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The full name is Monasterio de Santa Catalina de Sena. A vast (20,000 square metres) complex, built in 1580.
It's beautiful - see Dilwyn Jenkins' 'Rough Guide to Peru.'
In the White City. Open 9am-4pm. Admission 25 sol.
Great guides, friendly and informative at very reasonable prices.
Chachapoyas, Main Square
Fab food, clean and tasty and excellent pisco sours!
Totally agree with the recommendation for travelling from Celendin to Leyembamba: awesome scenery for those willing to endure the slow, less-travelled road. This part of Peru gets very little traffic compared with the southern areas.
Cuesta San Blas 525, San Blas
This place have a splendid landscape beautiful canyon where you can sail in Cotahuasi river.
And you can watch Sipia waterfalls.
All this show can be experienced starting from Cotahuasi city with a guide from there. To reach Cotahuasi you can take a bus from Arequipa city (12 hours).
... For the adventurous, I advise taking a small bus (weekly departures) from Cajamarca to Celendin, then Celendin to Leymebamba and Leymebamba to Chachapoyas.
It's soooo worth it for the scenery. You travel in a small bus on unsurfaced single track roads, hugging close to impossibly steep mountainsides, passing over mountain peaks, through jungles and over rivers.
Not advisable in the wet season due to landslides.
Stay in Leymebamba for a few days and take in the museum with hundreds of mummies from the nearby Laguna del Condor.
For the even more adventurous take a horse trek up to the laguna. It's an Indiana Jones style adventure. Nearly impossible in rainy season.
There are many other fascinating archaeological remains in the area.
Most are easier to access on tours from Chachapoyas than directly from Leymebamba.
Hostal "Laguna de los Condores" in Leymebmba arranges day trips, tours and horse hire and the staff (family run) have excellent local knowledge.
Use taxis to get you to the start of hikes. Ask the driver and get them to drop you at the top of the pass out of the valley and walk back down through the fields.
Alternatively, they'll take you up to the start of the hikes (see travel guides) and will wait for you as long as it takes until you come back down again. Take food and water, we gave our driver some too - and don't pay until you get back. All for a few dollars.
You can also catch collectivos - we did that but had to hitch back down from a one-day hike on a tour bus full of happy Peruvians who'd been on a day trip up into the lakes.
Take a taxi up to Tambo Machay and then walk down back to Cuzco through all the ruins to end up by the big statue.
You don't need a guide - it'll take you all day - and there's food stalls on the way. We sheltered from the midday sun in one and drank beer and watched football.
An adobe-style hostel built up in the hills above Huaraz by an English couple, Alex & Bruni. Amazing spot with fantastic views as well as home comforts like orthopaedic mattresses and home grown English-style pub food. They have a hostel in Huaraz too, but take the opportunity to visit their lodge in the mountains.
Kuelap is the remains of a fortified town built over the course of 600 years at an altitude of 3,000m. A lot of the original brickwork remains and it is fascinating to wander gently through these remains, especially after the massed hordes who visit Machu Picchu.
From Chiclayo, travel to Chacapoyas region and then you'll need to catch a tour going to the ruins. Well worth it.
www.kuelap.org/
A restaurant in Cuzco offering delicious meals in a relaxed setting.
Cuesta San Blas 571, Cusco, Peru
Simply the best hotel I stayed at in Peru.
Monastery and museum, slightly away from the centre of Arequipa. We were the only visitors there.
Books and artefacts dating back to the conquest easily viewable.
Recoleta 117, Arequipa, Peru
Fascinating tombs have been found, belonging to lords of important pre-Inca cultures. The royal tomb of the Lord of Sipan was only discovered in 1987. The lord was buried with his companions, dog and treasure. The finds of gold, turquoise and lapis lazuli from the Moche culture rival those of Tutankhamum in Egypt.
Two excellent museums have been built to house these beautiful artifacts. The best at Lambayeque - 10 minutes drive from Chiclayo - holds the Lord Sipan collection and the nearby town of Ferrenafe has a smaller museum with finds from the Sican Culture.
Internal flights from Lima to Chiclayo take about an hour.
Follow in the footsteps of Joe 'Touching the Void' Simpson and trek around this stunning, remote mountain range. Although you may want to avoid the near-death crawl across a glacier.
Quite challenging walking circuit (10-14 days), over 5,000 metres at one point, with the most amazing mountain views you will ever see. Don't miss the natural hotspring where you can soak weary limbs surrounded by a cirque of spiky peaks about half way round the circuit.
There are loads of trekking agencies in Huaraz where you can hire tent, stove, food and a donkey to carry it all for you!
At the end of the 3rd day of the Inca Trail, you may find yourself sipping a beer at the only bar on the trail. Should your guide appear and offer to take you to see Winaywayna, a nearby Inca site, make sure you go.
Just 5 minutes from the bar, a tree lined path opens out on a magnificent crescent shaped terrace, with Inca buildings clinging to its steps.
Complex channels, guide water through and around the building. These channels combined practical functionality with religious and spiritual requirements.
The terrace faces Mount Veronica and the view is stunning on a good day.
Few people go to this site, but it is a real shame to miss it.
If you would like to see some pictures, go to webplaza.pt.lu/denniss/globetrotters/entry36-tg.html
Inca Trail
Canter through farms, rivers and rice terraces, followed by the magical El Misti, the view of which you still can't capture the wonder and awe of, even with three joined-up shots on a panaramic camera.
Half day trips from Arequipa.
If you go north and enjoy the lesser, but just as enjoyable, city of Trujillo and surrounding sights, carry on up into the mountain towns of Cajamarca and Cajabamba.
Both are untrammelled, compared to the southern sights and cities and provide equally impressive Andean scenery and areas of historical Inca interest.
Hare Krishna-run Govinda vegetarian restaurants are found all over Peru.
Vegetarians do not get surprise meat on their plates, and for £1 per set meal, budget travelers will have difficulty finding a cheaper place to fill their tummies.
Lima: Schell 634, Miraflores / Jirón Callao 480, central Lima.
Cuzco: Espaderos 128.
Arequipa: Jerusalen 505
Puno: Deustua 312.
And in other cities in Peru.
Do you remember seeing a green finger-like mountain in the background of most Machu Picchu pictures? The mountain is Huayna Picchu (also called Wayna Picchu) and there are stairs going right to the top of it. If you want an alternative view of the famous Inca site, climbing up is a must.
The climb takes about an hour but the view will stay in your mind for the rest of your life. The Incas built their cities in the shapes of different animals. Look down at the condor shape of Machu Picchu, and don't forget to bring a packed lunch and some water.
Nearest station Aguas Calientes. Stay overnight in Aguas Calientes to allow more time than on an average day-trip from Cuzco.
As you wander through this vast maze of an old Chimú capital you realise how rich cultures Peru had even before the Incas.
Built in AD 1300, Chan Chan is the largest pre-Columbian city in the Americas. Before the Incas conquered the Chimú in the mid-15th century, 60,000 people lived in Chan Chan.
Lots of the city's mud walls are now restored. Fish and net patterns on the walls tell about the importance of the sea to the Chimú. A good guide will also tell about human sacrifices and grave robbers.
5km west of Trujillo. To book a tour with an English language guide contact small hotel Casa de Clara, Cahuide 495, Trujillo.
Tel: +51 (0)44-299997.
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