Sierra de los Cuchumatanes

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Sierra de los Cuchumatanes
Highest peak La Torre ( 3837  m )
location Guatemala
Sierra de los Cuchumatanes (Guatemala)
Sierra de los Cuchumatanes
Coordinates 15 ° 25 ′  N , 91 ° 21 ′  W Coordinates: 15 ° 25 ′  N , 91 ° 21 ′  W
rock limestone

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The Sierra de los Cuchumatanes (also known as Cordillera de los Cuchumatanes or Los Cuchumatanes for short ) is a mountain range in northwestern Guatemala . In the language of Mam, Cuchumatan means something like "to unite with the higher power" ( cucuj matan ).

location

Central America as a mainland bridge between the North and South American continents is criss-crossed by high mountain ranges, so-called cordillera . The Sierra Madre, which comes from Mexico , stretches through Guatemala's southwest to El Salvador . Near the Mexican border, the approximately 400 km long Sierra de los Cuchumatanes branches off from its northern foothills, running in a west-east direction , to which the Verapaz Mountains ( Montañas de la Verapaz , Sierra ) join east of the Río Chixoy (Río Negro) de Chamá ). These continue north of Lake Izabal with the Sierra de Santa Cruz to almost Belize , south of the lake in the Sierra de las Minas and the Montañas del Mico to the Caribbean coast of Izabal . This cordillera system, which runs from the Cuchumatanes in the west to the Caribbean, is often seen as the second contiguous mountain range in Guatemala alongside the Sierra Madre.

The Cuchumatanes in the narrower sense are separated in the southwest and west by the Río Selegua from the Sierra Madre, in the south by the Río Negro. After the Chixoy reservoir north of Rabinal , the Río Negro flows as Río Chixoy in a northerly direction to Petén , separating the Cuchumatanes from the Verapaz mountains. The north of the Cuchumatanes gradually descends from the Montañas Culuxquén, the Montañas Tzucaná and the Cerro Bisís to the northern lowlands and is partly characterized by the tropical rainforest. The north-western part of the Cuchumatanes is in the Huehuetenango department , the slightly lower eastern part is in the El Quiché department .

The Cuchumatanes are a non-volcanic limestone mountain range , the interior of which is divided by several longitudinal and transverse fractures. Numerous marine fossils show that it was lifted from the sea millions of years ago. Apart from the volcanoes of the Sierra Madre ( Tajumulco ) the up to 3,837 m high mountains are the highest in Central America. About 1,500 km² are at an altitude of over 3,000 meters. The valleys and plateaus are often karstified and dry. The raw materials include gold , silver , lead and zinc . The mining, which was strongly accelerated in the colonial era, has almost come to a standstill today.

tourism

The starting point for trips to the Cuchumatanes is usually the city of Huehuetenango . From here the national road 9N leads via Chiantla to the Parque Nacional Los Cuchumatanes, which is almost 3,000 m high . The most famous attraction in this area is the remote village of Todos Santos Cuchumatán. A traditional horse race takes place here on All Saints' Day . The traditional way of life of the mountain population can be observed even better than in Todos Santos in places less visited by tourists such as San Juan Ixcoy, San Pedro Soloma or in the vicinity of Nebaj. The road south of the Cuchumatanes from Huehuetenango to Cobán leads through the towns of Aguacatán, Sacapulas, Cunén and Uspatán, which are all suitable as starting points for tours in the Cuchumatanes. The Interamericana , which runs from Huehuetenango through the Selegua Valley to La Mesilla (Mexican border), is known in this section for its extraordinary scenic charm.

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