Altitude: 3,675 m.a.s.l.
Climate: Huancavelica has an average annual temperature of 10°, (Maximum 20° and minimum 3.4° C). The rain season runs from December to March.
Access: The best overland route runs from Lima-Huancavelica, whether via Pisco (499 km) which takes around 11 hours by car or via Huancayo (457 km) which takes around 12 hours. One can also reach the city via the Ica-Huancavelica route (346 km) which takes around 12 hours.
Bright green meadows and fertile fields form the perfect backdrop for Huancavelica. Shepherds watch over their flocks in the upper mountain reaches while the highland wind whips through the puna, the high Andean plain. The city of Huancavelica, capital of the Huancavelica department, is striving to achieve the development that the surrounding geography permits and which the hard-working nature of its people deserves.
Of colonial origin, the city was during the sixteenth century just a way station for the Spanish Conquerors passing through on their way to the silver mines in the region, which gave rise to a city of miners, muledrivers and traders.
Today, most of Huancavelica's inhabitants are involved in farming and mining and have kept many of their customs and traditions alive. Buses often drive into the main square, where the visitor is received with the habitual friendliness of the Peruvian highlanders. Travelers can tour the churches and colonial mansions, many of them built in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, or take a car and drive around the archaeological sites that dot the city's outskirts. Some of them, like the Inca ruins of Incahuasi or the Inkañan Uchkus complex, lie just a few kilometers outside of town and are easily reached.
But the folk festivals are what give visitors the chance to experience the colorful nature and easy-going ways of their people, as well as to try some of the local cooking. Classic dishes include ropa vieja (beef stew with potatoes, beans and rice) and the traditional pachamanca (meat and vegetables cooked underground over hot stones). Huancavelica is one of those cities where the traveler is always well received, and where one can always find a reason to return.
