The Andes rise as a great wall at tlie southern end of Lake Maracuibo and during tlie winter are often 

 wrapped in fog. The trails sidewind deep gorges, and houses are often perched on steep hillsides. In the lower 

 zone the climate is humid and the vegetation rank and tropical. Coflfee is grown on the steep mountain sides 

 under a cover of larger trees. The plantain — a coarse banana — is often cut green and toasted in thin slices 

 as a substitute for bread 



The principal plant of the paramo of the Andes — the land above timber line, beginning at ten thousand 

 feet elevation — is the Espeletia, with leaves heavily felted against the cold with down that resembles cotton 



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