ITINERARY

8:00 Am

Pick up of passengers at the hotel. Leaving the city for the province of Castilla (Majes Valley), north-west of Arequipa, 163 km

10:30 Pm

Arrival at Majes Valley, then take a detour and cross the bridge to Corire. Admission to the place where the petroglyphs of Toro Muerto are located , the largest central repository of rock art in the world.

Located in the Valley of Majes at an altitude of 400 – 800 m, Toro Muerto was discovered in 1951 by a committee of professionals from the UNSA. It occupies an area of more than 5 km2, and there are 5,000 giant stone blocks of volcanic lava or magma recorded with different figures scattered around. Its antiquity dates back to the dawn of our time (1.200 years) consistent with studies of carbon 14 there is a figure of 11 centuries old, between 700 to 800 years AD.  The recorded material is a rhyolitic ignimbrite or stink, the product of the eruption of a volcano, possibly the Chachani or Coropuna that would occur in the Tertiary period.

The subjects of the paintings include thousands of anthropomorphic characters (dancers, musicians, shepherds, hunters, and semi realistic figures), zoomorphic (jaguars, condors, snakes, eagles, camels, fish), sunflowers and trees without branches, geometric symbols , zig-zags, square, diamond shapes and even incomplete in preparation for engravings of various ethnicities and cultures such as Wari and Collahuas, whose message and interpretation remains a mystery.

Finishing the tour through the petroglyph area, will visit Querullpa, where dinosaur footprints are found, making a walk of 20 minutes, you can find 68 tracks that are between 50 and 90 centimeters in length. The  approximate age is 150 million years and date from the period

between the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. These tracks were discovered in 2002. Studies of the University of Bristol, England, would indicate that the oldest found in South America.

These prints are 50 million years older than those found in Argentina, Chile and Bolivia. The footprints found 50 to 30 cm would be some 4 fingers, 3 of them united by a membrane and free finger a little back and smaller. For the size and depth of the footprints suggests that the height of these animals was approximately 3.5 m and a length from head to tail, 15 m. In this area there are also other paleontological specimens as plant and marine fossils show that the place was some time in a flat sea.

1:30 p.m

Lunch at the local restaurants (Punta Colorada), where passengers will delight in a typical lunch with delicious shrimp, good Pisco and other

varieties of the traditional cuisine of the place.

3:30 p.m

Return to the city of Arequipa, crossing through the desert (20 minutes).

6:30 p.m

Arrival to Arequipa. Transfer to hotel. End of service.

INCLUDES
Official Visitors Guide with foreign languages.
Transportation by private tourism service units.
Entrance fee  to the Petroglyph rock repository.