Tarma, Perú was founded in 1875. Tarma has a population of around 44,000. The town sits at the bottom of a valley high in the Andes Mountains in central Perú. The Tarma River runs through the town. The town, while sitting on a valley floor, also sits at an elevation of 3053 meters (10,016 feet) so it is a bit on the chilly side here at night.

The town's history dates back to pre-Inca ages when there were three distinct groups coexisting in the valley. The Incas arrived and took over everything and built the area into an administrative center. Then along come the Spaniards and they conquered the Incas. Tarma was founded during the policy of "reducciones" or reductions, under the rule of fifth viceroy Francisco de Toledo between 1569-1575. I wrote about these reducciones in the Huacho, Perú blog on March 30. At the time, the capital of the province was Tarmatambo just a few kilometers south. But, the Spaniards moved the capital to Santa Ana de Pampas. I'm not sure about this part because there are no sources mentioned, but it appears Santa Ana de Pampas is more than 200 kilometers south of Tarma. In 1784, the Spaniards took over administration of the town at the time that it was elevated to the status of "villa" or town. The name of the town was then changed to Tarma. In 1820, the War of Independence started and Tarma fully backed the Perúvian side. In 1855, Tarma was again elevated to the status of Province. I found some of that a little confusing and that's partly because the website I got it from has no sources cited.

Tarma's economy is services/retail/commerce/tourism based, first, followed by agriculture and the cement factory.

The climage of Tarma is classified as tundra. The average daytime high is 12° C (54° F), the average nightly low is 4° C (39° F). I find those numbers to be unbelievably low compared to what I have been experiencing in my time here, beautiful sunny warm afternoons, and yes, a jacket is needed in the evenings. The average yearly rain amounts to 1522mm (59.9 inches). The humidity ranges from 79% to 85% throughout the year.

Tarma is a pleasant small town with a surprisingly large number of banks. Also, here you can get proper coffee brewed the way it should be, in any of various filter systems, not from an espresso machine. The coast of Perú has no coffee culture, they only know espresso and are at a complete loss when you ask for a normal, black coffee, a filtered coffee, a drip coffee, a coffee from anything that is not an espresso machine. But, now I am entering the mountains and then the Selva region on the east side of the mountains, and here they know coffee. The town's business district fills pretty much all of the valley floor so the neighborhoods are mostly on the steep mountain sides. You can see some in the pics in the photo album. The town doesn't have a lot to offer a tourist but outside the town there are many places to visit. Here in town are many tour agencies just for that purpose. Should you visit Tarma on your vacation to Perú? Probably not, there are so many other places to visit. Visit Tarma if it is on your way from, say, Lima to Oxapampa. Tarma is about halfway between the two so it makes a good place to break the long trip.