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I Finally Walked Arequipa's Santa Catalina Monastery and Packed All Wrong
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items Planning a visit to Santa Catalina Monastery in Arequipa? I showed up in the wrong shoes, forgot sun protection, and had no idea what to expect inside those orange and blue walls. This is everything I figured out the hard way so you can actually enjo...
Sections
7
Comfortable Walking Gear for Cobblestone Streets
Sun and Altitude Protection You'll Actually Need
What to Carry Inside the Monastery
Photography Gear for Those Iconic Walls
Guided Tour Options Worth Booking
Where to Eat Near Santa Catalina After the Walk
Comfortable Walking Gear for Cobblestone Streets
Those monastery corridors look flat in photos. They are not. I spent three hours on uneven cobblestones in flimsy sandals and my feet screamed at me for two days after.
Swap your sandals for these before you hit the cobblestones. I watched two people nearly roll their ankles in the first courtyard. These grip like crazy on uneven stone and they're light enough that your feet won't cook in Arequipa's dry heat.
Shop Moab 3 Hiking Boots & Shoes Online
Pair these with proper shoes and your feet stay dry even after three hours of walking. My cotton socks were soaked halfway through. These survived the whole monastery without a single blister forming.
Darn Tough Vermont Men's Light Hiker Micro Crew
Toss these into whatever shoes you bring. The monastery floors are hard stone everywhere, and after two hours you feel every step in your knees. A friend lent me hers halfway through and the difference was immediate.
Superfeet
Keep these for the hotel and casual Arequipa strolls after the monastery. They're perfect for resting your feet at a plaza cafe. Just please don't wear them inside Santa Catalina, I'm begging you.
Arizona Essentials EVA in Color Black
Wear these on the flight to Peru and again after a full day of walking. My ankles swelled up on the plane from Miami and these brought them back to normal size by landing.
Core Run Spiral Mid Cut Compression Socks
Grab this stick and rub it on your heels before you lace up. I skipped it day one and had raw spots by lunchtime. Day two with this stuff, zero issues walking six miles around Arequipa.
Body Glide Foot Glide Anti Blister Balm
Sun and Altitude Protection You'll Actually Need
Arequipa sits at 7,600 feet and the UV hits different up there. I got sunburned through my shirt collar in twenty minutes and had a headache by noon from the altitude.
Slather this on before you even leave the hotel. The monastery has open courtyards with zero shade and the Arequipa sun at altitude will cook you faster than you expect. Reapply at the halfway point or regret it.
Sun Bum Original SPF 50 Moisturizing Lotion
Bring a hat with a full brim, not just a baseball cap. The back of my neck got torched because my cap left it exposed. This one wraps around and folds flat into your daypack.
Sunday Afternoons Ultra Adventure UPF 50+ Hat
Use these instead of expensive sunglasses you're scared to drop on stone floors. The white sillar walls reflect sunlight straight into your eyes. I was squinting at every beautiful detail until I put shades on.
How are Goodr sunglasses? How's the build quality
Drop one of these in your water bottle every morning in Arequipa. The altitude dehydrates you without you realizing it. I felt dizzy on day one and these fixed it within an hour on day two.
Nuun Sport Electrolyte Tablets Mixed Flavors
Bring your own water because there's nowhere to buy it once you're inside the monastery walls. I ran out halfway through and spent the second half parched and cranky. Fill this at the hotel before you go.
CamelBak Eddy Recplacement Bite Valves and Straws
Your lips will crack at altitude before you notice. I woke up on day two with my bottom lip split open. Keep this in your pocket and reapply every hour, especially inside the sunny courtyards.
Banana Boat Ultra Sport Lip Balm - SPF 50 - 0.15 oz/2ct
What to Carry Inside the Monastery
You'll be in there for two to four hours if you actually stop to look at things. I brought too much in a big backpack and kept bumping into narrow doorways and low archways.
Switch to something small for the monastery. The hallways are narrow and the doorways are low. I smacked my big backpack on an archway so hard a guide looked at me with genuine pity.
Kånken Mini Backpack
Toss this in your bag because you will take 400 photos minimum. My phone died at 60% battery in the blue courtyard, which is literally the most photographed spot. Don't let that happen to you.
Anker Powercore 5000
Keep a small notebook for jotting down details the guide mentions. There's so much history in every room that you'll forget half of it by dinner. I wrote down the nun's kitchen stories and I'm so glad I did.
Moleskine Cahier Journal (Set of 3), Pocket, Plain
Use this for your sunscreen, lip balm, and anything that might leak. My sunscreen opened in my bag and coated my journal. A two dollar lesson I could have avoided with this little pouch.
Matador Droplet Water-Resistant Stuff Sack Review
Snag a small flask-size bottle for water if you don't want to carry a full bottle. It fits in a jacket pocket and holds enough for the walk. Less bulk means fewer doorway collisions.
Nalgene
Bring a small towel because you will sweat in the sunny sections and then get cold in the shaded cloisters. I used mine to wipe my face and then wrapped it around my neck when the wind picked up.
PackTowl Personal Quick Dry Microfiber Towel
Photography Gear for Those Iconic Walls
The orange, blue, and white walls inside Santa Catalina are unreal in person. My phone photos turned out decent but I watched a woman with a small camera get shots that made me genuinely jealous.
Bring this if you want photos that actually capture how vivid those walls are. Phone cameras struggle with the contrast between bright courtyards and dark rooms. This handled both without me touching a single setting.
Sony ZV-1 II Vlog camera for Content Creators and Vloggers
Clip this onto your phone if you're not bringing a camera. The monastery rooms are tiny and you can't step back far enough to get the full scene. This lens saved about ten shots I would've missed.
