Desolate Plains: High, arid steppes range from Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia through Peru up to Ecuador. On the southern plateau, called the puna, sand laden, stinking winds bend the sparse vegetation into strange forms, and nights are bitterly cold. Lizards, rodents, and birds equipped to retain body heat live among the thin vegetation under harsh conditions.

The Andean condor, the worlds largest bird, feeds on carrion. With it hugh wing span reaching up to 10 feet, it soars on mountain thermals and glides long distances. A relative of the falcon, the Audubon's caracara feeds on carrion. THe viscacha lives on the dry Andes plains. Puya plants, Peru. The tinamou of Argentina can barely fly. Visunas graze in front of El Misti Volcano Peru.

The Andean Rain forest: The  temperate forests and tropical rain forest near the equator have the most exotic plant and animal species in South America. The dimly lit streaming rain forest floor smells of decomposing vegetation. Liana vines grow up tree trunks that also support parasitic fungi, orchids, and air plants. Wildlife life in the jungles trees over 100 feet above the forest floor. Cries of animals and birds fill the forest. The howler monkeys call can be heard as far as three miles away. In southern Chilean forests, the huet huet bird has a song that sounds like its name. Few bees live in the forest, so the red flowers attract mostly hummingbirds.

More than three million species inhabit the rain forest, including marsupials, frogs, jaguars, parrots, and Chile's rarest mammal, the opossum.  Leaches can grow to two feet here. Chile also has a forest of araucaian pine, known as monkey puzzle trees. More than 70- insect species live in the trees.

A Living Desert: Many cacti live in the Atacama Desert, including the giant candelabra cactus of Peru. Strangely, in summer, far from any sign of water, thousands of honey scented Calandrina, malvilla, and yellow ananuca plants bloom briefly. The desert sands extends to the Pacific shoreline. The tropidurus lizard and oasis hummingbird hunt crustaceans and worms from weeds exposed by the receding surf. Mist created by winds blowing over the cold sea current shrouds the coastal desert. Sparse vegetation grows near heavy mist, but winds suck much of the moisture form the ground nd carry it over the ground and carry it over the peaks to fall on the other side.

Did you Know?: 
South America tribes make cigarette holders from the Andean Condor's bones; and they eat its eyeballs, believing it will improve their sight.
The solidified from of a lava from from an Andean volcano an reach 1,600 feet.
Off Cape Horn, giant kelp seaweed grows to 300 feet in water 150 feet deep.
South America has twice as many bat and rodent species as Africa and more freshwater fish species that any other continent.
The alerce tree in Chile Lives for more than 2,000 years.
The Peru Chile Trench, under the Pacific Ocean off the western South American coast, is, in some areas, as deep as the Andes are high.

Lands of Ice and Fire: The Andes mountains are full of contrasts: the northern climate is hot and humid, while winds in the southern ice areas reach 100 miles per hour. THe Andes have some of the most treacherous landscapes in the world. Ecuador, the land of volcanos, includes Mount Sangay, with its almost constant gush of lava, ash, and steam. Mount Cotopaxi's highest crater in encrusted with glaciers. When Cotopaxi erupted in 1877, molten lava melted the ice and caused 200 miles of flooding. The fjords and geyser fields of southern Chile and the glaciers of the Patagonian ice cap give way to the freezing, find lashed waste of Cape Horn and Tierra del Fuego (land of fire).

The Andes start in the Colombian cordilleras and end on the Paragonian ice cap. The Northern Andes are on the same altitude as West Africa, but the southern parts of the range extend almost to Antarctica.

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