FACTORTIERRA

A visit into the most western nascent of Amazon River. Written and photographed by  Ronald Benites , Special to  FACTORTIERRA. EL CARMEN DE LA FRONTERA, Peru - The mountain range will ever fascinate us by many motivations: the solids' majestic, the landscapes, the cool climate, even the culture. Perhaps it is about that fascination of feeling us closer to the sky, at least for us who feel it so. I love the mountain range - I am learning to love it. If all would depend on me, I  took every time I get to  come here, breathe  pure air, enjoy around. I already declared I am an activist of of this kind of spaces, so the coherent will be ever coming  here as much as I can, like right now. I am in a car  going up from Huancabamba City because my today's task is reaching the Shimbe [pronounce "Shimbeh"]Lake, origin of Huancabamba River , and if  we look at the map, the most occidental nascent of Amazon River . Shimbé or White Lake (Laguna ...

In 19th century, Antonio Raimondi already had identified the cause of its glide.   By Nelson Peñaherrera Castillo . Photographs produced by Arabella Carrasco ,distributted by FACTORTIERRA.   This place is 132 miles to the east of Piura City (PIU).   HUANCABAMBA, Peru – The first time I arrived to this city (6474 feet altitude) was overnight, November 4 th , 1995. When it awoke, I went down to have breakfast at the river’s rim by taking Piura street, that instead going straight down, it turns a steep meander. Beside this way, a Deep stream, that in successive visits, I got to understand that, if it’s followed uphill, connects us to Huascar Street, the parallel one to the north of Piura’s. On its first block, the cobbles paving the slope are separated in disorder and there was a bump in the terrain’s lowest section. “It’s the fault,” my friend Ciro La Madrid explained me, and it’s the reason why that Andean capital city is named The walking City .  Nothi...

Although this drink is spread everywhere in Latin America, at Peruvian Andean Northern it has a special connotation not for a particular preparation procedure but the meaning that the people have given to it.       For Huancabamba ’s people, at the Andean Range of Piura Region, the eggnog means thanks, folk . Of course, there is no regarding written rule but judging because of the occasions context it has been served, it is almost a ritual.     This drink is only brought wwhen somebody wants to recognize someone else –much more if foreigner—some kind of favor or simply the fact of having a very nice meeting. The preparation is simple: a egg white is taken in a soup dish, and it is shaken with a spoon until getting snow point. It’s true that shakers relieve the hard work, but for any reason, the modern times do not enter this field yet.     Usually, the shake has been a female job. Today, menand women do the work, although the most of times, t...

The science already has an answer about why Piura Andes' medicinal plants heal.  All photographs provided by Fidel Torres .  PIURA, Peru - The potential of medicinal plants in Peru is enormous in terms of biodiversity, but restricted in terms of usefulness. The  investigations are focused on their power for treatment or healing diseases, but they are not enlarging their own perspective to other activities requiring them too, as cosmetology or nutrition.  This narrow vision also limits the economic potential for the communities where these species grow. In the other side, many of these investigations only arrive to gather the knowledge of the communities where that  biodiversity is located, treating them as a source but blocking them to participate into the scientific process. Add to  this the risk that biopiracy follows to represent, that gets data and results but it does not patent them as owned by this  country but it compromises them as ...

A communitarian rural tourism project in the entrance of Huancabamba Valley.  By Ronald Benites Rangel .  Photos by Emmanuel Fernández Cardoza and Éricka Ramírez Guerrero .  SONDORILLO, Peru - On the length between the place known as Cruz Blanca, the point where the road from Piura to Huancabamba reaches its top altitude, and the so-called Walking City , the mountain landscape is made for falling in love. What or who? It does not matter - just fall in love. With that landscape charming the eye, it will be difficult we realize Cascapampa is about 40 km or 25 miles before arriving into Huancabamba City and 25 km or 16 miles after climbing up from Canchaque . This is a community dedicated to agriculture and cattle, about 170 km or 106 miles away the east of Piura City by car. Cascapampa (probably from Quechuan 'sharp plain')  is on the E ast slope of Andean Western Range, 3180 meters or 10430 feet altitude, forming part of the Huancabamba River's ...

Where they say a city drowned, an amazing biodiversity outcrops.  By Nelson Peñaherrera .  Photos by André Baertsch i .  SAPALACHÉ*, Peru – A decade and a half later. The first time we learned about Chinguelas Mount was not in favoring terms. Approximately since the millenium began, mining exploration and exploitation was made in the very same place where another people looked for biodiversity and the western tributary of Amazon River starts.  Is there gold ? Since it was apparently submitted to volcanism in geologic past, the probability exists. But the reference haven by some people of El Carmen de la Frontera District ( Huancabamba County ) went back too a legendary past, indeed… spectral, to be pretty right. It is supposed the city of Chicuate (pronounce “Cheekwatteh”) was located on the same name’s mountain side, and its prosperity was based on gold extraction until a strong earthquake swallowed it down making a lake to emerge despite, what sti...

They said that 2012 would be a dry year… they said.   By Nelson Peñaherrera Castillo   PIURA CITY, Peru – Sánchez Cerro Vridge, February 24 th , 2012, 7:00 in the morning, 1400 cubic millimeters per second. The water is colorized by the violent improvisation instead of the unexpected. Piura River overload was the season attraction after months and months looking a flow like a creek-category.   The cement coat of Eguiguren Pier avoids the flow power to erode the banks of Piura and Castilla Cities, like it happened in 1983. The work was build after 45 miles to the west, El Niño Current caused extreme rains between January and June of that year.   The river put the people on alert in 1998, 2001, and 2005. Just in 1998, the power of water destroyed Bolognesi Bridge, the fourth from north to south, killing around 50 people. “I’m not never going to forget that number – 4414 cubic meters per second,” El Tiempo’s journalist Teo Zavala remembers. After that tragedy, every ...