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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.
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