Huancavelica is a high, cold city of about forty thousand people, standing at nearly 3,700 metres in the central Andes, and its fortune was built on a metal that is now regarded as a poison. Under the Spanish, the nearby mine at Santa Bárbara produced mercury, which was used to extract silver from the ore of Potosí, and for centuries it was one of the most important mines in the colonial world. The conditions for the miners, many of them forced labourers, were appalling. Today the city is quiet, with a handsome plaza, a cathedral and a collection of colonial churches built in the time of that wealth.
The road from Ayacucho is a high, lonely ride across the puna, the cold grassland of the Andean plateau, with a few villages, herds of llamas and alpacas, and far-off snow peaks. The surface is mostly paved, with some rough sections, and the bends are long. At this height, the air is thin and the weather can change rapidly, with sun, hail and sleet in the same hour, and nights below freezing for much of the year. The best months are May to September, when the skies are clear, though even then you need warm gloves and layers.
Huancavelica has fuel, shops, simple restaurants and guesthouses, and it is a good place to stock up before the next high pass. Food is hearty and simple, with soups, potatoes and roast meat, plus warming drinks such as muña tea, which is brewed from an Andean mint and is thought to help with altitude. The city is also the end of a famous narrow-gauge railway from Huancayo, a slow train that climbs through spectacular country.
The surrounding villages are known for their textiles and for festivals that mix Catholic and Andean traditions, and the region has one of the richest folk cultures in Peru. There are hot springs close to the city, and the high lakes are home to flamingos and Andean geese. The smell of wood smoke hangs in the cold air, and the stars at night are bright and close. It is a remote, rugged place with a history that rewards a little study, and it is an honest introduction to the high Andes.