Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Leaping from the highlands to the jungle in just one hour

(LIP-wb) Accompany us on a journey by road to two of the most beautiful, and most frequently-visited, destinations in the central highlands. Tarma, an enclave of flowers and fertile fields, and the Chanchamayo valley – all the beauty of the central jungle region within easy reach. Fasten your seatbelt and join us!

Tarma, “The Pearl of the Andes”, is located just 56 km from La Oroya. It is reached along a descending, serpentine road that passes through some of the most beautiful farmland in the country. This famous landscape of mountains and rolling fields is a patchwork of different-colored crops – vegetables, barley and especially the multi-colored flowers grown to supply Lima’s markets.

Among the smallholdings, great eucalyptus trees rise majestically, and full-bodied weeping willows accompany the river as it meanders through the valley. Many of the houses are still roofed with red tiles, conferring added charm to the area. Tarma was founded by the Spanish in 1538, but it wasn’t until the government of General Odría – a tarmeño in love with his homeland – that the city began to develop.