Running in Peru: Arequipa

Running in Arequipa's an entirely different story. More than 4,000 feet lower than Cusco, the Alto Selva Alegre neighborhood's safe, quiet, and nicely landscaped. Most runners should feel relatively at ease.

Cassie and I could have run all over the city, but we opted to stick to a half-mile circuit around the Parque Selva Alegre, home to three llamas, several street dogs, and an owl.

Just two blocks from our lovely room at La Gruta Hotel, the park gave us the opportunity to modify our distances on the fly. I did 10 laps one day, 14 another, and eventually 20, almost always as the sun set, when all the other runners seemed to come out.

Half-mile circuit, which you can expand to encompass the adjoining park and
more of the neighborhood, which relatively light on traffic above Juan de la Torre