The Bolivian highlands (altiplano) lie between the eastern and western mountain ranges of the Andes; many valleys and profound ravines stretch down to the Amazon jungle toward the east, and to the desert coasts of the Pacific toward the west. Here, people domesticated the llama and alpaca; they followed them in their permanent search for renewed pastures to the highlands in the hot months and crossed the Andes to the valleys in other seasons. The fate of Andean peoples is inextricably bound up with that of the South American camelidae (alpacas, llamas, vicunas, and guanacos), which provide wool, leather, meat, bones, fat, and excrement for ...