Chachapoyas Province

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An air view of the Province of Chachapoyas, Peru.

Chachapoyas is a province of the Amazonas Region, Peru. The province of Chachapoyas was a part of the department of Trujillo (according to the supreme decree of February 12, 1821) being its capital the city of Chachapoyas.

After the department of Amazonas is created, by law of November 21, 1832, it became a province, and the city of Chachapoyas keeps on being the capital of the department. Its principal quarters are:

To the north: Luya Urco and Santo Domingo
To the south: Yanco and La Laguna.

The church of Chiliquín, Amazonas.

A big part of the province is constituted by soils of puna, located between 4,000 and 5,000 m. in the oriental districts of Chiliquín, Quinjalca and Granada.

Two principal rivers cover its territory: the Utcubamba, which runs from south to north and which right margin is dedicated to the agriculture in diverse form; and the Sonche, which runs from east to west and it is born from the meeting of several creeks that go down the heights of Molino Pampa district. This river flows into the Utcubamba along with the Huancachaca. It has a short trip, its beaches are narrow and its areas are unusable because its slopes are rocky and steep.

In Shihual, a Magdalena's district, there are a lot of calcareous caverns, which stalactites and stalagmites formations serve as habitat to diverse night birds.

La Jalca has the privilege of being the first Spanish city that has been founded in the region: in effect, captain Alonso de Alvarado, conqueror of the Amazonas, on September 5, 1538 founded there the first city of San Juan de la Frontera de los Chachapoyas, which then would be moved to the place that it occupies now.

The town of Magdalena celebrating its festivities.

For Peter Lerche, an anthropologist, in la Jalca there is the legitimate Andean pre-Hispanic indigenous Peruvian culture, with traditional towns like Conila, Levanto, Colcamar, Luya. Fruit of his investigations initiated in 1980, he has published "Chachapoyas, travelers' guide". In this book he proposes some tourist circuits. The first one of them, the shortest, can take in average 5 days, and the others, for more adventurous spirits, can take in average 15 days.

[edit] Political division

Chachapoyas is divided into twenty-one districts, which are:

DISTRICT	MAYOR
Asunción	GUILLERMO NUÑEZ MASLUCAN
Balsas	JOSE DEMETRIO BAZAN TUESTA
Chachapoyas
Cheto	ALBINO CULQUIMBOZ SANTILLAN
Chiliquín	LAZARO QUIROZ CHUQUI
Chuquibamba	LENIN PORTAL ZABALETA
Granada	ELIADES PILCO GUAYAMIZ
Huancas	EDUARDO FAUSTO DILAS CERNA
La Jalca	FEDERICO HUAMAN PUIQUIN
Leimebamba	NELSON ARTEMIO OYARCE ESCUADRA
Levanto	RODOLFO INGA HUAMAN
Magdalena	EUSTORJIO MESIA CRUZ
Mariscal Castilla	PEDRO TUESTA CULQUI
Molinopampa	NESTOR EDGAR SOPLA BACALLA
Montevideo	EMILFERO EPQUIN ROJAS
Olleros	NILCER VARGAS LAPIZ
Quinjalca	GERARDO GOMEZ TRIGOSO
San Francisco de Daguas	ALFREDO GOMEZ CHAVEZ
San Isidro de Maino	JOSE ANIBAL SANTILLAN VASQUEZ
Soloco	ERASMO CHUQUI ZUTA
Sonche	SEGUNDO MIGUEL GARCIA ALVARADO