- The beautiful Apu Veronica, considered a female mountain lord by indigenous people in the Peruvian Andes
Many mountains in the Andes are considered male by the local people, but a few are female, like Nevado Veronica.
She rises wide and conical over the Urubamba Valley, like a big-hipped mama towering over her children.
In the photo above, she’s bathed in luscious drifts of snow that resemble swirls of soft-serve ice cream. I suspect the photo was taken a while ago or immediately after a heavy snowfall because Veronica has lost much of her snowcap in the last fifteen to twenty years, as a result of global warming. She’s mainly brown now.
Veronica is my favorite mountain in the Andes.
—Barbara R. Drake
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Alejandro // Sep 19, 2008 at 1:22 am
I love this mountain and her apu. It is not my favorite, which is Huaytapallana, but it’s up there. This is a lovely photo of Veronica, but as you mention, due to global warming, we may never see her the same way ever again. Thanks for another great post. (Enjoy your trip!)
2 Barb // Sep 22, 2008 at 11:36 am
Alejandro — Just checked out Huaytapallana at this link:
http://www.huaytapallana.com/
Your favorite apu is losing its ice cap, too, as the website’s front page describes. I will have to visit it (him?) before the ice disappears completely.
Just back from Ausangate — got a lot done there, met some amazingly resilient people, realized that I am a wimp when it comes to camping in sub-zero weather.
3 Veronica // Sep 29, 2009 at 4:12 pm
What a surprise when I was visiting the Andes and learned about this gorgeous mountain.
4 Barb // Sep 29, 2009 at 10:29 pm
And it has your name. I’d be honored to share the same name as this lovely mountain.
5 Jorge // Oct 14, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Bonita fotografia, tengo publicada una similar o identica en http://www.rockclimbing.com, que interesante.