Peru Machu Picchu (photo)

Local people at Peruvian altiplano landscape seen from inside the Andean Explorer train Orient Express which runs between Cuzco and Puno. Altiplano is a high plateau that towers over the southern Andes, the longest mountain range in the world. It is a sediment filled depression between the eastern and the western chains of the Andes. This in filling occurred millions of years ago as an ancient seabed was pushed up when the modern peaks were elevated. Erosional deposition continues till this day from peaks that are more than 20,000 feet high. The region is divided into two: the cooler, drier puna in the south and in the north the wetter jalca. Plants and animals living here are quite distinct, although frost and wind resistance are key survival characteristics for plants in both areas. The Altiplano also contains the ancestors of the modern potato and tomato, as well as other crops which are locally important.