GEOGRAPHY
With a surface area of 1.285.216 km2, Peru is the third largest country of the continent. It is located in the equatorial strip and its bordered are on the North: by Ecuador and Colombia, on the East by Brazil and Bolivia, on the West: The Pacific Ocean and on the South by Chile. The Ecological areas are differently classified, but since these classifications are not our actual purpose, we will only mention the main ones as the traditional regions such as the Coast, the highland, and the Amazon.
The Coast, is a wide desert strip of 2,500 km. approx. parallel to the Pacific Ocean (one of the most arids deserts of the world), surrounded by colorful oasis and fertile valleys that forming multiple rivers which descend along the highest points of the Andes. The peruvian desert with a maximum of 200 km. wide at the north (Sechura desert) and a minimum of 40 km. at the south, is the region that concentrates the most part of the population.
The Highland, rises from 1000 to 6,768 meters (the Huascaran snowcapped mountain), “La Cordillera de los Andes”, is the largest mountainous chain of the world. It plays the leading role since it goes all over the country in two branches, eastern and western, splitting the last one in another two mountainous branches. One of them provides life and color to the Cordillera Blanca (Huascaran National Park), the tallest tropical mountain range of the planet,. To the south, close to Arequipa, this mountainous chain enables us to appreciate almost eighty hidden cones of old volcanoes, as well as deep canons (Cotahuasi and Colca). Throughout all the highland it is possible to enjoy the large and green valley of Urubamba (Sacred Valley in Cuzco), and SantaPerú is one of the main touristic destinations with an inmense variety of landscape, where we can find all climates of the world. It offers us the opportunity to rediscover its fascinating and rich historical legacy with hundreds of archeological ruins disseminated along the wide territory, its traditions and ancestral customs, and its indigenous communities profoundly devoted to The Pachamama "The Mother Earth". Thus, once we have crossed the spectacular Andes with its mountain tops of over six thousand meters high, Peru enables us to go from the magic exuberant humidity of the Amazon to the endless and arid coastal deserts; not being necessary to cross barriers. Besides its natural diversity, it is always possible to visit its main archeological places, cultural patrimony left by successive civilizations that took a leading role in Peruvian history, from Chavin de Huantar (master culture of civilization, with its "Cabezas Clavas" and the mysterious Lanzón, sort of enormous knife), Paracas (with its well-crafted mantle and amazing trepanned skulls), Nazca (with its famous and mysterious "Lines of Nazca" of bio-formed figures), Mochica (with the astonishing ornamentation based on different people of the elite, recent discovery as the "Señor de Sipán" and its varied and well-crafted ceramics), Chimu (with the largest mud City of the world, Chan Chan), and also the famous Inca Culture (with the amazing fortress of Machu Picchu). Furthermore, in Peru the magic sensation of colonial towns, such as the colorful Trujillo, the mixed raced Cuzco, or the "chaotic" and at the same time, charming "Lima".
The Amazon Jungle, Virgin and unexplored, it is the largest region and less populated of the country, with an astonishing watershed in which the large Amazonas river and other tributaries predominate. It is the perfect hiding place for the fauna, the flora and the exuberant vegetation which still preserves its original and unchanged state that can be enjoyed in reserved areas such as the Manu National Park, the Tambopata-Candamo reserve and Pacaya Samiria among others. The predominant factor of this area is its inaccessibility and isolation, where a great diversity of indigenous communities keeping their ancestral ways of living are located.