September 13, 2009
We arose early, ate breakfast, and arranged our luggage. On today’s itinerary was the city of La Merced. We had been debating on whether to stay there or go to nearby San Ramon, but we choose the former since it is home to all the travel agencies and most of the hotels. It would place us more in the center of things.
Since it was still early, we took some time to check out the Huancayo Sunday flea market, the biggest in the area, something any tourist should experience. It covers several blocks along Avenida de Huancavelica, and you can buy knitted clothing, sweaters, fabrics, embroidered articles, wood carvings, pottery, the famous mates burilados, and many other items from the different towns of the Mantaro River Valley.
Once we finished our walk through of the market, we said good-bye to the city. We would have liked to have stayed one more day to go and see Mount Huaytapallana, but it just wasn’t meant to be. We returned to the hotel, collected our bags, and flagged down a taxi to take us to the bus station. It’s very close to downtown, across the way, so the taxi driver charged us just 3 Nuevos Soles (about $1.00).
At the station, we were approached by some bus line employees, asking where we were off to since they had a bus waiting to go to La Merced and they wanted to fill the seats.
The guidebook recommended the bus line Transportes San Juan, so we looked for its ticket office. The ticket seller immediately left to try and stop the bus that had just left, but he was too late. No problem because another bus from the company Los Angelitos (we think it’s called thus because you have to pray constantly on the road …) was also ready to leave, so they stowed our luggage, and we climbed aboard. That’s how we started off towards the upper jungle.
We drove through the Mantaro River Valley, and headed off towards the city of Tarma after entering the Jauja Province. The road snakes up the mountains, and two hours later we had reached the summit and could see Tarma perched on the slopes below. The city sits at an altitude of 3050 meters and is called the Pearl of the Andes. The bus made a stop there so passengers could disembark and embark, and street vendors also climbed aboard to hawk their wares… from drinks to tamales, dried fruit, and even medicine.
A few minutes later, we were off again, down the mountainside on a very narrow ribbon of highway. The arid, brown Andes progressively began to give way to the more green covered slopes of the central jungle. Our destination would place us in the heart of coffee and fruit production.
In less than two hours, we reached San Ramon and 11 km later, La Merced. It’s not a big city, but the air is filled with the zoom-zoom of mototaxis that fly through its streets. We walked out of the bus station and flagged down one of those mototaxis to take us to the Main Square, where the Hotel Reyna is located. Lodgings are simple and cost just 60 Nuevos Soles ($20.00) a night. We reserved one room for one night.
We dropped our things in the room and took off once again. The heat was suffocating. But, the first thing we did was find someplace to eat because it was 3:00 P.M. and we were famished. The guidebook recommended a restaurant called Shambari Campa, also on the Main Square. So that’s where we went. They offer plenty of dishes to choose from, many from the area.
After lunch, we stretched our legs, heading over to the river. We took some photos from an overlook, but wanted to go the one called Cruz de Chanchamayo. The agencies were still closed for lunch, so we asked around and were told it was easy to get there: take the nearby stairs and continue upwards. At the top, we had a wonderful view of the entire Chanchamayo River Valley and city. We stayed there for awhile to recover from the heat and then started back down.
Along the way, we heard a deafening noise, like the sound of motors running. The next day we found out they were insects called “campaneros”.
As we were walking back to the Main Square, we passed another hotel, the Rey, so we stopped and asked about the prices. We were shown a room, which was larger than what we had reserved in the Reyna. The only issue was it is farther away from the Main Square, but both hotels are owned by the same people. So, we decided to switch the next day.
We walked into the first travel agency we found, and they gave us info on excursions they organize. We discovered later the rest of the agencies offered the same: Perene-Pichanaki Valley, the towns of Oxapampa, Pozuzo, Pampa Hermosa, and Borgoña. We signed on for a trip through the Perene-Pichanaki Valley for the next day (we recommend you ask around for prices at other agencies).
That night, we ate a healthy dinner, mainly of a vast variety of fresh fruit and juices.
