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Go Peru:The towering sight of the snow-capped and still active El Misti is an ever-present reminder that this is a place with a turbulent past, writes Deirdre McQuillan

FEW PLACES have a more awesome setting than Arequipa, Peru's second-largest city. In the foothills of the western Andes, it is dominated by three huge peaks: the conical volcano El Misti and, on either side, the even higher Chachani and the lower Pichu Pichu. Wherever you go in the city, the towering sight of the snow-capped and still active El Misti - it means the Lord - is an ever-present reminder that this is a place with a turbulent past, rocked by earthquakes nearly every century.