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The quebrada Carhuasanta, located in the Apurímac Region of Peru, is known as the headwaters of the Amazon River. The brook is fed by the winter snows of Nevado Mismi, (5,597m), some 6,400 kilometres from the Atlantic Ocean. Of all the possible river sources in the Amazon Basin it is the snow melt of the Carhuasanta that has been calculated by cartographers to be the furthermost water source from the mouth of the Amazon. See other Peruvian regions President Luis Barra Capital Abancay Area 20,895. ...
A satellite image of the mouth of the Amazon River, looking south The Amazon River or River Amazon (Spanish: ; Portuguese: ) of South America is the most voluminous river on earth, having a greater total flow than the next six largest rivers combined. ...
Nevado Mismi 15°26. ...
Amazon River basin The Amazon Basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. ...
Cartography or mapmaking (in Greek chartis = map and graphein = write) is the study, practice, science and art of making maps or globes. ...
The Carhuasanta joins with the Quebrada Apacheta, becoming the Rio Loqueta. The river has several more name changes before it becomes the Apurímac River. The mining town of Cailloma lies near the junction of four rivers that form the Apurímac.
The National Geographic Society sent a three man expedition to the region in 1971 headed by Loren McIntyre. The expedition travelled from Cailloma by four wheel drive, but soon got bogged. Continuing on by back-packing up the river they climbed up the Apacheta Trail and traversed onto Nevado Mismi, taking in Nevado Quehuisha and Nevado Pumi Chiri. This is, as McIntyre descibes it in his 1972 National Geographic article, "a semicircle rampart of the continental divide. All that trickles from the inner rim joins to form the Apurimac." [1] Flag of the National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society, is a not-for-profit scientific organization based in the United States. ...
| | On October 15, 1971, we reached an ice-edged ridge above Carhuasanta, longest of the five headwater brooks. The Indians call that 18,200 foot summit Choquecorao ... A thousand feet below the ridge we sighted a lake... We clambered down to quench our thirsts... Here at 17,220 feet was the farthest source of the mighty Amazon - more a pond than a lake, just a hundred feet across.[1] | | Nevado Mismi makes an unreliable source of water in the dry season. Lagoona McIntyre, as the lake was called, is deemed the 'true source', as it is permanent. However, it is known that the source will change over time, perhaps in a single season, due to the changes of the weather and it's impact on the micro climate. In the wet season the mountains and undulating altiplano are covered in snow. In the dry season it resembles a desert as the mountains crumble slowly to dust. (see photos Landscapes of the Soul). The effect of Global warming will no doubt accelerate the changing of the Amazon's source water. Image File history File links Cquote1. ...
Image File history File links Cquote2. ...
Categories: Stub | Ecology ...
A wet season or rainy season is a season in which the average rainfall in a region is significantly increased. ...
The Altiplano (Spanish for high plain), where the Andes are at their widest, is the most extensive area of high plateau on earth outside of Tibet. ...
The dry season is a term commonly used when describing the weather in the tropics. ...
Global mean surface temperatures 1856 to 2005 Mean surface temperature anomalies during the period 1995 to 2004 with respect to the average temperatures from 1940 to 1980 Global warming is the observed increase in the average temperature of the Earths atmosphere and oceans in recent decades. ...
Other expeditions
Pre 1971 Very few people have visited the headwaters of the Carhuasanta. A walking track, called the Apacheta Trail, used by locals runs across the continental divide 13 kilometres to the west of Nevado Mismi, linking the villages of the Colca Canyon to the isolated valleys of the altiplano used by alpaca hearders and their families, and to the mining town of Cailloma, 60km distant (which can be accessed by a road from another direction). The locals have no interest in traversing the higher mountains of the divide. A continental divide is a line of elevated terrain which forms a border between two watersheds such that water falling on one side of the line eventually travels to one ocean or body of water, and water on the other side travels to another, generally on the opposite side of...
Colca Canyon from Mirador Cruz del Condor, provides an excellent view to watch the condors flight. ...
