Peruvian Adventure 7/23/2008-8/06/2008

Steamboat Springs à Lima, Peru à Huaraz, Peru à Churup, Pisco, Ishinca à Huaraz, Peru à Lima, Peru à Steamboat Springs, CO

7/29/2008: Huaraz:

Relaxing at Refugio de Peru with the Huandoys in the background

Matt and Pete soaking it up on the deck at Refugio de Peru

The Catholic shrine at the valley just below the Refugio

Back in Cebollapampa with Laguna Llanganucho in the background

The Yungay Cemetery viewed from the road to Quebrada Llanganucho

On May 31^st, 1970 a 7.8 earth quack was recorded centered in Chimbote. The Ancash Earth Quake lasted fifty seconds and killed 80,000 people. 30,000 people were killed in Huaraz alone. Every town in the Callejon de Hauylas was devastated. Most of the destruction occurred when glaciers high in the mountains fractured sending millions of tons of snow and rock in to moraine lakes above towns. The natural earthen dams formed over centuries of glacial movement were not strong enough to hold back the force of the ice, rock and water and these slurries raced down the mountains in to the towns below.

Yungay, a town just down the valley, lost 20,000 of its 20,400 residents. Ironically most of the survivors were gathered in the cemetery which was one of only two structures in town that remaining intact. The old town of Yungay remains buried and undisturbed to this day and has been designated a national memorial.

Yungay cemetery front steps

Peru Adventure Part VII

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