Qualla: La Merced https://qualla.com/la-merced en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:08 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/6/q/4/3/la-merced-wk/hero-small.webp Qualla: La Merced https://qualla.com/la-merced La Merced: Introduction https://qualla.com/la-merced/ Photo credit Harley Calvert, CC BY-SA 3.0. La Merced sits at 750 meters, which by Peruvian standards is almost at sea level. Drive up out of Tarma - the Pearl of the Andes, 3,000 meters higher - and within a few hours the pines give way to banana trees, the chill burns off, and you arrive in a town that smells faintly of coffee roasting and diesel exhaust. This is where the Andes surrender to the selva alta, the high jungle. La Merced is the capital of Chanchamayo Province in the Junín Region, and its role in central Peru is essentially a hinge: travelers heading from the highlands into the Amazon basin pass through this way, and so do the coffee beans, cacao, and tropical fruit flowing in the other direction.

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Image: Harley Calvert | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/q/4/3/la-merced-wk/6q43-la-merced-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full La Merced: Where the Bus Drops You https://qualla.com/la-merced/ Photo credit Harley Calvert, CC BY-SA 3.0. The four-hour ride from Huancayo arrives at the multi-company terminal on Av. Ferrocarril, and most visitors are immediately surrounded by tour hawkers in the central plaza - the morning rush lasts until about ten. The town center is compact enough to walk across in a quarter hou...

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Image: Harley Calvert | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/q/4/3/la-merced-wk/6q43-la-merced-where-the-bus-drops-you.mp3 0:06 2 full La Merced: The Indiana Jones Tour https://qualla.com/la-merced/ Photo credit Harley Calvert, CC BY-SA 3.0. Nobody calls it the Indiana Jones Tour, but if you ask for that name, you will end up on a trip into a creek bed where you climb a series of waterfalls with ropes - and in places, without them. The route winds up wet slippery rock. Some groups carry two guides specifically to hel...

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Image: Harley Calvert | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/q/4/3/la-merced-wk/6q43-la-merced-the-indiana-jones-tour.mp3 0:06 3 full La Merced: Coffee, Cocoa, and the Ashaninka https://qualla.com/la-merced/ Photo credit Harley Calvert, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Chanchamayo Valley is one of Peru's main coffee-producing regions, and cacao grows alongside it on the slopes around town. La Merced's market sells beans from small farms that most visitors will never see. Fruit stacks high on the tables - pineapples, mangoes, papaya, starfru...

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Image: Harley Calvert | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/q/4/3/la-merced-wk/6q43-la-merced-coffee-cocoa-and-the-ashaninka.mp3 0:06 4 full La Merced: Eating the Selva https://qualla.com/la-merced/ Photo credit Harley Calvert, CC BY-SA 3.0. La Merced sits between two food traditions - the highland cuisine of Tarma and Huancayo and the lowland cuisine of the rainforest further east. Restaurants around town serve both. You can find Peruvian set meals for a few soles and more elaborate plates of freshwater fish from lo...

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Image: Harley Calvert | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/q/4/3/la-merced-wk/6q43-la-merced-eating-the-selva.mp3 0:06 5 full La Merced: The Roads That Continue https://qualla.com/la-merced/ Photo credit Harley Calvert, CC BY-SA 3.0. La Merced is a junction. Buses from here reach Atalaya - the Emerald of Ucayali - where boats head downstream on the Ucayali toward Pucallpa and the broader Amazon system. To the east lies Satipo. To the north, Oxapampa, a town with a strong German and Austrian colonial heritage,...

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Image: Harley Calvert | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/q/4/3/la-merced-wk/6q43-la-merced-the-roads-that-continue.mp3 0:06 6 full