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Peru The Andean Highlands
The Sierra is the commanding feature of Peru's
territory,
reaching heights up to 6,768 meters. Hundreds of
permanently
glaciated and snowcapped peaks tower over the valleys. The
steep,
desiccated Pacific flank of the Andes supports only a
sparse
population in villages located at infrequent springs and
seepages. In contrast, tropical forests blanket the
eastern side
of the Andes as high as 2,100 meters. Between these
extremes, in
the shadows of the great snowpeaks, lie the most populous
highland ecological zones: the intermontane valleys
(kichwa) and the higher uplands and grassy puna or
Altiplano plateaus. Approximately 36 percent of the
population
lives in thousands of small villages and hamlets that
constitute
the rural hinterland for the regional capitals and trading
centers. Over 15 percent of Peruvians live at altitudes
between
2,000 and 3,000 meters, 20 percent live between 3,000 and
4,000
meters, and 1 percent regularly reside at altitudes over
4,000
meters.
Although rich in mineral resources, such as copper,
lead,
silver, iron, and zinc, which are mined at altitudes as
high as
5,152 meters, the Andes are endowed with limited usable
land. The
highlands encompass 34 percent of the national territory,
or
437,000 square kilometers, but only 4.5 percent of the
highlands,
or 19,665 square kilometers, is arable and cultivated.
Nevertheless, this area constitutes more than half the
nation's
productive land. About 93,120 square kilometers of the
Sierra is
natural pasture over 4,000 meters in altitude, too high
for
agriculture. The 4.5 percent of arable land, therefore,
has
fairly dense populations, particularly in Puno, Cajamarca,
and in
valleys such as the Mantaro in Junín Department and
Callejón de
Huaylas in Ancash Department. The highland provinces have
a
population density of 460 persons per square kilometer of
habitable, arable land.
The best areas for cultivation are the valleys, which
range
from 2,000 to 3,500 meters in altitude. Although many
valleys
have limited water supplies, others, due to glacial
runoffs,
enjoy abundant water for irrigation. In the protected
valleys,
the dry climate is temperate, with no frost or great heat.
In the
high plateau or puna regions above 3,939 meters, the
climate is
cold and severe, often going below freezing at night and
seldom
rising above 16° C by day. A myriad of native tubers
thrives at
altitudes from 2,800 meters to almost 4,000 meters,
including
over 4,000 known varieties of the potato, oca, and
olluco,
as well as grains such as quinoa. The hardy native llamas
and
alpacas thrive on the tough ichu grass of the
punas;
European sheep and cattle, when adapted, do well at lesser
altitudes.
For the Peruvians, there are two basic Andean seasons,
the
rainy winter from October through April and the dry summer
in the
remaining months. Crops are harvested according to type
throughout the year, with potatoes and other native tubers
brought in during the middle to late winter and grains
during the
dry season. The torrential rains of the winter months
frequently
cause severe landslides and avalanches, called
huaycos,
throughout the Andean region, damaging irrigation canals,
roads,
and even destroying villages and cities. In the valley of
Callejón de Huaylas, the city of Huaraz (Huarás) was
partially
destroyed in 1941 by just such a catastrophe, an event
repeated a
few kilometers away in 1962, when the town of Ranrahirca
was
annihilated by a huayco that killed about 3,000
people.
The formidable terrain of the Andes, where the land may
fall
away from 4,848 meters to 545 meters and then rise to
6,666
meters in a space of 48 kilometers as the condor flies,
poses a
ubiquitous challenge to any modern means of transport.
Thus, the
Andean region was not penetrated by wheeled vehicles until
railroads were built in the latter half of the nineteenth
century. Moreover, most of the nation did not see wheels
until
the dirt road system was under construction in the 1920s.
To do
this, President Augusto B. Leguía y Salcedo (1908-12,
1919-30)
revived a national system of draft labor harkening back to
the
Inca's conscripted labor force, or
mita (see Glossary),
used for road and bridge building in ancient times.
Data as of September 1992
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