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From La Union a dusty track runs along precipitous and winding mountain roads that are frequently washed away in places during the rainy season. The journey can be done in half a day but it often takes a few hours longer to reach the superb Inca stonework of HUANUCO VIEJO (daily 8am-6pm; free), virtually untouched by the Spanish conquistadores and with no later occupation, lying on the edge of a desolate pampa. Although abandoned by the Spanish shortly after their arrival in 1539, the city became a centre of native dissent - Illa Tupac, a relative of the rebel Inca Manco and one of the unsung heroes of the Indian resistance, maintained clandestine Inca rule around Huanuco Viejo until at least 1545. As late as 1777 the royal officials were thrown out of the area in a major - albeit shortlived - insurrection. One of the most complete existing examples of an Inca provincial capital and administrative centre, Huanuco Viejo gives a powerful impression of a once-thriving city - you can almost sense the activity even though it's been a ghost town for four hundred years. The grey stone houses and platform temples are set out in a roughly circular pattern radiating from a gigantic unsu (Inca throne) in the middle of a plaza. To the north are the military barracks and beyond that the remains of suburban dwellings. Directly east of the plaza is the palace and temple known as Incahuasi, and next to this the Acllahuasi, a separate enclosure devoted to the Chosen Women, or Virgins of the Sun. Behind this, and running straight through the Incahuasi, is a man-made water channel diverted from the small Rio Huachac. On the opposite side of the plaza you can make out the extensive administrative quarters. Poised on the southern hillside above the main complex are over five hundred storehouses where all sorts of produce and treasure were kept as tribute for the emperor and sacrifices to the sun. Well away from the damp of the valley floor, and separated from each other by a few metres to minimize the risk of fire, they also command impressive views across the plain. Arriving here in 1539, the Spanish very soon abandoned the site of Huanuco Viejo to build their own colonial administrative centre at a much lower altitude, more suitable for their unacclimatized lungs and with slightly easier access to Cusco and Lima. The modern city, built along the standard city plans specified by royal decree, grew thoroughly rich, but was still regarded by the colonists as one of those remote outposts (like Chile) where criminals, or anyone unpopular with officialdom, would be sent into lengthy exile
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