Andes

The Andes from the longest and one of the highest mountain ranges in the world. Only the Himalayas in south central Asia are taller and more rugged. The Andes Cordillera along the west coast of South America, From the Caribbean Sea in the north to Tierra del Fuego, an Archipelago at the southern tip of South America. The Andes are in every South American Republic except Barzil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Guyana.
Within the Andean regions are many different kind of life and lands. There are great modern cities and small Indian villages where people live much as they did centuries ago.

There are dense forest and barren plains, fertile farmland, and stony soil where little grows. About a third of all the people in South Aemerica live in the Andean regions. Most of them in crowded cities and towns. For South American capitals lie high in the Andes-Caracas, Venezuela; Bogota, Colombia; Quito, Ecuador; and La Paz, Bolivia.
Many peaks in Andes are over 20,000 feat high-taller than any peaks in North America. Aconcagua (22,835 ft), in Argentina, is the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere. Many of the Andean Mountains are volcanic. Some are inactive, although a number of them still erupt from time to time and cause great damage.

The northern Andes lie in Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador. Much of South America’s fine coffee is grown on the lower slopes of the northern Andes.
The central Andes are in Bolivia, Peru, northern Chile, and northern Argentina. The mountain in some part of central Andes are extremely high and wide, making transportation difficult. For example, to reach La Paz, Bolivia, the railroad must cross the mountain at an elevation of nearly 14,000 feet.
The southern Andes, at the tip of the continent in Argentina and Chile, are the lowest range. This is sparsely populated area.

Many of the people of who live in the Andes of Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador are the descendants of the ancient Incas and other Indians who inhabited the area before the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. Many of these people still speak an Indian tongue, such as Quechua. The Spanish languange is unknown to them.

The Andes act as a great barrier to transportation and communication. From the Caribbean Sea to the Strait of Magellan there are few passes through the mountains. Deep gaorges, step slopers, and towering heights make roads and railroads difficult and costly to build. Within recent years, however, the airplane and some modern highway have opened up areas that were previously cut off from the outside world.

Two major river system of south America the Amazon and the Arinoco begin in the Andes, High in the mountains beetwen Bolivia and Peru is Lake Titicaca. It is the largest lake in South America and the highest large lake in the world.

The climate in the Andes change with the elevation above sea level. At the lowest elevation, below 3,000 feet, the climate is tropical. Here are dense green jungles and rivers filled with crocodiles. This is called the tierra caliente, or “hot land”.
The climate is cooler from 3,000 feed to 7,000 feed. At 7,000 feet the cold land, or tierra fria, begins. Evergreen trees and wheat grow well at this elevation.

Between 10,000 feet and 13,000 feet is the puna. Only potatoes and barley and a few other hardly crops will grow on these high mountainsides. The top level, between the puna and the snowfields, is called paramo. Nothing grows here except mosses and lichens.

The mines of the Andean regions provide the world with many important minerals. Among them are cooper, tine, and proteleum. Gold and silver re mined is smaller amounts. The supply of coal is limited in most areas.

Many interesting animals live in the Andes. There are llamas, guanacos, alpacas, and vicunas – all members of the camel family. The chincilla is highly prized for its valuable fur. There is the fierce cougar, or mountain lion, and the small deer, or guemal. Tiny humming birds, brilliantly colored, dart about in the Andean forests. Soaring high above the towering, snowcapped Andes are the huge condors, the largest of the vultures. They are also the World’s largest flying birds.