San Marcos travel guide

After 8 km is San Marcos, a small, friendly town with a nice plaza and a fancy modern church. It is known as ‘City of the Magnolias’, but there are few in evidence around the town. Gasoline is available 24 hours. Combis run from San Marcos to the large Canadian-run mine, high on the puna, at Antamina, two hours. (Unfortunately, the impressive mine road from Antamina, via Huallanca (Huánuco), to Conococha is privately owned and it is not possible to travel direct from Chavín to Huallanca without returning to Huaraz at present.)

Twenty kilometres beyond San Marcos, at the junction of the Huari and Mosna rivers, is the village of Pomachaca (Las Tunas), where a road branches northeast to Llamellín. The main road continues north and climbs, criss-crossing the Huari river amid dry hills, to reach Huari 12 km further on.