The Mysterious Stone Forest of Imata

We will leave Arequipa at 7:30 a.m. and take the road to Puno, upon reaching the Salinas and Aguada Blanca National Reserve we will observe wild South American camelids, vicuñas, these fine specimens of the Andes are very close to the road in the Pampa Cañahuas area, at 4000 meters, from this point we will also observe the backside of the Misti, Chachani, and Picchu Picchu volcanoes.

After two hours of travel we will arrive at the stone forest, located at 4350 meters, we will walk and discover the magic of this forest. The guide will explain about the formation of these unique rocks and you will observe how the entire forest comes to life and the forms appear of animals of different types.

Imata is the natural habitat of some Andean medicinal plants such as ichu, yareta, and chachacoma, the latter is used to combat altitude sickness, simply by rubbing it and smelling it. In addition to these amazing medicines from Mother Earth, you will also see groups of alpacas and llamas that complete this wonderful Andean canvas called Imata.

We will go back to Arequipa, but before to arrive to the hotel we'll stop at the ashlar quarries to see the volcanic stone statues in Añashuayco and the pre-Inca petroglyphs in Culebrillas ashlar canyon; in this way we complete a journey through the mountains full of natural landscapes, history, tradition and culture.