Binomial name Vicugna pacos (Linnaeus, 1758) The Alpaca (Vicugna pacos) is a domesticated breed of South American camel-like ungulates, derived from the wild vicuña. ...
Nevado Mismi was frequented by the Incas. "A gold figurine was discovered in a pirca (burial pit) on the summit by a South African father and son who were working in the Colca Canyon in the early 1970's." [1] They didn't seem to know of the significance of the mountain as the source of the mighty Amazon, nor of the interest invested in it by others in the decades before. For other meanings of Inca, see Inca (disambiguation). ...
1982 The third team to reach the top of the Nevado Mismi, in search of the 'true source', was Jean-Michel Cousteau and his crew, in 1982. McIntyre writes, "Despite support by a helicopter and a monstrous six wheel truck carrying five tons of equipment, Jean-Michel and his puffing lowlanders barely made it to the top."[citation needed] Jean-Michel Cousteau is the first son of ocean explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau. ...
1985 In 1985 a five-man team from the Los Angeles Adventurers Club led by the late Emil Barajak erected a heavy iron cross at the source.... In the same year a 12 member international team organised by Dr. Francois J. Odendaal climbed out of the Colca valley and hiked down the Apacheta Trail with grandoise and expensive plans to run the Amazon by raft and kayak all the way to the sea... The team was torn with dissention - not to say mutiny. Odendaal, a South African, pulled out after they reached flat water at Atalaya with 3600 miles yet to go. Only Polish Piotr Chemielinski and American Joe Kane paddled on to the Atlantic.[citation needed]
As the team had hiked the Apacheta Trail it is not known if they made a side trip to the head of the Quebrada Carhuasanta, the 'true source'.
1987 One of the most interesting stories of reaching the head of the Carhuasanta comes from (South African born) Australian adventurer Gary Caganoff. In 1987, guided only by an October 1972 National Geographic Magazine found in a Lima book market and a couple of topographic maps of the area, he walked alone, without support, 40 kilometres along the continental divide. An original route, perhaps unique in it's undertaking. The National Geographic Magazine, later shortened to National Geographic, is the official journal of the National Geographic Society. ...
Lima is the capital and largest city in Peru, as well as the capital of Lima Province. ...
Finding this route was an accident - it came about as a matter of survival. Caganoff had meant to begin his walk in Cailloma and follow the river up from there, just like McIntyre's party. However, in the truck he had hitched a ride on he was warned by the drivers that if the terrorists stop them, being a foreigner, he would most probably be killed. Oblivious to Caganoff until then, he had travelled right into the heartland of the Shining Path. Quickly changing plan he was dropped on the road in the middle of the night, in the middle of the vast altiplano, with little food (as he was going to buy supplies in Cailloma). The only way out of this now sticky situation was to reach the source via the continental divide, then walk down into the towns of the Colca Canyon beyond. Shining Path poster supporting an electoral boycott The Communist Party of Peru (Spanish: El Partido Comunista del Perú), more commonly known as the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso), is a Maoist guerrilla organization in Peru. ...
Under a full moon he recognised Cerro Chungara (5,286m) 5km to his south, helping orientate himself. In four days he crossed the lower western ridges of Chungara, crossed the flat boulderous summit of Cerro Ticcla (5,072m), crossed the Quebradas Condori and Aquenta, and climbed the ridge up onto Cerro Ajo Colluna (5,255m), the north eastern ridge of the Mismi Massif. Half way along this ridge to the summit of Nevado Mismi Caganoff spent an agonising night thinking he was dying of altitude sickness. He had had little food over the four days which had made him weak. He bivvied next to a small snow drift on the north side of the ridge half way to Nevado Mismi, overlooking the headwaters of the Quebrada Carhuasanta.
His experience here is described in his website. Like a shamanic journey of the soul Caganoff faced the barren emptiness of his life in one of the loneliest places on earth.
References - ^ a b c MacIntyre, L. "Amazon - The River Sea", National Geographic Magazine, 1972
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