The Sillar Route

In the morning, we will pick you up from the centrally located hotel in the city of Arequipa to start a very special tour, the Sillar Route. During this half-day excursion, we will stroll around two renowned quarries to get in touch with the artisans who work with the sillar stone.

We will take the route towards the district of Cerro Colorado until we reach the Añashuayco Quarries, located at the foot of the Chachani Volcano and adjacent to the Chili River. This place boasts a marvelous natural and cultural landscape. We will walk through the area of the master stonecutters and appreciate handcrafted works of art, such as colonial facades and carvings.

We will admire the Pink Sillar, an area of the quarries that reflects an intense pink color in the sunlight due to the combination of sillar, sand, and rocks.

We will also visit the artisan workshops to learn about the work done with sillar and witness how it is elaborated using ancestral tools. Additionally, we will have the opportunity to observe the process of sillar extraction. You will have the chance to purchase handicrafts (optional).

Continuing with this fantastic journey, we will visit the Culebrillas Quarry and stroll through this impressive natural ravine formed by water and wind erosion.

We will walk along these narrow walls and observe the Culebrillas petroglyphs depicting animals such as birds, felines, and snakes, with heights reaching around 30 meters. These drawings belonged to the Wari culture, an Andean civilization that thrived between the 7th and 13th centuries AD.

Sillar has been used in the construction of the city of Arequipa, declared a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site.

At the end of the tour, we will return to the city center of Arequipa.