A guide to Huancayo
The political and commercial capital of the Department of Junin is Huancayo, located at 3,244 m (10,644 ft) above sea level.
The snow-capped peak of Mt. Huaytapallana, Junin.
Calling itself the ‘Incomparable City’ (La Ciudad Incontrastable), Huancayo is a sprawling conurbation, with some 400,000 inhabitants.
It is about three times the size of Ayacucho and the second largest city (after Cusco) in the Peruvian Andes.
It lies in the shadow of Mt. Huaytapallana (5,768 m / 18,925 ft), a rarely-climbed glaciated peak just 24 km (15 miles) northeast of the city … and visible on a clear day.
Despite being named for the Huanca (also spelt Wanka) people who lived here before the Incas, today’s Huancayo has little in the way of archaeology or Colonial churches, but it does cling strongly to Peruvian traditions. Its cultural life is largely defined by the fertile agricultural land and small villages that surround it.
In fact, the region’s traditional handicrafts, markets, and fiestas are second to none in Peru.
Huancayo City Highlights:
The city’s most interesting church is La Merced where the Peruvian Constitution was signed in 1839.
Huancayo Cathedral, overlooking the Plaza de la Constitucion.
Three blocks away, Huancayo’s main plaza is uniquely called Plaza de la Constitucion, and contains a modern cathedral, built in neoclassical style.
Northeast from the Plaza, about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) away is the locally-loved Cerro de La Libertad, (Liberty Hill), where there are good city views, places to eat typical food, arts and crafts stands, and a playground.
A signed path continues for 2 km (1.25 miles) to Torre Torre (Tower Tower) with geological formations of eroded sandstone.
Another popular place is the colourful Parque de Identidad Wanka (Wanka Identity Park), about 3 km (2 miles) north of the centre along suburban streets. Whimsical winding walls and strange statues keep visitors amused, and exhibits detail the history of Huancayo.
Huancayo Markets:
Typical, locally-made knitwear at Huancayo’s crafts market.
Sunday is market day, when products from all over the the wide and fertile Mantaro Valley are brought to the city for sale.
The famed crafts market lies five blocks from the Plaza de la Constitucion. As well as traditional products, there are all kinds of more modern goods ranging from cowboy boots to bootlegged CDs.
The colourful daily food and produce market, with delicacies such as pigs’ hoofs, live guinea pigs, and dried frogs, takes place in the covered Mercado Mayorista, close to the main Lima train station. On Sundays, stalls spill out along the train tracks.
Huancayo Train Stations:
There are two unconnected train stations:
A train waiting to depart to Lima from Huancayo Station.
Huancayo Train Station is a terminus for what was - until 2006 - the highest railroad in the world, the Central Andean Railway.
The line goes from sea level in Lima to 4,818 m (14,694 ft) at its highest point, and traverses 58 bridges and 69 tunnels on its way to Huancayo.
Sadly there are only irregular tourist trains operating the route these days, but it remains a truly remarkable feat of engineering.
The Chilca Train Station is 1.6 km (1 mile) south of the Lima train station, which used to run daily services to Huancavelica, but now only goes as far as Izcuchaca.
This is the last train in Peru with inexpensive passenger services specifically for locals. This train is nicknamed Tren Macho, because, the local joke has it, it leaves when it feels like it and arrives when it can.
Huancayo Environs:
Lavishly-painted walls & ceilings, with Amazon jungle themes, at Santa Rosa de Ocopa.
Concepcion, a village 22 km (14 miles) northwest of Huancayo along the Mantaro valley, is famed for its 18th-Century Franciscan monastery, Santa Rosa de Ocopa.
Founded in 1725 to train missionaries bound for the Amazon jungle, the monastery now has a museum of indigenous artefacts collected by the friars, and taxidermy of jungle wildlife.
A fabulous library owns over 20,000 items, ranging from Colonial maps and 16th Century religious books, to collections of early photos of mission work.
Jauja, 40 km (25 miles) northwest of Huancayo, is known by Peruvian schoolchildren as the first, albeit very short-lived, Colonial capital of Peru.
It used to be an important Huanca centre, and there are unnamed and undeveloped ruins 2 miles (3 km) southeast of town.
