Peru Travel & Booking

Ancash - Peru

The department of Ancash at 3,100 msn starts on a slightly hilly coastal strip and climbs up to the highest snow-capped mountains in Peru.Huarazits capital city,is headquarters of the province's Roman Catholic Bishop and the site of his official cathedral.

Spread out along the Callejon de Huaylas, a dazzling valley stuck between two mountain ranges, the Blanca and Negra Cordilleras, you will find pleasant cities like Recuay, Carhuas, Yungay, and Caras, while the urban and commercial center of the area is the capital of Ancash, the energetic city of Huaraz. It was between the years 1200 b.C. and 200 b.C. that the Chavín lived in the region, the same that left as their legacy the impressive archeological complex of Chavin de Huantar, which, in 1985, UNESCO placed on the World Cultural Heritage List.

The Rio Santa (Santa River) flows north through Huaraz. It is not commercially navigable but has always furnished the city with good water. The river is a rocky-bottom narrow stream of glacier-fed cold water that flows generally west of center in the Callejón, running north to the valley's north end. There it rushes downward through the narrow Canyon del Pato (Duck Canyon), turns westward at the town of Huallanca, and continues to the coast where it enters the Pacific Ocean south of the city of Chimbote. The Rio Santa is the traditional west boundary of Huaraz, although part of the city's population has lived on the west bank there for as long as two centuries.

Throughout the entire department, you can see the most spectacular snow covered mountains, among them Mount Huascaran (6,768 masl.), the tallest peak in Peru. In addition, there are hot springs and spectacular lakes as those of Llanganuco; in all, it is an area perfect for adventure sports like white water rafting, mountain climbing, mountain biking, and trekking.

The Huascaran National Park, placed on the World Natural Heritage List by UNESCO, guards wildlife species in its beautiful surroundings like condors, vicuñas, deer, pumas, Andean foxes, and viscachas, a type of andean rabbit.

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