Chachapoyas Province

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Chachapoyas

Coat of Arms

An air view of the Province of Chachapoyas
Country	Peru
Region	Amazonas
Founded	November 21, 1832
Capital	Chachapoyas
Area
Area Elevation (capital)	3,312.37 km² 2,335 metres (7,661 ft)
Population (as of the 2005 Census)
Population - Total - Density	49,573 15.0/km²
Mayor	Peter Thomas Lerche
Subdivisions	21 districts
UBIGEO	0101
Official website
munichachapoyas.gob.pe

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 was created, by law of November 21, 1832, it became a province of the Amazonas region, and the city of Chachapoyas remained a regional capital. 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	Helda Molinari Trauco
Balsas	Eugenio Eslivan Tirado Ortiz
Chachapoyas	Peter Thomas Lerche
Cheto	Elita Culquimboz Huaman
Chiliquín	Lazaro Quiroz Chuqui
Chuquibamba	Celso Leuman Portal Bustamante
Granada	Enoc Pilco Valle
Huancas	Asuncion Inga Cruz
La Jalca	Jose Tulio Culqui Velasquez
Leimebamba	Engels Escobedo Portal
Levanto	Rodolfo Inga Huaman
Magdalena	Diogenes Humberto Zavaleta Tenorio
Mariscal Castilla	Pedro Tuesta Culqui
Molinopampa	Zonia Maria Negron Tafur
Montevideo	Adalberto Rojas Gutierrez
Olleros	Nilcer Vargas Lapiz
Quinjalca	Braulio Baldemar Goñas Culqui
San Francisco de Daguas	Ludmilia Culquimboz Ruiz
San Isidro de Maino	Jose Anibal Santillan Vasquez
Soloco	Cenovio Loja Culqui
Sonche	Segundo Miguel Garcia Alvarado