What does «Los Andes» mean in Spanish?
- They begin in the Darien mountain range and end in Tierra de Fuego, with a longitudinal development of more than 7300 km and a surface area of more than 1800,000 km2. Their essential characteristics are: disproportionate extension in the sense of the meridians; relatively scarce width; division in parallel chains, that when joining from time to time form the so called "knots"; presence of high plateaus, that attract the population, and deep valleys through where the rivers flow until they find passage towards one of the oceans; abrupt slope towards the west; unequal distribution of water, since they determine very dissymmetrical slopes; scarce passes, and these at such a great altitude that communications between both slopes are very difficult; extraordinary richness in precious and useful minerals; profusion of volcanic cones of enormous altitude, some extinct and others in activity. The valleys of the Atrato and San Juan, Cauca and Magdalena divide the Colombian Andes into four parallel mountain ranges, of which the three main ones join to the south at the Cerro de Pasto, just before entering Ecuador. The coastal mountain range, or Chocó, separates the Atrato and San Juan valleys from the Pacific; its altitude is not great, it determines a rugged coastline and presents difficult passes to the interior. The Western Cordillera, between the Atrato and the Cauca, presents the high summit of the Nevado de Huila. The Central or Real is the highest and is separated from the previous one by the plateau of Antioquia to the N and the Cauca valley to the S; its highest point is the Tolima, at more than 6000 m. The Oriental or Suma Paz, separated from the Central by the Santander and Cundinamarca plateau and the Magdalena valley, presents the Sierra Nevada de Cocui (5300 m); to the E it descends, more gently, over the virgin forests of the Orinoco and the Amazon. This Andean branch extends to the north through the Pamplona and Perijá mountain ranges and ends in the Goajira peninsula. Next to the Caribbean coast, and with spills to the S that fall on the Magdalena plain and Lake Zapatosa, rises the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, with perpetual snow. A spur of the Oriental mountain range of Colombia penetrates towards the N in Venezuela, with the name of Mérida mountain range, that with that of Perijá closes the depression of the lagoon of Maracaibo. To the north of Venezuela, the Caribbean mountain range extends, very close to the sea, from Barquisimeto to the peninsula of Paria.