Moquegua

Introducing Moquegua

This parched, dusty inland town survives in the driest part of the Peruvian coastal desert, soon to merge into northern Chile’s Atacama Desert – the driest in the world. The Río Moquegua delivers enough moisture to the surrounding rural areas to grow avocados and grapes (the latter often used to make Pisco Biondi, one of the nation’s top-shelf brandies), but as you walk away from the river it becomes hard to believe that any agriculture is possible here.

Moquegua means ‘quiet place’ in Quechua, and the region has long been culturally linked with the Andes. It has peaceful cobblestone streets, a shady central plaza with flower gardens and some unusual buildings that are roofed with a type of wattle-and-daub mixture mixed from sugar-cane thatch and clay. Sadly, many of these structures sustained significant damage during the 2001 earthquake, which hit Moquegua harder than any other settlement in the region.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009