Plaza de Armas de Chivay: Travel Guide (4.4★)

A square at 3,600 metres

Chivay sits at around 3,600 metres, and you feel it on the walk in. The plaza is the town’s flat centre: paved paths, planted beds, benches and the parish church facing the square. Brown terraced slopes rise behind the rooftops. The farming terraces of the Colca valley start right at the edge of town.

This is where the town meets. Women in the embroidered skirts and hats of the Colca valley sit on the benches or walk the paths. School groups cut across. Minibuses unload tourists on the sides of the square. People come here to watch the street, not for one big sight.

What to look at

Work your way around the edges. The church is the anchor. Its stone front and plain whitewashed sides follow the colonial style you also see in the valley villages of Yanque, Coporaque and Maca.

• The church: step in if the door is open, quietly, and never during Mass.
• Traditional dress: the embroidery on hats and skirts tells you which valley community the wearer comes from.
• Mountain backdrop: clear mornings give you the sharpest view of the peaks around Chivay.
• Evenings: the lights come on and the square gets cold fast once the sun drops.

Photos, altitude and manners in Chivay

Locals in traditional dress, sometimes with an alpaca or a bird of prey, will pose for photos. They expect a tip. Ask before you raise the camera, agree on it first, and carry small coins and notes; change is hard to find. Photographing someone without asking is rude here, wherever you are on the plaza.

Walk slowly. If you have come straight up from Arequipa, the plaza is a good place to test the altitude before a hike. Mate de coca is sold all over town. The tour buses from Arequipa usually arrive around midday, so staying the night lets you have the square to yourself early the next morning.

Keep your Colca tourist ticket, the boleto turístico, on you. Checkpoints on the canyon road ask for it. Current prices are posted at the checkpoint and through the regional tourism authority.

Beyond the square

Chivay is small, and everything below is within easy reach of the plaza:

• Mercado de Chivay: the municipal market, a short walk away, sells local produce, cheese, quinoa and hot food at its stalls.
• La Calera hot springs: thermal pools a few kilometres out of town. You can walk, take a taxi or go by minibus.
• Yanque: the next village down the valley, with its own plaza and church.
• Cruz del Cóndor: the condor viewpoint, roughly 1.5 hours further along the canyon road. Go early in the morning.

Arequipa is roughly three to four hours away by road, over a high pass. Buses use Chivay’s terminal, a few blocks from the plaza.