The Glacers of Peru

In the thin, cold air atop the Andes mountains in Peru rises Quelccaya Glacier, one of many. The blue ice that has claimed these tops for a millenium, which feeds the streams below, is speedily disappearing. Glaciers provide water that grow crops, generate electrical energy, and sustain towns and rural areas. Farmers in Peru say that over the last two decades they have spotted a dramatic dip in the amount of snow and ice on their mountaintops. The steady supply of water they have to grow crops has become erratic, steadily decreasing annually, at a fast pace! If thereis a lack of water, their land glaringly becomes a desert.

Cuzco hasalready resorted to periodic water rationing and started pumping from a river fifteen miles away to provide drinking water to its 400,000 inhabitants. In Peru’s capital, Lima, with 8 million residents, engineers have advised successive governments to drill a tunnel through the Andes and build big reservoirs to hold water. Authorities say it is too expensive a venture. Cities all over the world also face extreme water shortfalls as the glaciers shrink.

You can think about these glaciers as a deposit account built over millenia, claimed Lonnie Thompson, one of the first scientists to make this data public. “If you take away more than you gain, eventually you go broke. That what is in process here. ”
Thompson arrived at the Quelccaya glacier after a two-day hike from the closest road, climbing into the oxygen-thin air of seventeen thousand feet above sea level. Since he started his yearly visits to Peru in 1974, he revealed, the huge ice cap has shrunk by thirty percent. In the year, the edge of the ice had pulled back 100 yards, superb speed for a glacier.
The outer layer of the mountain had liquified leaving giant holes scattered across its face. A large chunk had broken off in March, crashing into the lake below, therefore flooding the alpacas’ lower grazing grounds. The face of the glacier now sags with several dips. In the past, it was frozen so perfectly that Thompson could identify the yearly snowfalls back 1,500 years. Yes, the times are changing.

Pack your hiking boots and backpacks. Let’s take a trip to Peru to witness the miracle of Pachamama, mother nature, as she is now. Discover the resources of the land and see how jewelry was made during the past and how the same strategies are still used today. According to several Peruvians, as well as Mayans and other native cultures, the earth is preparing for a cleansing. It has started and will culminate in 2012, according to Dr. Canales, of Arequipa, Peru. Complete photography coverage is available for this trip. Please ask for details.

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