The country of all superlatives
Peru's geography is impressive. Before going into detail, here's a little appetizer. Here in southern Peru, you'll find a 4,160-metre canyon, the Colca Canyon, over which condors fly, and a few kilometers away, the more confidential Cotahuasi Canyon, 2.5 to 3.5 km deep. A little further on, welcome to Titicaca, the world's highest navigable lake at 3,812 metres above sea level. We're now heading for the jungle, where Peru has two of the world's ten highest waterfalls: Las Tres Hermanas with its 914-metre drop, near the inaccessible Río Cutivireni, and Yumbilla with its 896-metre drop in the Amazonas region. Peru is also the birthplace of the Amazon River, in the skirts of the Mismi volcano in the Arequipa region, the most powerful river in the world and the second longest.
3,000 km along the Pacific
Let's start with the Costa. This immense strip of sand stretching 3,000 km from north to south and a maximum of 250 km from east to west, bordering the Pacific and rising to an altitude of 500 m, is inhabited around the 52 or so rivers that flow into the ocean and give rise to veritable cultivated oases on their banks. Of the ten or so rivers that flow into the cold Pacific, only one is navigable: the Río Tumbes, on the Ecuadorian border in the far north. It forms an inextricable delta of canals and islands where manglar trees grow, forming a forest with a rich aquatic fauna.
The Pacific Ocean, also known as the Grau Sea, covers more than 126 million km² and forms a coastline some 3,000 km long, bordered by cold (Humboldt) and warm (El Niño) currents, each with its own impact on climate, flora and fauna. El Niño is an occasional phenomenon, causing torrential rains. The most recent episode, in the summer of 2017 (December-March), left the northern countryside battered by devastating rains.
On June 5, 2021, the Reserva National Dorsal de Nasca, Peru's first marine protected area, was born, covering 62,392 km² of protected ocean or 8% of the surface area of the Peruvian sea. The area is 1,100 km long and 200 km wide, and its depths are home to an underwater mountain range ranging from 1,500 to 4,000 metres.
A majestic mountain range
Now let's climb to a higher altitude: we're in the sierra. Bear in mind that this change of landscape is rapid and constant throughout the country, so much so that Lima also has its sierra , and from certain buildings in the capital you can see the Andes chain taking shape. This ascent in altitude is also very rapid, often taking just a few hours.
Running parallel to the Pacific coast, the Andes comprise three mountain ranges: the western, central and eastern sierras , which separate the coastal desert from the Amazon rainforests. The sierra records intense volcanic activity, as witnessed by the superb nevados (snow-capped mountains) of Callejón de Huaylas, near Huaraz, the Valley of the Volcanoes near Arequipa, dominated by the mythical, eternally snow-capped Misti volcano, and the thousands of thermal springs.
The highest mountains are concentrated in the central and southern cordilleras, with an average altitude of 5,300 m. The Cordillera Blanca (Ancash department) boasts more than 30 snow-capped peaks above 6,000 m, including the majestic Huascarán which, at 6,768 m, is the highest in the country and the3rd highest on the continent, after Aconcagua at 6,959 m and Nevado Ojos del Salado, both on the Argentina-Chile border. Another characteristic landscape of the Andes, the puna extends to an average altitude of 4,000 m. The short, hard grass that grows here, known as "ichu", feeds the camelids (llamas, alpacas, guanacos and vicuñas) without which the Andes would not be what they are. The puna is found mainly in the Puno region, between the Cordilleras Occidental and Oriental, on the Altiplano that Peru shares with Bolivia, as does Lake Titicaca. On the lower level, between 3,500 and 4,000 m, lies a transitional region between the cold puna and the hot zones. Here, there is a high level of agricultural activity, with impressive terraced cultivation of all kinds of potatoes and typical Andean cereals such as quínua (quinoa) and other high-energy and nutritious grasses(maca, kiwicha). The hostile nature of the Andes means that 80% of cultivated land is rain-fed and unirrigated. Farms are very fragmented and yields are mediocre: the farmers still use basic tools, sometimes inherited from the Incas. During the rainy season, particularly from January to April, deadly landslides and mud avalanches known as "huaycos" occur, adding to the distress of the local population. During this period, visitors should be extra vigilant and avoid, as far as possible, road transport on gullied dirt tracks.
The Amazon, the great forgotten one
Finally, as the Andes slowly descend into the interior, the bushy tropical hills take shape, followed by the immense Amazon plain. Let's go over the figures once again: 60% of the country and less than 10% of its population! Many travellers still overlook this region when planning their trip. If you can, spend a few days here - you won't regret it.
The selva haute or ceja de selva (the eyebrows of the jungle), at altitudes of between 500 and 2,000 m, is covered with dense vegetation. These regions are mainly populated by indigenous settlers from the sierra , who have been driven into internal exile by the crises of recent decades. In the 1960s, this movement gave rise to the construction of the Carretera Marginal de la Selva, which links the northern selva with the southern one and enables trade. It was also in the upper selva , in central Peru's Ayacucho region, that the armed revolutionary groups of the Shining Path and the MRTA (Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement) took refuge. Today, in view of the worldwide redeployment of poppy cultivation, the high selva is seeing the development of a new type of illegal crop.
The lower selva , or Amazonia, lies between 80 and 400 m above sea level and covers the bed of the Amazon, the world's longest river. The latter receives tributaries from the Andes, such as the Ucayali and the Marañon. The official source of the Amazon is the Nevado Mismi, some 20 km northwest of Chivay. The Apacheta torrent, which flows from the mountain's northern cliff, is considered to be the furthest source in the Amazon network from the river's mouth. Of its 6,800 km course, only 680 km are in Peru, but its tributaries share the same attributes: turbid waters, immense width and infinite expanses. The name Amazon (Amazonas in Spanish) is said to have been given to the river by the conquistador Orellana, who had to fight against fearsome female warriors, the Amazons. Here, rivers cross each other at will, meandering lazily through lush vegetation and exuberant fauna, periodically flooding villages built on stilts. Along with the airplane, rivers are the only means of access to populated areas. There are two distinct periods in the Amazon: when the water rises (from December to around April), and when it recedes, revealing more of the vegetation (from May to November). Depending on the type of animal you wish to observe, this is a criterion to be taken into account. As is the direction of the river: depending on whether you're travelling aguas arriba or aguas abajo, i.e. following the current or going against it, the journey time will change, sometimes by a whole day.
A real seismic threat
In Peru we find the geological pattern of all South America, which contrasts a stable eastern zone (the Amazon in the north, the pampas in the south) and a western zone (the Andes) with strong tectonic and seismic activity. This activity is due to the subduction of the Pacific Oceanic plate under the South American continental plate. The oceanic plate, plunging to the center of the Earth, melts, then rises under the continental plate of the Andes and generates volcanic massifs. The Peruvian Andean zone is separated from north to south in two bands by the broad Puna Plateau. There is intense volcanic activity, particularly in the south, with lava sheets covering the plateaus. The eastern plains area, which rests on a secondary and tertiary basin, has soils rich in hydrocarbons and gas.
As a result of this geological entanglement, the earth trembles in Peru quite regularly. The region of Pisco was devastated by a terrible earthquake (7.9 on the Richter scale) in August 2007, killing over 500 people. Many hotels and monuments were destroyed on that occasion. More recently, other earthquakes occurred in the fall of 2011, causing further destruction. The affected areas are slowly being rebuilt and unfortunately some monuments are not saved. The recent episodes have remained reasonable, but the concern is real. You will often see circles marked with the S sign on the ground which represent the areas where to gather in case of a seismo or earthquake.
