| |
Peru's
rivers are a source of life, beauty and fun. There are rivers
of every kind to match every taste. There are dry riverbeds
which only fill up with water during the El Niño phenomenon;
there are black rivers, reddish rivers, and others that are
white or muddy; salty and bitter, navigable and turbulent;
tranquil and romantic; gigantic like the Ucayali and Amazon
Rivers; and even holy rivers like the Vilcanota, which winds
its way through the Sacred Valley of the Incas.
Most of Peru's rivers are born high in the Andes. The glaciers
in the frigid highland plains produce trickles that gradually
swell as they drop down to the coast. The waters that give
life to Peru's territory eventually flow into the Pacific
and Atlantic Oceans, which limit the continent of South America.
Before flowing into the Atlantic, some of these rivers merge
with the Amazon, the world's greatest river with a low-rate
of 170,000 cubic meters per second) and the greatest diversity
of fish species (more than 2,000 species).
The beauty of Peru's rivers stems from the canyons which their
waters have carved out over centuries, the plantlife which
grows alongside and thevarieties of fauna found in their waters.
All this makes them ideal spots for swimming, resting and
adventure sports such as rafting.
|
|