Moment Wide Angle Lens
Wrap this around a railing or set it on a ledge for steady shots in the dim rooms. My hands were shaky from the altitude and half my indoor photos came out blurry until I started using this.
JOBY GorillaPod® 1K Gen 2 Tripod
Swap in a fresh card before you go. I filled my old one halfway through because I was shooting everything. The monastery has over 20,000 square meters of photo opportunities, and that's not an exaggeration.
SANDISK 128GB Extreme microSD Card + Adapter
Use this tiny light in the darker cells and kitchen areas. The rooms where nuns actually lived have almost no natural light, and flash makes everything look flat and terrible. This gives a soft fill instead.
Lume Cube Panel Mini Bi-Color LED Panel Light
Get a strap that lets you swing your camera to your side in tight spaces. I kept bumping my camera on walls with a standard neck strap. This one slides and tucks against your body when you need your hands free.
Slide Lite
Guided Tour Options Worth Booking
I tried walking it solo first and missed about 70% of the history. Then I joined a guided group the next day and realized I had walked right past rooms with wild stories behind every door.
Book the English-language tour at the entrance desk. It runs about 90 minutes and the guides know stories you won't find in any guidebook. One told us about a nun who smuggled her cat inside for 30 years.
Catalina Tours
Try this before the monastery to get context about the city. They explain how volcanic stone shaped everything, which makes the monastery architecture click when you see it. Tips-based, so pay what feels right.
THE BEST 10 Arles Walking Tours in 2026
Grab tickets for the candlelit evening walk if it's available during your visit. The courtyards look completely different at night with lanterns. I went during the day and a local told me the night version gave her chills.
Santa Catarina
Use this if you want a private guide who covers the Plaza de Armas and monastery in one morning. Less logistics, more stories. Our guide pointed out details on walls I had stared at and completely missed.
Arequipa: City Tour and Santa Catalina Monastery
Pair this with your monastery visit for a full day. You cook traditional Arequipa food after the walk and the instructor explains how monastery kitchens influenced local recipes. Connects the dots perfectly.
Peruvian Cooking Experience in Arequipa
Keep this in your bag for quick reference when you're wandering solo. It has a monastery map with numbered stops that saved me from getting lost in the maze of identical-looking corridors twice.
Arequipa Travel 2026 - Lonely Planet | Peru, South America
Where to Eat Near Santa Catalina After the Walk
You will be starving after two to four hours inside those walls. I stumbled out dehydrated and ravenous and the first restaurant I found was a tourist trap. These are the spots locals actually pointed me toward.
Walk ten minutes from the monastery exit and sit down here for lunch. Order the rocoto relleno, it's a stuffed pepper that made me close my eyes and just sit there for a second. Reservations help, especially for weekend lunch.
CHICHA POR GASTON ACURIO
Try the alpaca steak cooked on volcanic stone. I was skeptical about eating alpaca until the first bite, and then I ordered it again the next night. The building itself is inside a colonial house that feels like a monastery extension.
Zig Zag Cactus Care Guide: Growing Epiphyllum anguliger 🌟
Take a taxi to this spot in Yanahuara for a real picantera experience. The portions are enormous and the adobo soup will fix whatever the altitude did to you. Go early because locals pack it by noon on weekends.
LA NUEVA PALOMINO, Arequipa - Carta, fotos y opiniones
Snag a table here for coffee and cake right after the monastery. It's close enough to walk and the hot chocolate is thick enough to stand a spoon in. Perfect for recovering before your next activity.
Café Valenzuela
Get a cab to this traditional restaurant for chupe de camarones, a shrimp chowder that warmed me up after a windy afternoon. The courtyard seating makes you feel like you're still inside the monastery walls.
File:Sol de Mayo-Bandera de Argentina.svg
Swing by this tiny spot if you want something quick and cheap. They serve stuffed baked potatoes with every topping imaginable. I got one with aji de gallina sauce and ate it on a bench in the plaza. Under five dollars.
Hobby Lobby
Clothing Layers for Arequipa's Weird Weather
Nobody warned me that Arequipa goes from blazing sun to cold wind in ten minutes. I packed for warm weather and froze in the shaded monastery corridors, then sweated through the sunny courtyards.
Stuff this in your daypack and pull it out the second you hit a shaded corridor. The temperature drops fast in those stone hallways. I wore a t-shirt like a fool and spent half the tour with my arms crossed shivering.
Patagonia Men's Nano Puff® Packable Insulated Jacket
Wear this as a scarf when it's cold, pull it over your head when it's sunny, or wrap it around your wrist when you don't need it. I used mine five different ways in one monastery visit. Weighs nothing.
Buff Original Multifunctional Headwear
Wear these instead of jeans. You're climbing stairs, crouching through low doors, and sitting on stone benches. Jeans restrict you and get hot. These stretch, breathe, and dry fast if you spill water on yourself like I did.
Stretch Zion Relaxed Pant
Use this as your shirt layer under a light jacket. Merino regulates temperature so you're not sweating in the sun and freezing in the shade. I wore cotton and changed shirts twice. Merino people had it figured out.
Men's Classic Thermal Merino Base Layer Bottom
Slide these on for the sunny courtyards instead of reapplying sunscreen every twenty minutes. They block UV and feel cool on your skin. I saw a guide wearing them and immediately understood why.
Men's ActiveIce Spectrum Sun Long Sleeve Tee
Zip the legs off when you're roasting in the open areas, zip them back on when you duck into the shaded cloisters. I watched someone do this mid-tour and felt like I had been living wrong my entire trip.
Men's Silver Ridge Convertible Pants