370 



tup: national geographic magazine 



Photograph by Frank M. Chapman 



THE HEART OF THE CENTRAL ANDES: RIO 

 TOCHE, FROM THE PASS OF SAN JUAN 



The inn known as "El Pie de San Juan" (the 

 foot of San Juan) lies near the Toche River 

 where the trail of San Juan leaves the valley 

 on the steep ascent up which the mules are 

 struggling. 



base of the range. We now had some 

 conception of what Andean travel means 

 and, in consequence of recent rains, had 

 our first real experience with that pecu- 

 liar type of road developed by pack 

 animals. As a result of each beast's step- 

 ping in the tracks of its predecessor, wet 

 places become a succession of ditches of 

 varying depth and degrees of muddiness, 

 separated by ridges. A man can cross 

 such pieces of trail by stepping from 

 ridge to ridge, and here the silleros were 

 at an advantage. But horses, mules, or 

 oxen must step in each ditch and drag 

 their legs over the intervening ridge to 

 the next ditch. It is slow and painful 

 work for all concerned (see illustrations, 

 page 366). 



An hour above Salento we looked 

 down upon the picturesque Quindio Val- 

 ley, with its winding river and groves of 

 palms, and up to the snows of Santa 

 Isabel, a scene which strongly suggests 

 Church's "Heart of the Andes." 



The air soon became perceptibly cooler, 

 there was a marked change in the char- 

 acter of the vegetation, birds of species 

 we had never seen before became com- 

 mon, and at an elevation of about 9,500 

 feet we for the first time passed from the 

 Subtropical to the Temperate Zone. We 

 seemed suddenly to have entered a new 

 world and were quite unprepared for the 

 novelty of the experience. 



The stunted, close-limbed, small-leaved 

 forests of this zone extend to an eleva- 

 tion of about 12,000 feet, beyond which, 

 and up to the lower level of snow, lies the 

 bleak, open Paramo, constituting the 

 fourth zone of Andean life and having, 

 like those below it, a fauna of its own. 

 It is evident, then, that these snow- 

 capped mountains of the tropics have all 

 the faunal elements one would encounter 

 in traveling from the Equator to the 

 poles. 



To summarize : the Tropical Zone ex- 

 tends from sea-level to about 5,000 feet, 

 the Subtropical from 5,000 to 9,000 feet, 

 the Temperate from 9,000 to 12,000 feet, 

 and the Paramo, or Alpine, from 12,000 

 to 15,000 feet, or snow-line. 



Each zone has species of plants and 

 animals which are restricted to it. For 

 example, in that clearly defined stratum 

 of life lying on Colombian mountain- 

 sides, between 5,000 and 9,000 feet, we 

 found 230 species of birds which were not 

 observed elsewhere. To determine the ori- 

 gin of these highly specialized faunas is 

 the main object of our Andean researches. 



The Pass of the Quindio, lying not far 

 above the point at which we entered the 

 Temperate Zone, has an elevation of 

 11,200 feet, and the trail, therefore, does 

 not take us as high as the Paramo. We 

 passed the night at Volcancito skinning 

 birds collected on the way. It was too 

 cold to sleep. Here, if not before, the 

 traveler will discover why he has been 

 carrying two pairs of double blankets. 



The trail, following a route which ex- 

 isted long before Benalcazar crossed 

 these mountains to make his surprising 

 junction with Ouesada and Federmann 



