Caguas Valley (
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
: ''Valle de Caguas''), or the Caguas-Juncos Valley
and popularly referred to as the
Turabo Valley (Spanish: ''Valle del Turabo''), is a large valley lying between the
Central Mountain Range
The Central Mountain Range is the principal mountain range on the island of Taiwan. It runs from the north of the island to the south. Due to this separation, connecting between the west and east is not very convenient. The tallest peak of th ...
and the
Sierra de Luquillo
The Sierra de Luquillo is a mountain range located in the northeastern part of Puerto Rico. Also known as the Luquillo Mountains, these are steep-sided, densely-forested mountains rising to elevations of around , the highest point being the summit ...
in the eastern part of
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...
, immediately south of
San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to:
Places Argentina
* San Juan Province, Argentina
* San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province
* San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province
* San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...
.
Geography
![2021riogurabo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/2021riogurabo.jpg)
In a clockwise direction, the valley is bound by the ''Altos de La Mesa'' and ''
Altos de San Luis
Altos de San Luis, also known as Monte Altos de San Luis (Spanish for '' San Luis heights''), is an 886 feet (270 m) high and two-mile-long prominent mountain ridge located on the northern edge of the Caguas Valley, in ''barrio'' (district) Bair ...
'' mountain ridges to the north, the
Sierra de Luquillo
The Sierra de Luquillo is a mountain range located in the northeastern part of Puerto Rico. Also known as the Luquillo Mountains, these are steep-sided, densely-forested mountains rising to elevations of around , the highest point being the summit ...
in the northeast, the
San Lorenzo Batholith in the east and southeast, the
Sierra de Cayey
Sierra de Cayey is a mountain range in the main island of Puerto Rico. It is located in the southeast section of the island. Its elevations do not exceed 1000 m (3,280 ft.).
The Grande de Loíza, which is one of the most important rivers in Puer ...
in the south, and the foothills of the ''
Cordillera Central'' in the west.
This valley is fed mainly by the
Grande de Loíza River, the largest hydrological basin in Puerto Rico, and numerous tributaries such as the
Cagüitas, along which the contemporary settlement of
Caguas
Caguas (, ) is a city and municipality of Puerto Rico located in the Central Mountain Range of Puerto Rico, south of San Juan and Trujillo Alto, west of Gurabo and San Lorenzo, and east of Aguas Buenas, Cidra, and Cayey. Caguas was founded ...
was built. The name Valle del Turabo ("Turabo Valley") comes from the
Turabo River
The Turabo River ( es, Río Turabo ) is a river of Caguas, Puerto Rico.
See also
*List of rivers of Puerto Rico
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List Colle ...
, which is another tributary that flows from the south. The
Gurabo River
The Gurabo River ( es, Río Gurabo) is a river and tributary of the Loíza River in Puerto Rico. In 2018, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced work would be done on the river, which runs through several municipalities including Gurabo, Jun ...
, another major tributary, feeds into the
Grande de Loíza at a region where the valley narrows into a
rift valley
A rift valley is a linear shaped lowland between several highlands or mountain ranges created by the action of a geologic rift. Rifts are formed as a result of the pulling apart of the lithosphere due to extensional tectonics. The linear dep ...
, often called the
Gurabo Valley, that runs from west to east and ends in
Las Piedras and
Humacao
Humacao () is a city and municipality in Puerto Rico located in the eastern coast of the island, north of Yabucoa; south of Naguabo; east of Las Piedras; and west of Vieques Passage. Humacao is spread over 12 barrios and Humacao Pueblo (the ...
in the southeastern coast of the island.
Geology
The Caguas Valley, from
Caguas
Caguas (, ) is a city and municipality of Puerto Rico located in the Central Mountain Range of Puerto Rico, south of San Juan and Trujillo Alto, west of Gurabo and San Lorenzo, and east of Aguas Buenas, Cidra, and Cayey. Caguas was founded ...
to
Juncos, is formed by
Holocene
The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togethe ...
alluvial deposits
Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...
that lay on top of hardened rock of
volcanic
A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface.
On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...
origin,
lava
Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or un ...
