In northern
Peru, there are a wide variety of environments formed by the Andean Cordillera
and the rivers that dissect them. In western Cajamarca, the deep valley
cut by the north flowing Río Marañón produces an Inter-Andean formation
between the high-elevation "jalca" of the central Cordillera and the eastern
escarpment [6°30'-9°00'S latitude]. Environments change rapidly as you
decend from nearly 4500 m to 800 m and then ascend again to equal heights,
and all over a very short lateral distance. At the bottom of the valley
exists a unique desert formation that includes columnar cacti and thorny
shrubs, many of which are only found in the Río Marañón valley.
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