Nowhere are Peru’s people more colorful, or its landscapes more dramatic, than southern Peru, the country’s second travel destination behind Cusco and Machu Picchu. Here, Lake Titicaca, a limitless expanse of water, is plunked down in the middle of Peru’s high plateau. While boating across the lake’s sapphire waters, it is easy to understand why the Incas considered this their sacred, foundational landscape.

Lake Titicaca is one of Peru’s cradles of civilization, and staying with families on the lake’s islands or peninsulas is a good way to experience ways of life that extend back thousands of years. It is also the best way to see the lake’s bucolic scenery of winding country lanes, transparent waters, and Mediterranean-like sunlight.

A good highway connects the high grasslands around Lake Titicaca to Arequipa, Peru’s most elegant city. Laid back and sunny, Arequipa is constructed entirely of white volcanic stone and stands out for its sophisticated Spanish charm. Colonial churches and casonas line the street leading to the elegant Plaza de Armas, where a stately cathedral is flanked by palm trees and framed by volcanoes. The city’s architectural highlight is the Santa Catalina Monastery, a maze of churches, plazas, and homes where cloistered nuns have lived since 1579.

Arequipa is surrounded by some of the country’s most bizarre and remote landscapes: snowcapped volcanoes, lava fields, high-altitude deserts, and the celebrated Colca Canyon, which is twice as deep as Arizona’s Grand Canyon. Stone villages, graced with colonial churches and elaborately carved altars, dot the canyon’s rim. Here, life continues as it has for centuries.

One spot, in particular, however, draws the attention of hundreds of international visitors. Each morning like clockwork, after the rising sun heats the air, giant Andean condors begin soaring over a lookout point called La Cruz del Cóndor—sometimes just meters away from those gathered. No other spot in the world offers such intimate, reliable views of the world’s largest flying bird.

The Best of Peru’s Canyon Country

• Folklore Festivals
• Kayaking Lake Titicaca
• Islas Amantaní and Taquile
• Plaza de Armas
• Monasterio de Santa Catalina
• La Cruz del Cóndor