Chingaza Natural National Park

Chingaza Natural National Park
IUCN Category II (National Park)
Location	Colombia
Coordinates	4°28′N 73°44′W / 4.467°N 73.733°W / 4.467; -73.733Coordinates: 4°28′N 73°44′W / 4.467°N 73.733°W / 4.467; -73.733
Area	76,600 hectares (189,000 acres)
Established	1977
Governing body	SINAP

Chingaza National Park is located in the Eastern Cordillera of the Andes, in the northeast of Bogota DC in the departments of Cundinamarca and Meta of Colombia.

It is with lonely landscapes and cloudy where you can see the iconic frailejones, which make a beautiful and unique set with arnica and mosses. Chingaza factory is a real water proof is Siecha gaps and Chingaza, glacial,^{[clarification needed]} and the fact that there exists great Chuza reservoir, which supplies water to the capital.

• Height: 800 to 4,020 m
• Weather: Warm-Temperate - Cold
• Temperature: 4 °C - 21.5 °C

Hydrography

99% of the park area is located in the Orinoco River basin in the upper basins of the Black and White, Guatiquía, Guacavía, Gazaunta, Gazamumo, Humea and Guavio rivers and 1% in the Magdalena River basin represented by the head of the San Lorenzo Creek in the town of La Calera River tributary and headwaters of the Teusacá and Siecha river in the Municipality of Guasca arriving in Bogotá, Tominé and Siecha rivers of Magdalena Basin (Magdalena Hoya).

Chingaza has about 40 natural glacial lakes. The largest lake is Lake Chingaza located southwest of the park at an altitude of 3250 meters. One of the most representative and most culturally significant to the area is Siecha gaps, which are a group of three lakes located in the municipality of Guasca. Chuza Reservoir is also located within the Park Chingaza in the basin of a tributary of the River Chuza Guatiquía, is the center Chingaza System of the Bogotá Water Company. Chingaza contributes 80% of high quality drinking water to the citizens.

Flora and fauna

In Chingaza are spectacled bear, deer, tapir moor, pumas, Andean condor, Cock-of-the-rock, jaguar, turkeys, woolly monkeys, nocturnal monkeys, ocelot, and toucan. The large number of endemic species makes the Eastern Cordillera one of the most important geographic regions for wildlife in Colombia.

In the vicinity of the lagoon Chingaza have been recorded less than 383 species of plants and it is estimated that the total flora of the Park can exceed 2,000 species. There are eight species of peat moss, which can absorb up to 40 times their weight of water. Importantly, endemic species, such as frailejones, which grow even within forests.

Communities present in the area

Indigenous

Although currently there are no indigenous groups within the territory of Chingaza is highly relevant if the meaning and the relationship for more than 10,000 years of civilization had to moor as muisca Chingaza especially linked to the appropriation of territory,^{[clarification needed]} in which ponds, rock shelters, the mountains and especially the water represented ceremonial centers and sacred places of worship and respect. Recent studies indicate that Chingaza Muisca language, could have been named Chim-wa-za, which means "God's Serrania de La Noche".

Peasants

The population around the park is from the country and is designed as a rural community, which means that society has its own forms of organization, dynamic relationship with each other and to the outside, and cultural patterns that distinguish them from the peasants other regions of the country.

External links

Media related to Chingaza Natural National Park at Wikimedia Commons