Colca Canyon
From Wiki Sumaq Peru
Arequipa is one of the most important cities of Peru because of its cultural vestiges and history. One of ist main attractions is the Colca Canyon, located in the Valley of Colca. This natural site is also known as “ Valley of the Fire” and “the Kingdom of Cóndor” between many other names that have been givento this place. The impressive landscape and the mysticism surround the valley , make it a tourist destination.
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History
Colca was known in the Colony as the Corregimiento of Collahuas, it was one of the most important zones in the Peruvian viceroyalty. As a consequence of this, Francisco Pizarro entrusted to his brother Gonzalo to settle down Yanque to control the valley. By those years, they were more than 60 thousand people dedicated to the agricultural production of maize and potatoe especially, which let the place became an strategic place, since it was the residence of a big population.
Subsequently with the arrival of the Virrey Toledo, the Reduction of Indians is applied and the vast population is reduced in towns changing its old small villages distributed in the valley by called towns “Reductions of Indians”. These small cities were designed from Spain with a detailed planning and also they had strict norms for their construction, with some necessary places like a church that would help in the conversion process the Christianity of the natives.
This canyon is reportedly the deepest in the world, thought to be twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the USA. Unlike most of the Grand Canyon, portions of the Colca canyon are habitable, with pre-Colombian terraced fields still supporting agriculture and human life. Click on this photo from Peru - Colca Canyon - Condor Pass, Part 2, Andrys Basten's Trip to Peru, for a very large photo which shows in wonderful detail how every bit of land is put to use. Then click to Part I and read her full account of her trip with more photos.
What brings increasingly more visitors each year, in addition to the awesome sights, are the Andean condors. The condor population of South America is unfortunately dwindling, but here in Colca Canyon, visitors can see them at fairly close range as they float on the rising thermals and scan for carrion far below them, as these photos of condors in flight demonstrate.
The river and valley were well-known to the Incas and their predecessors, and the Spaniards laid out townships along the valley, no doubt planning to use Rio Colca valley as the route to Cuzco and other Andean locations. They built churches along the way, notably the one at Coporaque, but for some reason, the towns never grew and the route faded from outside memory.
It wasn't until the early 1930's that the Colca valley was explored again, this time for the American Geographical Society. Colca Valley has been known by different names: The Lost Valley of the Incas, The Valley of Wonders, The Valley of Fire and The Territory of the Condor. It has even been called one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World."
In the 1980's, with the Majes Hydroelectric Project, roads opened the Colca to the outside. One of the attractions to visitors is a glimpse into a way of life that has endured in isolation for centuries.
Location
The Colca Canyon is located in the northeastern part of the Arequipa Region, province of Caylloma, to 165 kilometers of Arequipa and 40 km of Chivay main and capital town of the province of Caylloma. The highest part of the Valley is the inactive Ampato volcano (6288 msnm), and the lowest part is the confluence of the rivers Colca and Andamayo (970 msnm).
The valley of the Colca has an extension of 100 km and occupies only a sector of the river basin of the Colca river, between the districts of Callalli and Huambo. The route to the Colca crosses the skirts of Chachani and crosses plains full of ichu and yareta, samples of the Andean vegetation. In these places live alpacas and vizcachas, which are beautiful camels of the zone.
Climate
The Climate of the Valley of the Colca is characteristic of the Andean high zones . From middle April to the middle of November the temperatures usually is below cero at night and reach 15-20°C during the day. During the rainy season, from November to March end, the changes of temperature are not so radical since the cloudy sky prevents the sun to penetrate during the day. The temperatures at this time of the year vary between 5° and 10°C.
Description
In the Colca valley were found 8.000 hectares of terraces of lands´ irrigation which at the same time avoids the erosion of grounds. Nowadays, After more than 1.400 years from the construction of these terraces they continue in operation, allowing seedtime of potatoe, 32 varieties of maize, 12 of haba and 54 of quinua, among other products for the consumption of the settlers.
In the towns have been found samples of the architecture and colonial decoration that mainly synthesize “the racially mixed” style that was developed in the Colca during XVIII century , in each one of the churches. Some churches were constructed during the arrival of the Spaniards to the valley (approx 1570) and consequently they adopted the Renaissance style. However, soem churches are characterized with the use of Baroque between 1640 to the 1700. The most impressive churches are Lari, Yanque, Cabanaconde and Sibayo.
Many of the houses in the valley continue built in stone with ceilings of ichu (type of straw that grows in considerable altitude). Women in communities still dresses in typical clothes: long skirts and vests with colorful embroiderings and hats with tape.
The Colca Canyon is the habitat of animals like the Andean condor among other 100 species of birds, four types of camels: vicuña, the guanaco, the llama and the alpaca. In addition there are more than 300 species of plants, 30 are cactus,such as the primitive green yareta. One of the msot invaluable spectacles,during the visit to the canyon, is the dawn which is set in between the precipice where is possible to see, the sunrise and the flight of approximately 20 cóndores.
The valley is convenient to do recreational and artistic activities like painting, photographs, poetry, among others; as the same as adventure sports like trekking, canoing, scaling, bicling, etc.
References
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