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In the same year, a 9-member international team organized by South
African Dr. Francois J. Odendaal climbed out of the Colca valley and hiked up the Apacheta Trail with grandiose and expensive plans to run the Amazon by raft and kayak all the way to the sea. The team was torn with dissension - not to
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for "wall", here a burial pit) on the summit by a South
African father and son who were working in the Colca Canyon in the early 1970s." 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.
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On 15 October 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 ft/5,249m was the farthest
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Mismi makes an unreliable source of water in the dry season. Laguna 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 its impact on the
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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 kilometers to the west of Mismi, linking the villages of the
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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."
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say mutiny. Odendaal, a South
African, pulled out after they reached flat water at Atalaya with 3600 miles/5,794 km yet to go. Only Polish Piotr Chmielinski and American
199:(1989). Kane documents in his book that he hiked for an hour to the top of a mountain, off the Apacheta Trail, and "touched the source" (a frozen river of water).
82:. The expedition travelled from Caylloma by four-wheel drive, but soon got bogged. Continuing on by backpacking up the river, they climbed up the
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herders and their families, and to the mining town of
Caylloma, 60 km distant (which can be accessed by a road from another direction).
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The
Carhuasanta joins with the Quebrada Apacheta, becoming the Rio Lloqueta. The river has several more name changes before it becomes the
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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.
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and
Pumachiri. This is, as McIntyre describes it in his 1972 National Geographic article, "a semicircle rampart of the
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completed the journey to the
Atlantic with Kane documenting it in the classic book
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The third team to reach the top of the Mismi, in search of the 'true source', was
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source of the mighty Amazon - more a pond than a lake, just a hundred feet across.
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it resembles a desert as the mountains crumble slowly to dust. The effect of
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to be one of the furthermost water sources from the mouth of the Amazon.
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51:, it is the snow melt of the Carhuasanta that has been calculated by
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will no doubt accelerate the changing of the Amazon's source water.
98:. All that trickles from the inner rim joins to form the Apurimac."
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lies near the junction of four rivers that form the ApurĂmac river.
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sent a three-man expedition to the region in 1971, headed by
43:, (5,597 m), some 6,400 kilometers from the
146:to the isolated valleys of the altiplano used by
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8:
47:. Of all the possible river sources in the
39:. The brook is fed by the winter snows of
222:MacIntyre, L. "Amazon - The River Sea",
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157:. "A gold figurine was discovered in a
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86:and traversed onto the mountain
23:is a small river located in the
70:National Geographic expedition
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116:the mountains and undulating
224:National Geographic Magazine
153:Mismi was frequented by the
120:are covered in snow. In the
76:National Geographic Society
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90:, taking in the mountains
245:Rivers of Arequipa Region
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62:. The mining town of
31:. It is known as the
176:Jean-Michel Cousteau
197:Running the Amazon
96:continental divide
132:Other expeditions
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126:global warming
84:Apacheta Trail
80:Loren McIntyre
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60:ApurĂmac River
45:Atlantic Ocean
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250:Amazon basin
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144:Colca Canyon
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110:microclimate
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49:Amazon Basin
41:Nevado Mismi
37:Amazon River
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21:Carhuasanta
239:Categories
203:References
122:dry season
114:wet season
33:headwaters
118:altiplano
112:. In the
193:Joe Kane
137:Pre-1971
64:Caylloma
163:Quechua
92:Kiwicha
35:of the
226:, 1972
148:alpaca
159:pirqa
155:Incas
88:Mismi
183:1985
170:1982
74:The
29:Peru
19:The
27:of
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211:^
161:(
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