Continuing from the previous post regarding the Coast of Peru and more information on the Andean country of Peru.Continuing below with the “Andes.”
Of all the volcanoes on Earth, stratovolcanoes are the most dangerous because they can erupt with little warning, releasing enormous amounts of material, blasting out material from the side, creating pyroclastic flows that hurtle down the volcano's flanks at enormous speeds (such as with Mount St. Helens, and anciently, with Krakatoa in Indonesia and Mt. Vesuvius in Italy). In Peru, Mount Misti in the central volcanic zone is a stratovolcano at 19,101 feet. A long history of eruptions from Misti and its neighbor volcanoes has caused the local soil to be extremely fertile, making the surrounding area one of the most agriculturally productive in Peru.
In the Rainforest, the temperate climate has a rainy season from November to April, with January through March being the rainiest period—during the rainy season incredible waterfalls appear and provide a delightful scene throughout the mountains.
The dry season runs from May to October, and is hot during the day and either warm or cold during the night. In fact, the Andes shelter the very largest variety of climates in the country, with a semi-arid climate in the valleys and moist in higher elevations and towards the eastern flanks. Rainfall varies from 8 to 59 inches per year. The monsoonal period starts in October and ends in April. The rainiest months are January through March where travel is often adversely affected.
The western slopes are arid to semi-arid and receive rainfall only between January and March. Below the 8,200-foot mark, the temperatures vary between 41º and 59ºF at the night and 64º to 77°F in the day. Between 8,200 and 11,500 feet, the temperatures vary from 32º to 54°F at night, and from 59º to 77 °F) during the day. At higher elevations from 11,500 to 14,750 feet, in the Puna—a grassland of the montane encompassing diverse ecosystems of the high Central Andes, above the tree line, but below the snow line. In this ecoregion of the Puna, the temperature varies from 14º to 46°F during the night versus 59°F during the day. The northernmost regions of the Andes to the West around Cajamarca and Puira, have Páramo climates.
There are more than 30 mountain passes in Peru, more than in any other country, and irrefutably they are the most gorgeous but challenging Mountain Passes one can find. There are the Warmiwañuska Passes, Abra Malaga Pass, Cuyoc Pass, San Antonio Pass, Santa Elena Pass, Salkantay Pass, Chiriasqha Pass, Dead Woman” Pass, Huayhuasy Passes, Chiricahua Pass, Qaqanan pass, Carhuac Pass, Carnicero Pass, Portachuelo Pass, Tapush Pass, Yaucha Pass, Llamac Pass, and the 10 passes around Jahuacocha, just to name a few.
Overall, Chile has the highest elevation topography in the western hemisphere, with an average elevation of 6,140 feet above sea level. The Andes Mountains comprise much of the land in the east, with peaks averaging at heights of 15,000 feet above sea level. In addition, Ecuador is the 9th highest country in the world
• The Rain Forest. Tropical rainforest and Savannah with monsoon rains, the Peruvian Amazonia around Tarapoto and Iquitos has rainy periods throughout the entire year. Tarapoto, a city of the cloud forest, is approximately 1,168 feet above sea level with Iquitos, known as the "capital of the Peruvian Amazon" at only 341’ elevation, both are located on the high jungle plateau, also called the cloud forest. Tarapoto is characterized by a forest of trees and abundant palm trees. It's known for the many forest waterfalls in its surrounding areas, including Ahuashiyacu, Huacamaíllo and Shapaja. Southeast of the city, the clear waters of Lindo Lake and the larger Sauce Lagoon (also called Blue Lagoon) are ringed by dense green forests teeming with birdlife.
• The Desert. Peru is home to two deserts. The Sechura Desert in the north, and a nameless desert in the south, the latter covering 1,500 miles before running into the Atacama Desert in Chile. The entire desert coastline covers nearly 72,973 square miles of land, and reaches inland between 12 to 62 miles, touching the base of the west side of the Andes mountains. The widest parts of the desert lie in the southern half of the country, beginning below the city of Chincha Alta.
The Sechura on the north coast has a landscape of flailing-armed cacti, spiny succulents like giant artichokes and sand dunes like mountains. Peru’s coast is home to one of the most barren, most imposing deserts on earth. No place in Greece or Turkey compares in dryness, and even other bona fide deserts, like the cacti wonderland of Baja California or the shrubby sprawl of the Kalahari, can match this Sechura Desert in sheer lifelessness.
To native Peruvians, the wild, vegetated and relatively wet Sechura is located in the northwestern part of Peru, between the northern border and Peru's equatorial forests, the Tumbes.
The Sechura Desert is an anomaly of a place. Other great deserts of the world, such as the Atacama of Chile, the Kalahari of southern Africa, the giant Sahara of northern Africa, the Mexican-American Sonoran Desert and the great desert of Australia. For all their distinguishing points, these regions all have one prominent feature in common—their latitude. Each one is situated between about 20 and 30 degrees south or north of the Equator. This is no coincidence, of course—it is where deserts happen. It’s a function of wind patterns and sun, high pressure and a persistent absence of cloud formation.
However, the Sechura Desert lies between about 5 and 15 degrees latitude south. Why? The Andes. They tower just a few miles to the east, 15,000 to 20,000 feet high all the way from Ecuador to central Chile, creating in certain places what geographers call a rain shadow. That is, air coming from the east via the trade winds. generously waters the Amazon basin, as well as the east-facing slope of the Andes. Here, the air rises and cools. Condensation occurs, and clouds drench the mountains. But as that air begins to descend on the west face, cloud formation halts as the air warms. Rainfall ceases. And at sea level, there is a desert, waiting for the water that rarely arrives. The Sechura receives just ten centimeters of precipitation each year—less than four inches (compared to Salt Lake City, which gets 20 inches per year plus 54 inches of snow).
To the south is a long swath of desert that stretches from the coast to the mountains. However, some consider the entire coastline a single desert, splitting the coastline into two deserts: the Sechura from the northern border to the inland city of Nazca, approximately 200 miles south of Lima, and from there, to the Atacama Desert, which connects with the northern border of Chile.
(See the next post for the comparison with the Land of Promise.)
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