Peru

Peru



Peru is a country in west central South America, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. The area of Peru, including several offshore islands, is 496,225 sq mi, making it third in size of South America countries. Lima is the Peru’s capital and chief commercial center. Peru can be divided into three main regions: the coastal plain, the sierra, and the Montana. The coastal plain is a dull, long stretch of land extending the entire length of the country. The plain has few ports. Most of the desert is so dry that only 10 of the 52 rivers to the Pacific Ocean have sufficient volume to reach the coast. The coast is the economic center of Peru. Most of the Nation’s leading commercial and export crops grow in the 40 fertile places of the region.The sierra is an upland region with towering mountain ranges of the Andes, lofty plateaus, and deep gorges and valleys. The sierra, which covers 30 percent of the country’s land area, goes back and forth from southeast and northwest. Several of the highest peaks in the world are located in the sierra notably Huascaran (6,768m), the highest in Peru. In the northeast the sierra slants down to a flat tropical jungle, extending to the Brazilian border and forming part of the Amazon Basin. Peru has three main drainage systems. One has about 50 powerful streams that rise in the sierra and flow to the coastal plain. The climate of Peru varies widely, ranging from tropical in the mountain to artic in the highest mountains of the Andes. In the coastal plain the temperature is normally calm, averaging about 20ºC throughout the year. The coastal climate has winds blowing from the cool offshore current known as the Peru. Rainfall is usually small, but some places heavy rains fall from October to April. Peru’s climate periodically experiences a weather pattern know as El Nino. El Nino occurs every three to seven years when unusually warm ocean conditions appear along the western coast. During El Nino the wet...