Promise Sort of Made..., Delivered!

[DoChenRollingBearing]

...

As some of you know, we have been in the remote northern Peruvian Andes keeping busy seeing genuine marvels. I took (and put up) LOTS of pictures.

The world's third tallest waterfall (announced to the world in 2005).

Poorly understood pre-Inca city/fortress of Kuelap.

Gigantic canyon rivaling our own Grand Canyon.

And, a rumor that Peru has a huge "gold belt" that may rival South Africa, I will try to learn more...

Hey, I even did some work (as we have no customers in that city, so dropped in for some "cold calling"...

Peru awaits the adventurous...

"The Wonders of Amazonas, Peru"

http://tinyurl.com/lmted2v

 

[rblong2us]

Go Bearing !

More about Kuelap ?

Am interested in ancient city civilisations and how they seem to use similar patterns in very diferent parts of the world.
How they were structured and how the community was able to create its food and other consumable resources ?

 

[pmbug]

Fantastic pictures & write-up DCRB. I really enjoyed it.

 

[Aubuy]

I've never seen anything quite like it. Very beautiful. Thanks for sharing it.

 

[DCFusor]

Yes, Peru has a gold belt, and the news isn't all good, sorry.
http://phys.org/news/2013-10-gold-ravages-peru.html

 

[Jay]

nice article, R. we've got placenta body soap and wipe TP in the Philippines...

 

[DoChenRollingBearing]

...

@ rblong2us

Not a whole hell of a lot is KNOWN about Kuelap. Wikipedia has an article that I looked over to compare with what our guide told us, most was in accord, but some not... I magine that more will become known, but the Chachapoyas left NO written records and the language (believed to be related to Quechua, but maybe not...) is extinct. They still don´t have Machu Picchu all figured out yet.

It LOOKS LIKE Kuelap was a sometimes fortress as there were centuries (millenia?) of wars with neighboring tribes. They fought for arable land. That seems to have been common all over the world. They fought each other until the Incas came in and finished ´em off (deported them to various other parts of the empire like they did in many other cases).

But, hey, yo, Bearing Guy ain´t no archeologist nor anthropologist (nor have I even ever stayed at a Holiday Inn Expess)!

@ DCFusor

Thank you for the link! I did already know that there were problems with informal mines in Madre de Dios area (and neighboring zones in Puno´s jungle valley areas), but, wow I did not know the scale of the problems!

Peru also has had severe environmental problems due to coca-leaf processing (they dump sulfuric acid and gasoline into the streams when done, mmm, yum...). They process the leaves into "coca paste", later to "cocaine base" and mopst of that goes off to Colombia to be purified. I have heard that the Peruvian mafias are moving into the manufacturing sector though... Lots of bad stuff happens here too, alas...

Actually what I was referring to re "gold belt" is some formations (that´s all I know, mate!) that stretch from Yanacocha/Conga (near Cajamarca) and go well to the southeast (this guy said). BIG GOLD RESERVES they think (he said). There is gold in many places in Peru, but I presume that he is referring to something BIG, that is why I am interested in finding out more.

Already almost ALL MINES are notorious for dumping crap and really destroying the places where they work. Even though Newmont & Buenaventura "promised to behave better" (and they probably have to some degree), it is still very dirty work, they leave all kinds of toxins behind and generally mess up an environment where the locals have livd for thousands of years in relative equilibrium.

Hence my observaton at my article that IMO the miners better pay more and better behave a LOT BETTER or no gold for you! And/or huge fines for mishaps...