Cañón del Pato facts for kids

Cañón del Pato (which means "Duck Canyon" in Spanish) is an amazing natural place in north-central Peru. It's located on the Rio Santa (Santa River) at the northern end of a long valley called the Callejón de Huaylas.

This canyon has very steep and rocky walls. It's so rugged that it's hard for plants to grow there, and only a few spots are flat enough for animals to graze. The Cañón del Pato was formed by the Santa River. It's where two huge mountain ranges of the Andes meet: the Cordillera Negra (Black Mountain Range) to the west and the Cordillera Blanca (White Mountain Range) to the east. These two mountain chains run side-by-side for about 140 kilometers. The Callejón de Huaylas is the wide valley found between these two impressive cordilleras.

Exploring the Cañón del Pato Highway

A main highway runs through the Callejón de Huaylas. Before 1952, it was just a narrow dirt path. Building the highway through the Cañón del Pato was a big project. Construction started in 1952 from the town of Caraz, which is about 30 kilometers south of the canyon.

This highway goes right through the Cordillera Negra mountains. It eventually goes downhill towards the west, leading to the Pacific Ocean. It connects the valley to the port city of Chimbote and further north to Trujillo. This means people can travel by car from the Callejón de Huaylas to the coast. A trip from Caraz to the Cañón and back usually takes about four hours. The total distance from Caraz to Trujillo is 184 kilometers.

Driving Through the Mountains

From Caraz, the highway stays in the valley until it crosses a concrete bridge to the west side of the Santa River. Here, the road leaves the valley floor and starts climbing up the eastern side of the Cordillera Negra. It then goes through the mountain to its western side.

This part of the highway is unpaved, meaning it's a dirt road. It has 35 one-lane tunnels! After passing through these tunnels, the highway comes out high above the town of Huallanca on the western face of the Cordillera Negra.

The Santa River and Hydroelectric Power

The Santa River, which created the Cañón del Pato, flows northward through the canyon. Its powerful water is used to create electricity at a special plant in Huallanca.

Near tunnel 18 on the highway, the river's banks are very close together, sometimes as narrow as 6 meters apart. Above, the peaks of the two mountain ranges can reach as high as 6,000 meters above sea level!

Generating Electricity

A short distance north of this narrow part of the canyon, there's a dam that sends some of the river's water into a man-made tunnel. This tunnel is about 11 kilometers long and carries water from the dam down to the hydroelectric power plant in Huallanca. The tunnel was built wide enough for small dump trucks to drive inside during its construction.

At the end of the tunnel, the water drops about 100 meters into large machines called turbines. These turbines spin and create electricity. The power plant itself is hidden deep inside the mountain, about 100 meters inside the rock on the eastern edge of Huallanca.

From Huallanca, the Santa River continues to flow westward. Its water is used to irrigate large banana farms in the dry coastal plains. Just north of Chimbote, the river finally flows into the Pacific Ocean.

Past Transportation

There used to be a railway that connected Huallanca and Chimbote. However, a big earthquake in 1970 caused a lot of damage to the railway tracks. Because of this, the railway was abandoned and has not been used since.

See also

In Spanish: Cañón del Pato para niños