Peru's Andean market city — the highest rail journey in the Americas and Sunday's endless mercado
Huancayo is the capital of Peru's Junín region and the economic hub of the central Andes — a city of 400,000 at 3,271m, surrounded by terraced valleys and traditional Huanca communities. Its Sunday market is one of the largest in Peru, drawing thousands of traders from remote highland communities with textiles, crafts, and food. The city is the terminus of the Tren Macho and the starting point for the Ferrocarril Central Andino — the train that passes through the second-highest railway tunnel in the world and climbs to 4,781m at Ticlio, the highest railway point in the Americas.
The Huanca people were one of the most successful resisters of Inca expansion — their alliance with the Spanish in 1533 helped topple Inca rule, and Huancayo later became a commercial crossroads between the coast and the jungle. The Central Andean Railway, completed in 1908 by Polish-American engineer Ernest Malinowski, was the engineering wonder of its age — its zigzag switchbacks and spiral loops through the Andes were more complex than the Panama Canal. Huancayo declared independence in 1820, making it one of Peru's first rebel cities.