Andean

In this March 2, 2018 photo, an Andean man rests with his llama while tourists take in the natural wonder of Rainbow Mountain in Pitumarca, Peru.

In this photo, Andean farmers take part in a ceremony honoring Mother Earth and Father Snowy Mountain, in Pitumarca, Peru.

When flying, the Andean condor—a majestic bird—does not flap its wings, but soars gracefully.

Researchers have discovered that Andean condors can fly 172 km in 5 hours without flapping their wings.

How did the Andean Indians define wealth?

Paleozoic rocks make up the eastern part of the Andean Mountains in Peru, while the western range is formed of Mesozoic beds, volcanic ashes and lava of comparatively recent date.

Alpacas—large, wooly animals related to camels and llamas—are normally found in the Andean region of South America.

Under the later Inca professional farms, the whole of the realm from the coast to the upper Amazon River became a flowering centre of plant domestication. More than half of the foods that the world eats today were developed by these Andean farmers. More kinds of food and medicinal plants were systematically cultivated here than in any other area of the world. Among them are potatoes, squash, tomatoes, beans, peanuts, peppers, papaya, cashews, pineapples, chocolate, avocadoes, mulberries, strawberries.

As the world's drug habit shows, governments are failing in their quest to monitor every London window-box and Andean hillside for banned plants. But even that Sisyphean task looks easy next to the fight against synthetic drugs. No sooner has a drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one.

An imprisoned ex-president of Peru was released on humanitarian grounds on Dec. 6, stoking controversy in the Andean nation.