Misti Store for last-minute gifts in T1
Five minutes from most boarding gates in Terminal T1, Misti Store is the main spot at Rodríguez Ballón International Airport for Peruvian crafts and souvenirs. It sits airside after security, so you can shop with boarding pass in hand and keep an eye on the time before your AQP departure.
This is a pure retail stop, not a café: expect shelves of alpaca or baby-alpaca scarves and sweaters, Andean textiles, small ceramics, and Pisco-branded items in the 20–200 PEN range. Stock leans heavily on regional themes tied to Arequipa and El Misti volcano, so it’s a straightforward place to grab something that actually says “Arequipa” instead of generic Peru merch.
Most travelers spend under 10 minutes here: scan the front racks for 40–80 PEN scarves, check the middle stands for keychains and magnets under 15 PEN, then hit the glass cases for slightly higher-end pieces. The store keeps airport hours and usually opens by the first departures of the morning, staying open through the last evening flights, so you can count on it on that 06:00 or 22:00 departure.
Quality varies by item. The higher-priced textiles labeled as alpaca or baby alpaca often feel noticeably softer than the 30–40 PEN acrylic blends on the lower hooks. If you care about material, check fiber tags and run a quick touch test instead of just trusting the label. Ceramics and small décor pieces ride in hand luggage better than in tightly packed checked bags on a LIM or CUZ connection.
Tip: prices are in soles and most items have barcodes, so you can roughly total your haul before heading to the single register; keep a 100 PEN note or a major card handy so checkout doesn’t slow you down when boarding starts in 15 minutes.