EASTERN COLOMBIA CRIST AND GUTIL 393 



the steeper, less fertile sectors, until even the poor areas were taken 

 up. Then these people, face to face with hunger, were forced to 

 migrate or perish. The great estates absorbed very few of these 

 docile, submissive workers, and even those few at ridiculously low 

 wages. Many of these uprooted workers sought employment in the 

 mines or on the highways under construction in various parts of the 

 country ; still others were willing to venture into the virgin country 

 to the east and south of the great wall of the Cordillera; it is with 

 these latter that this paper will in large part be concerned. 



Over a period of many years field investigations have been carried 

 out in the transition zone between the Andes and the lowlands to 

 the south and east, in Venezuela, in Colombia, and in Bolivia. Some 

 of the results of these studies have been published in various journals. 4 

 It is proposed in this paper to make a preliminary survey of actual 

 settlement in the Republic of Colombia of the eastern slopes of the 

 Cordillera Oriental and the adjacent plains, or llanos. 



Although there are many passes across the Cordillera Oriental, 

 the observations on which this paper is based were made largely 

 along those highways that are the most significant, actually or po- 

 tentially, in giving access to the sectors of lowland eastern Colombia 

 tributary to the Orinoco and to the Amazon. Field studies were also 

 made along the mountain front itself, as well as on the great plains, 

 or llanos. The sectors served largely by the highways listed below 

 will be discussed : 



Bogota- Villavicencio. 



Nei va-Floren cia. 



Sogamoso — Agua Azul. 



Pamploma — Rio Frio. 



Pasto-Moeoa. 



THE BOGOTA-VILLAVICENCIO HIGHWAY 



CLIMATE 



Most readers are more vividly aware of climatic conditions if they 

 know some details about day-to-day temperatures, rainfall, humidity, 

 and winds than if they see "fossilized" weather on a climatic map. 

 Hence some introductory remarks are in order on the elements of 

 weather and climate of Villavicencio, a typical "gateway-to-the-llanos" 

 town. 



4 Crist, R. E., Along the Llanos-Andes border in Zamora, Venezuela, Geogr. 

 Rev., July 1932, pp. 411-422 ; A cultural traverse across the eastern and central 

 cordilleras of Colombia, Bull. Pan American Union, March 1942, pp. 132-144; 

 Bolivia — land of contrasts, Amer. Journ. Econ. and Sociol., vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 

 297-325, 1945; Along the Llanos-Andes border in Venezuela — then and now, 

 Geogr. Rev., April 1956, pp. 187-208. 



