Word: andean
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When it comes to high-altitude living, says plump Dr. Carlos Monge, director of Peru's National Institute of Andean Biology, the Andean man is in a class by himself. Last week in Lima Dr. Monge told scientists from 18 countries about his continuing researches in a subject on which he ranks as one of the world's leading authorities (TIME, June...
After centuries of living 2½ miles or so above sea level, says Dr. Monge, the Andean native has become "a climato-physiological variety of the human race." To cope with the low oxygen supply in the air he breathes, the typical inhabitant of the high Central Andes (including parts of Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador) has developed a barrel chest with extra lung capacity. He carries about two quarts more blood than the coastal Peruvian, about half again as much hemoglobin (the blood's oxygen-carrying component). His heart rate is slow and steady. "An ideal heart...
Mighty in the Mountains. So adapted, Andean man can perform amazing quantities of work at altitudes where non-adapted lowlanders fall gasping and retching. The somber-eyed, long-exploited descendant of the Incas is in fact a sort of superman. "After eight hours' hard work in mines at more than 16,000 feet above sea level," says Dr. Monge, "his idea of relaxation is a soccer match in which he sometimes plays barefooted...
...worst earthquake in Ecuador's modern history* last week destroyed the garden city of Ambato (pop. 30,000) and left surrounding towns like Latacunga (pop. 20,000) mostly rubble. Estimates of the uncounted dead in the Andean valley ran into the thousands; in the town of Pelileo only 300 of 3,500 survived...
...Andean Cochabamba the government is building a cracking plant to process crude oil to be piped up from the Oriente. At Sucre it is planning a refinery. Last week it was negotiating a $16 million U.S. Export-Import Bank loan to complete a highway from Cochabamba to Santa Cruz...