Museo de la Recoleta (Recoleta Museum), Arequipa (must see)

Recoleta Museum is located inside the Recoleta Monastery. The museum is hugely popular with both tourists and locals. In several rooms of the museum you can see old masks, mummies, bone and stone toys from pre-Hispanic times, as well as a variety of souvenirs that have been collected from missionaries' travels. There is also a unique collection of 18th-century furniture and religious relics. One room of the museum features animal specimens, including giant anteaters, anacondas, butterflies and various species of birds. The museum's library contains a large collection of more than 20,000 books divided into different topical sections, such as Anatomy, Philosophy, Astrology and History.