Chingaza National Natural Park ( es, Parque Nacional Natural (PNN) Chingaza) is located in the

Eastern Ranges The Eastern Ranges is an Australian rules football team in the NAB League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition. The club is a founding member of the competition (1992) and has produced several players for the Australian Football Leag ...

of the Colombian Andes, northeast of

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the ...

in the departments of Cundinamarca and

Meta Meta (from the Greek μετά, '' meta'', meaning "after" or "beyond") is a prefix meaning "more comprehensive" or "transcending". In modern nomenclature, ''meta''- can also serve as a prefix meaning self-referential, as a field of study or end ...

. The elevation in the park, to the east of the

Altiplano Cundiboyacense The Altiplano Cundiboyacense () is a high plateau located in the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes covering parts of the departments of Cundinamarca and Boyacá. The altiplano corresponds to the ancient territory of the Muisca. The Alt ...

, ranges from to , and the temperature ranges from .Website Chingaza Natural National Park
- accessed 06-05-2016 The park extends over the Cundinamarca municipalities La Calera, Fómeque,

Guasca Guasca is a Colombian town and municipality in the Guavio Province, part of the Cundinamarca Department located approximately 55 km from Bogotá passing through the town of La Calera, Cundinamarca or 65 km passing through Sopó. Guasca ...

and San Juanito (

Etymology

The name Chingaza comes from

Chibcha The Muisca (also called Chibcha) are an indigenous people and culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia, that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish conquest. The people spoke Muysccubun, a language of the Chibchan lan ...

and means "middle of the width".

Hydrography

99% of the park area is located in the

Orinoco River The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3 percent of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia. It is the fourth largest river in the wor ...

basin in the upper basins of the Black and White, Guatiquía, Guacavía, Gazaunta, Gazamumo, Humea and Guavio rivers. 1% of its area is in the

Magdalena River The Magdalena River ( es, Río Magdalena, ; less commonly ) is the main river of Colombia, flowing northward about through the western half of the country. It takes its name from the biblical figure Mary Magdalene. It is navigable through much of ...

basin, where the San Lorenzo Creek, La Calera River tributary, and Teusacá, Siecha,

, and Tominé rivers drain. Chingaza has about 40 natural

glacial lake A glacial lake is a body of water with origins from glacier activity. They are formed when a glacier erodes the land and then melts, filling the depression created by the glacier. Formation Near the end of the last glacial period, roughly 10, ...

s. The largest lake is Lake Chingaza, located in the southwestern part of the park at an altitude of . One of the most representative and culturally significant bodies of water are the

Siecha Lakes The Siecha Lakes are three glacial lakes located in the Chingaza Natural National Park in Cundinamarca, Colombia. The Andean lakes are considered sacred in the religion of the Muisca who inhabited the area before the Spanish conquest of the Mu ...

, a group of three lakes in the municipality of

. Chuza Reservoir is also located within the Chingaza Park in the basin of a tributary of the River Chuza Guatiquía. This reservoir is the center of the Bogotá Water Company's Chingaza System. Chingaza contributes 80% of the city's high quality drinking water.Chingaza Natural National Park
- GuiaTodo - accessed 06-05-2016

Viewing and wildlife

The animals found in Chingaza include the spectacled bear, deer, tapirs, pumas,

Andean condor The Andean condor (''Vultur gryphus'') is a giant South American Cathartid vulture and is the only member of the genus ''Vultur''. Found in the Andes mountains and adjacent Pacific coasts of western South America, the Andean condor is the larg ...

Cock-of-the-rock The cocks-of-the-rock, which compose the genus ''Rupicola'', are large cotingid birds native to South America. The first alleged examples of this species were documented during a research expedition led by the explorer and biologist Sir Joshua W ...

s, jaguars, turkeys, woolly monkeys, nocturnal monkeys,

ocelot The ocelot (''Leopardus pardalis'') is a medium-sized spotted wild cat that reaches at the shoulders and weighs between on average. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. Two subspecies are recognized. It is native to the southwe ...

s, and

toucan Toucans (, ) are members of the Neotropical near passerine bird family Ramphastidae. The Ramphastidae are most closely related to the American barbets. They are brightly marked and have large, often colorful bills. The family includes five g ...

s. The large number of endemic species makes the Eastern Ranges one of the most important geographic regions for wildlife in Colombia. In the vicinity of the Chingaza lake, less than 383 species of plants have been recorded. It is estimated that the total flora of the park may exceed 2,000 species. There are eight species of

peat moss ''Sphagnum'' is a genus of approximately 380 accepted species of mosses, commonly known as sphagnum moss, peat moss, also bog moss and quacker moss (although that term is also sometimes used for peat). Accumulations of ''Sphagnum'' can store wa ...

, which can absorb up to 40 times their weight in water. There are also endemic species, such as frailejones, that grow on the

páramo Páramo () can refer to a variety of alpine tundra ecosystems located in the Andes Mountain Range, South America. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as "all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline". A narrowe ...

and even within forests.

Communities present in the area

Indigenous

There are currently no indigenous groups within the territory of Chingaza. However, the area has historical importance, with over 10,000 years of

Muisca The Muisca (also called Chibcha) are an indigenous people and culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia, that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish conquest. The people spoke Muysccubun, a language of the Chibchan langu ...

and pre-Muisca inhabitation in the region. Ponds, rock shelters, the mountains and especially the

were sacred places of worship and respect, forming ceremonial centers. Recent studies indicate that Chingaza in the

Chibcha language Chibcha, Mosca, Muisca, Muysca (*/ˈmɨska/), or Muysca de Bogotá, was a language spoken by the Muisca people of the Muisca Confederation, one of the many indigenous cultures of the Americas. The Muisca inhabited the Altiplano Cundiboyace ...

of the Muisca could have been called ''Chim-wa-za'', which means "God's Night Mountains".PNN Chingaza
/ref>

Smallholder Farmers

The population around the park forms a rural community with its own forms of organization, dynamic internal and external relationships, and cultural patterns that distinguish it from

smallholder A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technology ...

farmer communities in other regions.

Named after Chingaza

* '' Araneus chingaza'', a species of spider described in the Chingaza Natural National Park * '' Ischnura chingaza'', a species of dragonfly, idem * '' Polylobus chingaza'', a species of beetle, idem *''Epidendrum chingazaënse'' Hágsater, E.Santiago & C.Uribe-Vélez '','' a species of orchid.

Gallery

File:Parque Chingaza.jpg, Clouds over Chingaza National Park File:Lagunas de Siecha.jpg, Siecha Lakes File:Chingaza por RMS.jpg, Lake in the southern part of the park File:Senecio formosoides (10).jpg, '' Senecio formosoides''

References

External links

* 2008
Ramsar site: Chingaza

Official site in English
{{Authority control Páramos National parks of Colombia Ramsar sites in Colombia Geography of Cundinamarca Department Tourist attractions in Cundinamarca Department Geography of Meta Department

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

Protected areas established in 1977 Muysccubun