Information about the city Tingo María
Tingo María is the capital of Leoncio Prado Province in the Huánuco Region in central Peru. It has an urban population of around 55,000 (June 2007).
Tingo María was considered unreachable until 1936, when the Montaña Road reached the settlement. It was then that the state run Estacion Experimental Agricola was established due to its "comfortable" elevation (2,204 ft). In 1942, the U.S. Government began adding more funding to the station, and by 1960 over 40,000 acres (160 km²) of land were under cultivation, especially along the Huallaga River valley where land was level. Coffee was a particularly valuable crop. The city nickname is "the Door of the Amazonia."
The city is placed where two important rivers meet; the Monzón and the Huallaga river, a main contributor of the Marañón river. The city headquarters the National University of the Forest (UNAS-www.unas.edu.pe); it has 7 faculties, a botanical park, and first level facilities. Near the city there is the Tingo María National Park of 180 km² (43,000 acres (170 km2)) that preserves nature and a limestone mountain range in the shape of a woman that sleeps. It is called La Bella Durmiente (Spanish for Sleeping Beauty) or Pumarinri (Quechua for "cougar ear"). A legend explains the form of the range. The main attraction is a cave named Cueva de las Lechuzas (Spanish for "cave of the owls") (named after a colony of the superficially owl-like Oilbird found in it), probably the most attractive and accessible cave of Peru, though it is not the longest and deepest.
Tingo María has an airport served daily by regional jets and turbo-prop airplanes. A well-paved main road, now called "the Federico Basadre" Highway crosses the city halfway from Lima to Pucallpa; 16 km going to the east it meets the Marginal Highway that follows the river to the north and arrives at Tarapoto. A main road that comes from Casma port, on the coast of Ancash department, is being worked now. This road reinforces the position of Tingo María as a regional and national hub.
The mayor is Juan Picón Quedo, part of a local business family. A relevant industry working on Cacao is the Cooperativa Agroindustrial Naranjillo, that sells its products to foreign markets.
Information about the city Ancash
Ancash is a region of northern Peru. It is bordered by La Libertad Region on the north, Huánuco and Pasco regions on the east, the Lima Region on the south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. Its capital is the city of Huaraz, and its largest city and port is Chimbote. The name of the region originates from the Quechua word anqash (light, of little weight), from anqas (blue) or from anka (eagle). Ancash is a land of contrasts: it features two great longitudinal valleys, which combine the mountain characteristics of the Callejón de Huaylas (Alley of Huaylas) with the sylvan ones of the Alto Marañón. Miles of sandy beaches and the blue waters of the Pacific. The territory of the coast, high plateaux and Andean punas of the Ancash Region are flat, while the rest of the territory, in the Andes, is very rough. In the west, slopes with strong declivity form narrow canyons with abrupt and deserted sides. The rough territory of the region is crossed by two mountain ranges: on the western side, the Cordillera Negra (Spanish for "black mountain range"), which has peaks without glaciers, and on the eastern side, the Cordillera Blanca ("white mountain range"), which has many peaks covered with snow and ice, such as the Huascarán and the Alpamayo. Between these two mountain ranges, the Santa River flows through the so-called Callejón de Huaylas. This valley narrows to form the Cañón del Pato ("duck canyon"). Also along the Pacific slopes, the Santa River has shaped a wide valley in the punas which narrows into the Cordillera Negra, where the Cañón del Pato canyon was formed. The snow-covered peak of Huascarán, highest peak of Peru and second of the Americas, reaches a height of 6,768 m (22,205 ft, 4.2 miles) and contrasts with the 6,263 m (20,548 ft) deep trough of Chimbote found in the ocean west of Ancash. Remnants of glaciers created many lakes such as Llanganuco Lakes and Lake Parón. Following the Pan-American Highway north from Lima, the territory of the region of Ancash begins just beyond the Fortress of Paramonga, between wide fields of sugarcane, and across the Fortaleza River, 206 kilometres (128 mi) from Lima. Along the coast of Ancash, from the Fortaleza River to the Santa River, the Pacific exerts great influence. The Peruvian current and the El Niño current exert considerable and sometimes tragic effect on local lives and regional economies. Normally, the Peruvian current, also known as the Humboldt Current, brings cold water and large numbers of fish. With the development of the shoals of anchoveta, the Ancash ports and creeks became commercial fishing centers. During the 1950s, the bay of Chimbote was the top fishing port of the world. However, when warmer waters from the north, such as the current of El Niño, bring catastrophic rains to the coast and sea, the shoals of anchoveta disappear, leaving the fishing fleets plants paralyzed, and flooding rivers cause serious damage to the lands and cities. The cycles of these two sea currents that affect Peru are hard to predict. Further north along the Pan-American highway, numerous islands and islets dot the sea near the coast. Most are home only to guano seabirds. From south to north, the most important islands include Tortuga Island (Turtle Island), La Viuda Island (The Widow Island), Isla Blanca (White Island) and Santa Island (Holy Island). The coastal region of Peru includes many peninsulas, creeks, warm bays and sand beaches, full of color. Because of the lack of roads and difficult terrain, many of these are inaccessible by land. The most important beaches include Grande Beach, La Gramita Beach and Las Salinas Beach. Much of this coast is a monotonous stretch of huge sand deserts, a common denominator in all Peruvian coastal regions because of the influence of the Humboldt Current. Along the rivers, there are green valleys, cultivated mainly with sugarcane, rice and cotton. From south to north, the main rivers of the Ancash coast are the following: Huarmey, Culebras, Casma, Sechín, Nepeña, Lacramarca and Santa. Of these rivers, the only one with water year-round is the Santa River. Its sources are the glaciers and lakes of the Cordillera Blanca. The other rivers, as with most rivers of the Peruvian coast, are intermittent, depending on the highland rains or the advance of El Niño.