, and
intrusive and
metamorphic rocks
Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock (protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, causin ...
that date from the
Late Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the ...
to the
Tertiary
Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago.
The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...
period. There are also small deposits of limestone. Except for the alluvium zone, the rocks in the basin do not generate large
aquifers
An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing, permeable rock, rock fractures, or unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Groundwater from aquifers can be extracted using a water well. Aquifers vary greatly in their characterist ...
due to their low
permeability. The alluvium in the valley includes non-uniform mixtures of
sand
Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of s ...
,
gravel
Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone.
Gravel is classifi ...
,
silt
Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...
and
mud
A MUD (; originally multi-user dungeon, with later variants multi-user dimension and multi-user domain) is a Multiplayer video game, multiplayer Time-keeping systems in games#Real-time, real-time virtual world, usually Text-based game, text-bas ...
, varying in thickness from 0 feet in with consolidated rocks to 160 feet in Caguas and Gurabo. In the area towards Gurabo and Juncos the alluvium contains more sand and gravel than in the area of Caguas; these alluvial deposits form the main aquifer in the area. The flows of the
Loíza River and its tributaries, mainly the Gurabo River, have eroded most alluvial deposits within the fluvial flood zones.
Climate
The climate of the Caguas-Juncos Valley is rainy, with areas receiving up to 100 inches of precipitation annually. Rain varies throughout the year with the dry period lasting from January to April, the rainiest period being from May to June, the driest period from July to August, and the period of heavy rains lasting until the end of the year.
''La India Dormida''
![Caguas view from San Luis Alto](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/Caguas_view_from_San_Luis_Alto.jpg)
''La India Dormida'' (Spanish for "the sleeping
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
oman
Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of t ...
) is a famous geographical landmark for locals in the Valley of Caguas. Although often called a mountain, this is actually a group of mountains that through
forced perspective
Forced perspective is a technique that employs optical illusion to make an object appear farther away, closer, larger or smaller than it actually is. It manipulates human visual perception through the use of scaled objects and the correlation ...
(when seen from the north) form the shape of a sleeping woman. According to legend, the
Taíno
The Taíno were a historic Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, indigenous people of the Caribbean whose culture has been continued today by Taíno descendant communities and Taíno revivalist communities. At the time of European contact in the ...
cacique
Caguax
Caguax was a Taíno cacique who lived on the island of Borikén (Taíno name for Puerto Rico) before and during the Spanish colonization of the Americas. His yucayeque or Taino village's name was Turabo, it included the lands in the Caguas Valley ...
had a niece called ''Taina'' (or ''Tayana'') who sacrificed herself and was turned into the mountain during the Spanish conquest of ''
Borinquen
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...
'' (or ''Boriken'', the native name for Puerto Rico). The best way to observe this optical illusion is from Altos de San Luis, Altos de La Mesa and on expressway
PR-52
Puerto Rico Highway 52 (PR-52), a major toll road in Puerto Rico, is also known as ''Autopista Luis A. Ferré''. It was formerly called ''Expreso Las Américas''. It runs from PR-1 in southwest Río Piedras and heads south until it intersects wit ...
and highway
PR-1
Puerto Rico Highway 1 (PR-1) is a highway in Puerto Rico that connects the city of Ponce to San Juan. Leaving Ponce, the road heads east and follows a somewhat parallel route along the southern coast of the island heading towards Salinas. At S ...
when driving from north to south through the valley.
Settlements and ''barrios''
Caguas
*
Bairoa
*
Caguas (Pueblo)
*
Tomás de Castro
*
Turabo
Gurabo
*
Celada
*
Gurabo (Pueblo)
*
Hato Nuevo
*
Navarro
*
Rincón
Juncos
*
Gurabo Abajo
See also
*
Caguas
Caguas (, ) is a city and municipality of Puerto Rico located in the Central Mountain Range of Puerto Rico, south of San Juan and Trujillo Alto, west of Gurabo and San Lorenzo, and east of Aguas Buenas, Cidra, and Cayey. Caguas was founded ...
*
Geography of Puerto Rico
References
{{Reflist
Geography of Puerto Rico
Caguas, Puerto Rico
Gurabo, Puerto Rico
Juncos, Puerto Rico