Peru Index 1 ~ 2 ~ 3
~ 4
:
Page 1: Overview
/ Cuzco / The
Wari
People / Inca Conquest / Moray
/ Salt Pans at Salinas / Lares
Trek / Fujimori, Toledo, &
the Economy
Page 2: Inca Trail
to Machu Picchu
~ Page 3 (this page): Cordillera Blanca:
Trekking
Season & Climate / Chavin
/ Santa Cruz Trek / Inca
Legacies
Page 4: Cordillera Huayhuash:
Altitude
Acclimatization / Climate/ Touching
the Void / Amazon
Source
The Santa Cruz Trek is the most popular trek of the Cordillera
Blanca
range, which is the highest tropical mountain range in the world,
reaching
22,205 feet at the top of Huascaran. We walked for five days in
Huascaran
National Park, crossing as high as 15,600 feet at Punta Union Pass.
Donkeys
carried our loads, and we camped at 12,100 feet elevation for one
night,
13,800 feet for two nights, and then 13,100 feet on the last night. In
1985, UNESCO listed Huascaran National Park as a World Heritage Area.
A blue door in Huaraz.
The mountain town of Huaraz (10,000 feet). All over the country,
Peruvians have imported eucalyptus trees from Australia for
fast-growing
firewood and erosion control. (We saw another foreign introduced plant,
Scotch Broom, blooming yellow all the way from the Cuzco area to
Huaraz.
Scotch Broom has many local uses, but it has invasively crowded out
many
native plant species.)
Chavin:
Left: the masterfully carved Peidra del Lanzón ("Stone
of Lanzón"), or "Lanzon de Chavin", at Chavín de
Huántar.
As a long day trip from Huaraz, we rode
a bus over a scenic 15,000-foot pass to visit the ancient ruins of Chavín
de Huántar, located at 10,300 feet elevation at the bottom
of
Cordillera Blanca’s eastern slopes halfway between the Amazon forest
and
coastal plains, in the Department of Ancash in Peru. The most striking
feature is the
Lanzon de Chavin (pictured at left), 13-foot-high
carved white granite stele at the meeting point of four underground
tunnels
in the Castillo (or castle). The Lanzon, the supreme deity of Chavin de
Huantar, intertwines the head of the feline deity of Chavin de Huantar
and the human body of the shaman of the pre-Chavin period. 3000 years
ago,
the innovative Chavin builders engineered the Castillo with underground
ducts for natural air conditioning.
The advanced Chavin culture of 1000
BC to 300 BC greatly influenced all later civilizations in Peru,
including
the famous Inca Empire of 1430-1572 AD, a millennia later. The farming
city of Chavin became populous by controlling important trade routes
which
crossed from coast to interior and from north-to-south along the
cordillera.
Modern artist Pablo Picasso remarked, "Of all the ancient
cultures
that I admire, Chavín is the one that surprises me most. To tell
the turth, it has been the inspiration for much of my work."
In 1985, UNESCO listed Chavín de
Huántar as a World Heritage Site.
Stuck into walls throughout Chavin de Huántar, these
carved stone Cabezas Clavos ("nail-heads", with a peg extending behind
the head) represented guardian deities, combining features of a bird
with
a jaguar or puma (or feline). In Chavín cosmology, the
feline
represented a creator god with earthly power, and the falcon or eagle
represented
the Sun and celestial forces.
Alpamayo (19,500 feet) must be one of the prettiest mountains in
the world (and reminds me much of Ama Dablam
in
Nepal).
Here at one of the most spectacular camp spots in Peru (at 13,800
feet), you are surrounded by three major mountain massifs with spiky
peaks
reaching nearly 20,000 feet above sea level.
Our donkeys rest and graze beneath Taulliraju (19,100 feet).
Sunset behind Alpamayo, a spectacular peak that attracts
mountaineers
from around the world.
Paria peak (18,400 feet).
Flower bud of the giant lupine.
Rain, hail, and snow extinguished our view of Tingopampa Valley
as we crossed Punta Union Pass (15,600 feet). Luckily, rain affected us
only 2 days out of 23 in Peru.
We experienced two days of cloudy and misty weather in the highest
section of the Santa Cruz Trek.
After a long, cloudy and athletic day crossing 15,600-foot Punta
Union Pass, a rainbow pointed the way to our welcoming purple tents,
set
up by our
arrieros (donkey drivers).
We descended past small villages and barley fields.
Quinua, a plant native to the Andes, has been a staple grain since
before Inca times.
Inca Legacies While Lake Titicaca (on the border with Bolivia) is an earlier and more important cradle of Andean civilizations, Cuzco Valley gave birth to the powerful Inca Empire. The Incas used their absolute rule and organizational genius to build vast terraces for growing food on the steep Andes mountains in a moderate climate, away from the dry desert coast and above the mosquito-filled Amazon Basin. The Incas developed textiles, pottery, metals, architecture, amazingly fitted rock walls, empire-wide roads, bridges, and irrigation, but never discovered the wheel, arch, or writing. You may be surprised to learn that Peru's greatest native legacy to the world is the potato plant, which is now a staple crop spread world wide.
Lake 69 (14,600 feet), at the base of Chacraraju (20,052 feet).
Plants at the edge of Lake 69.
A rainbow and waterfalls on our hike to Lake 69.
Huascaran (22,205 feet above sea level), highest mountain in Peru,
peeked from behind the clouds during our day hike to Lake 69. I was
stunned
by this immense twin-peaked mountain of Himalayan proportions. [The
second
highest in Peru is Yerupaja (21,760 feet) in the Cordillera
Huayhuash.]
Peru Index 1 ~ 2 ~ 3
~ 4
:
Page 1: Overview
/ Cuzco / The
Wari
People / Inca Conquest / Moray
/ Salt Pans at Salinas / Lares
Trek / Fujimori, Toledo, &
the Economy
Page 2: Inca Trail
to Machu Picchu
~ Page 3 (this page): Cordillera Blanca:
Trekking
Season & Climate / Chavin
/ Santa Cruz Trek / Inca
Legacies
Page 4: Cordillera Huayhuash:
Altitude
Acclimatization / Climate/ Touching
the Void / Amazon
Source