Must-see attractions in Central Highlands

  • Cathedral

    Ayacucho

    This spectacular 17th-century cathedral on the Plaza de Armas has a religious-art museum inside. The moody facade doesn’t quite prepare you for the…

  • Museo de la Memoria

    Ayacucho

    Ayacucho’s most haunting museum, remembers the impact the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) had on Peru in the city that was most deeply affected by the…

  • Museo de Arte Popular

    Ayacucho

    Displays popular art covering the ayacucheño (natives of Ayacucho) spectrum – silverwork, rug- and tapestry-weaving, stone and woodcarvings, ceramics …

  • El Señor de Muruhuay

    Central Highlands

    This white shrine visible on a hill 1.5km from Acobamba is one of Peru’s top pilgrimage sites, built around a rock etching of Christ crucified. A small…

  • Santuario Nacional Huayllay

    Central Highlands

    Santuario Nacional Huayllay, aka the bosque de piedras (forest of stones), is the world’s largest and highest rock forest at a chilly 4500m+ with…

  • Santa Rosa de Ocopa

    Central Highlands

    Set around beautiful gardens and courtyards, this convent was originally built by Franciscans in the early 18th century as a center for missionaries…

  • Huánuco Viejo

    Central Highlands

    These extensive Inca ruins perch on a swathe of barren pampa (pampas grass) at 3700m. It’s a worthwhile two-hour trek on a steep path from behind the…

  • Tarmatambo

    Central Highlands

    The best known of the myriad archaeological ruins near Tarma, this was the capital of the Taruma culture and later a major Inca administrative center. The…

  • Laguna Ñahuimpuquio

    Central Highlands

    Hemmed in by mountains, this body of water offers restaurants and boat rides. From the east shore a path climbs to a ridge for great valley views and the…

  • Minas de Santa Bárbara

    Central Highlands

    The ghostly mines of Santa Barbara, high in the hills above Huancavelica, and accessed by a tough but rewarding 1½ hour hike, are the city's most poignant…

  • Sondor

    Central Highlands

    The imposing hilltop site of Sondor, constructed by the Chanka people, stands a couple of kilometers past the end of Laguna de Pacucha. The Chanka were…

  • Wari Ruins

    Ayacucho

    Sprawling for several kilometers along a cactus-forested roadside are the extensive ruins of Wari, the capital of the eponymous empire, which predated the…

  • Casa Museo Joaquín López Antay

    Ayacucho

    This captivating little museum is really part art gallery and part an explanation of the process of retablo making. Retablos, ornamental, originally…

  • Cochas Grande & Cochas Chico

    Central Highlands

    These two villages on the east side of the valley, sometimes referred to jointly as Cochas, are the major production centers for the incised gourds that…

  • San Pedro de Cajas

    Central Highlands

    Peaceful San Pedro, some 40km into the hills from Tarma, is the production center for the country’s finest tapices (tapestries). Most of the village is…

  • Otto Malena

    Ayacucho

    Officially a restaurant, this surreal Aladdin's Cave is more a museum of curios than anything else, for the owner is primarily a collector of magical…

  • Marcahuasi

    Central Highlands

    This little-known archaeological site sits above San Pedro de Casta on a 4-sq-km plateau at 4100m. It's famed for its weirdly eroded rocks shaped into…

  • Cathedral

    Central Highlands

    Huancavelica’s most spectacular religious building, built in 1673, has been restored in attractive maroon and white. It contains what some say is the best…

  • Iglesia de San Francisco de Asis

    Ayacucho

    Visually striking stone church containing retablos (ornamental religious dioramas) and an attractive adjoining convent dating to the 17th century. Located…

  • Plaza de Armas

    Ayacucho

    One of the prettiest plazas in the Central Andes, flanked by many gorgeous mansions, including the Prefectura. Ask at the tourist office for details on…

  • Camino del Inca

    Central Highlands

    A well-preserved Inca road runs from Jauja to Tarma. The most spectacular section is from Tingopaccha (30 minutes from Jauja by taxi) to Inkapatakuna (30…

  • Parque Nacional Tingo María

    Central Highlands

    This 180-sq-km park lies to the south of town, around the mouth of the Río Monzón, a tributary of the Río Huallaga. Its most distinguishing feature is the…

  • La Cueva de las Lechuzas

    Central Highlands

    The 'Cave of the Owls' is, despite its name, known for the colony of oilbirds that lives inside. In addition, there are stalactites, stalagmites and bats…

  • Vilcashuamán

    Ayacucho

    This former Inca stronghold was once considered the geographical center of the Inca empire. It was believed to have been a city constructed in the shape…

  • Yanamarca

    Central Highlands

    A dramatic hilltop testament to both the power of the pre-Inca peoples and the extent to which their cultures are barely known about. The buildings here,…

  • Temple of Kotosh

    Central Highlands

    This ruin is also known as the Temple of the Crossed Hands because of its highlight, a life-sized mud molding of a pair of crossed hands that dates to…

  • Bosque de Piedras de Pampachiri

    Central Highlands

    A stunning bosque de piedras (rock forest) standing out of a plain in surreal, conical shapes. The village of Pampachiri, about 2½ hours' drive south of…

  • Laguna de Choclococha

    Central Highlands

    Dazzling on a sunny day when the surrounding mountains are mirrored in its waters, Laguna de Choclococha at 4700m is one of many lakes adorning the…

  • Astronomical Observatory

    Central Highlands

    A small astronomical observatory above Hospedaje Central takes advantage of Tarma's high-elevation location, where the clear nights of June, July and…

  • Museo Arqueológico Hipólito Unanue

    Ayacucho

    Wari ceramics make up most of the small exhibition here, along with relics from the region’s other various civilizations. The museum buildings are set in…

  • Instituto Nacional de Cultura

    Central Highlands

    This museum has displays about the area, plus a bundle of interesting information if you catch the right attendant on the right day and ask. There's a…

  • Laguna de Paca

    Central Highlands

    This small lakeside resort offers restaurants, rowboats and fishing. A boat ride around the lake will cost S5 to S10 per passenger (depending on how many…

  • Gruta de Huagapo

    Central Highlands

    This huge limestone cave ranks among Peru’s largest subterranean systems. A proper descent into the Gruta de Huagapo requires caving equipment and…

  • Obelisk

    Ayacucho

    A huge monument and tiny museum mark the site of the Battle of Ayacucho (1824) above Quinua – a small pueblo (town) once famous for marking the end of…

  • Laguna de Pacucha

    Central Highlands

    Backed by sweeping pine forests, this lake is a wonderful watery weekend escape for locals; the rest of the time, it's a very quiet place. In the lakeside…

  • Museo Andrés Avelino Cáceres

    Ayacucho

    This museum in the Casona Vivanco, a gorgeous 16th-century mansion, houses maps and military paraphernalia from the period of its namesake, a local man…

  • Casa de la Capitulación

    Ayacucho

    Quinua's wonderfully named Casa de la Capitulación (House of Capitulation) was where Spanish Royalist troops signed their surrender after the War of…

  • Cantamarca

    Central Highlands

    The most impressive of numerous Inca ruins peppering the road above Canta, the buildings at Cantamarca – a series of circular dwellings skittering down a…

  • Puente Tres de Mayo Area

    Central Highlands

    There's a trio of waterfalls here, the most famous of which is Catarata Gloriopata. A track leads up to the falls from a bridge about 14km out of Tingo on…