No photo availablePeru · PE
Puywan
Puywan—often written Puihuan, and known to mountaineers as Nevado Puihuan—is a 5,100-metre (16,732 ft) summit in the northern arm of the Waytapallana (Huaytapallana) range in the central Peruvian Andes. The Quechua name means roughly "heart of an animal," a fitting image for a peak perched among the cold high puna that feeds the valleys below Huancayo. It is not a developed sightseeing stop but a genuine high mountain for trekkers and climbers, set inside a protected regional conservation landscape a short, steep drive upland of the city. What draws people here is the wild, airy scale of the Waytapallana crest: Puywan shares its skyline with neighbouring nevados such as Putkaqucha (Nevado Putcacocha, 5,236 m) and Yana Ucsha (5,300 m), and lies between the summits of T'illu and Ch'uspi. Reaching the area means trading crowds and ticket booths for thin air, broad boulder-strewn ridges and the deep silence of the high puna—this is a mountain you come to climb or walk toward, not to photograph from a roadside viewpoint.