill of Sabandía look out to El Misti and Chachani.

The Colca canyon begins at Chivay, with hot springs, and runs west past terraced villages such as Yanque and Maca to the Cruz del Cóndor viewpoint, where Andean condors ride the morning thermals, and to Cabanaconde, the start of treks down to the Sangalle oasis. The Salinas y Aguada Blanca reserve, with vicuñas, lies on the road from Arequipa. Further north are the Cotahuasi canyon, the Valley of the Volcanoes near Andagua and the petroglyphs of Toro Muerto.

Moquegua has a colonial centre, wineries and Cerro Baúl, and Tacna the cathedral, the Alto de la Alianza memorial and the Miculla petroglyphs.