South of Cusco's crowds, Peru runs a quieter circuit that many travellers end up loving more: Arequipa's volcano-ringed white city, the two-day trek into Colca Canyon under circling condors, and a night in a family home on an island in Lake Titicaca, 3,800 metres closer to the sky than the sea. It slots neatly between Lima and Cusco (or Bolivia) and takes eight to ten days.
Arequipa: the white city
Arequipa is built from sillar, a pale volcanic stone that glows in the afternoon light, with the perfect cone of El Misti (5,822 m) parked at the end of half the streets. It's Peru's best city for simply living well on a budget: dorms $8-12, and picanterías — traditional lunch houses — serving rocoto relleno (stuffed hot peppers) and adobo for $3-5. The one unmissable sight is the Santa Catalina Monastery ($12), a 16th-century city-within-a-city painted deep blue and burnt orange, where you can wander cloisters and tiny kitchens for hours; go at opening or for the candlelit evening sessions. The Museo Santuarios Andinos ($7) holds Juanita, the Inca ice mummy found on Ampato's summit — a sobering, extraordinary half hour.
At 2,335 metres, Arequipa is also the sensible acclimatisation step before the altitudes ahead. Give it three nights.
Into Colca Canyon
Colca is one of the deepest canyons on Earth — roughly twice the Grand Canyon by depth — and the standard budget move is the two-day, one-night trek from Cabanaconde. You can join a guided group from Arequipa ($40-60 including transport and beds) or do it independently: take the 3am or dawn bus toward Cabanaconde (5-6 hours, $6-8), stopping at Cruz del Cóndor, where Andean condors with three-metre wingspans ride the morning thermals at eye level, sometimes close enough to hear the wind in their feathers. The canyon entry ticket costs about $20.
From Cabanaconde (3,287 m), the trail drops a brutal kilometre of switchbacks to the canyon floor, then contours through oasis villages to Sangalle, the palm-shaded 'oasis' at the bottom where basic lodges with pools charge $8-12 a night, dinner included for a few dollars more. The climb out starts at 5am by headtorch — three hours of steady grind, with mules for hire ($20-25) shadowing the groups like sag wagons. Breakfast back in Cabanaconde, then soak at the La Calera hot springs near Chivay ($5) on the way out.
Across the altiplano to Puno
Direct tourist buses run Chivay to Puno across the altiplano (6 hours, $15-20), past herds of vicuñas and lagoons crowded with flamingos; ordinary buses from Arequipa to Puno cost $10-12 and take about six hours. Puno, at 3,830 metres, is a scrappy, cold, functional port town — nobody's favourite city and everybody's gateway. Stock up on coca tea, a warm hat from the market ($4), and cash.
Titicaca the slow way: Amantaní
Skip the two-hour Uros-only tours and take the full-day boat that continues to Amantaní island for a homestay ($30-40 including boat, family lodging, and all meals, booked at the port or through community associations — ask for community-run, so the money stays on the island). The boat stops first at the Uros floating islands, whole villages woven from totora reeds that squish underfoot like a waterbed; touristy, yes, but genuinely strange and worth the hour.
On Amantaní there are no cars, no dogs, and after dark almost no lights. You eat quinoa soup and muña tea in your host family's kitchen, then climb between stone-walled fields to the temple summit of Pachatata for sunset over a lake so vast it curves like a sea, with Bolivia's snowcapped Cordillera Real floating on the far side. The stars afterwards are absurd. Next morning the boat calls at Taquile island, famous for its knitting men (the textiles are UNESCO-listed), before returning to Puno.
Practical notes
Go April to October for dry, bright days; nights on the altiplano drop below freezing year-round, so pack real layers. Budget $35-50 a day. From Puno, buses continue to Cusco (7 hours) or around the lake to Copacabana in Bolivia (3-4 hours) — either way, you leave better acclimatised and, we'd argue, with the better half of Peru already behind you.