Paca Lake, located 2.5 miles (4 km) north of Jauja at an elevation of 3,418 m (11,214 ft) covers an area of some 21 square km (8 square miles). It is popular with locals who come to enjoy boat rides and shore restaurants serving local food, including trout taken from the lake. Unfortunately, these eateries compete for business by playing ear-splittingly loud music!
Handicrafts in the Mantaro Valley:
The Mantaro River Valley, northwest of Huancayo, is dotted with villages known for their handicrafts. They lie mainly on the east side of the river (locally called izquierda) and can be visited using local minibuses or on a tour from Huancayo.
If you go on market days, you’ll see food and produce for sale; these are local farmers’ markets rather than crafts markets, though certainly some of the local artisans’ work will be on sale.
A Cochas artisan working on a mate burilado.
The twin villages of Cochas Grande (Big Lake) and Cochas Chico (Small Lake), just 7 miles (11 km) north of Huancayo along a side road, are the best known.
This is where mates burilados are produced - gourds engraved with exceptionally detailed representations of Andean life.
The gourds don’t grow here; they are imported from the coast, where they have been used and embellished for over 4,000 years.
Cochas is considered the centre of gourd-carving in Peru.
Gourd decorated with images of guinea-pigs.
The hard-rinded, inedible, ornamental fruits are incised with woodworking tools and scorched to bring out the colour.
They vary in size from smaller than a tennis ball to as large as a sizeable water melon, which belong to the same family as the gourds.
Depending on the gourd’s size and the detail of the carving, they can sell from a few dollars to several hundred.
Friday is market day in Cochas Chico which, despite its name, is larger than the adjoining Cochas Grande.
San Agustín de Cajas, about 7 miles (11 km) northwest of Huancayo near the main highway to Concepcion, is known for broad brimmed sheep’s wool hats and wicker furniture.
It has a market day on Monday.
A couple of miles away is Hualhuas, with a Tuesday market. This is where superb tapestries, ponchos, and rugs are woven from alpaca and sheep’s wool, usually utilising the upright or Spanish loom.
A Spanish loom in operation in Hualhuas.
The hand-spun wool is coloured with both natural and chemical dyes. Most natural dyes come from vegetation, and various parts of different plants are used for specific colours.
The most interesting dye, however, is red, and comes from the cochineal insect, a tiny parasitic bug that secretes and lives in a cottony white growth on the pads of the prickly pear cactus. The female bugs, considerably smaller than a pea, are crushed and provide an intense crimson colour.
When the Conquistadors first became aware of this natural dye, native to the Americas, they exported it to Spain where it was used only by the wealthy, including Catholic cardinals whose robes were dyed red. Only gold was considered a more important export from the New World!
A San Jeronimo de Tunan craftsman producing delicate jewellery.
Wednesday is market day at San Jeronimo de Tunan, about 15 km (9 miles) northwest of Huancayo.
This village’s artisans produce silver filigree jewellery and ornamental figurines.
Among the objects favoured by Peruvians are beautifully-crafted pairs of roosters, representing the traditional activity of cock-fighting which is popular throughout Latin America.
From San Jeronimo, it is about 8 km (5 miles) further to Ingenio, where the main product is trout, grown in Peru’s largest fish hatchery.
Visitors are welcome to tour the facilities and see how trout grow from eggs to fingerlings (young fish, under a year old) to adults, and learn about the process of fish farming. A couple of restaurants serve fresh trout meals.
It is a two-hour drive from Huancayo to the little-visited Nor Yauyos - Cochas Reserve. So, the city is the start and end point for our spectacular five and seven-day Nor Yauyos treks.
How to visit Huancayo:
Huancayo is still very much off the tourist path. The nearest airport is in Jauja, with daily flights from/to Lima, which take less than an hour.
There are multiple bus companies that ply the route between Huancayo and the capital, with the journey taking about 8 hours.
Finally, a few times a year, you can take the train from Lima to Huancayo (and back). This is a must for rail enthusiasts, who wish to experience one of the world’s most iconic routes, and see the remarkable engineering at first hand. Ask us for upcoming departure dates.