the santa river flows north through huaraz. it is not commercially navigable but has always furnished the city with good water. the river is a rocky-bottom narrow stream of glacier-fed cold water that flows generally west of center in the callejón, running north to the valley's north end. there it rushes downward through the narrow cañón del pato ("duck canyon"), turns westward at the town of huallanca, and continues to the coast where it enters the pacific ocean south of the city of chimbote. the santa river is the traditional west boundary of huaraz, although part of the city's population has lived on the west bank there for as long as two centuries.