The weather in the Altiplano of Bolivia and Peru can be extreme and severe. Much of the Altiplano region experiences frequent freezing temperatures, often below -3 degrees C, but in the more southwestern region of Bolivia temperatures can be much warmer and drier.
The Andean Altiplano, South American plateau, Collao plateau, The Peruvian Altiplano or Titicaca plateau, is an extensive high-altitude plain or high plateau of South America located at an average altitude of 3800 MASL which covers part of the northwest of Argentina, the center-west and south-west of Bolivia, part of the north of Chile and part of the south of Peru.
It has historical importance for having been the place where various civilizations arose, such as the Tiahuanaco culture, and the domestication of plants such as the potato and animals such as the llama and the alpaca.
Due to its environmental and ecological characteristics, it is a unique natural region on the continent and due to its altitude it belongs to the so-called Puna region.
The Andes mountain range forms an imposing massif that rises next to the intermediate depression, in the form of a large inclined plane, reaching heights above 6000 meters above sea level of tectonic and volcanic origin.
The eroded materials of these mountain ranges and those expelled by the volcanoes filled the central depression, forming plains that gave these sectors the name of high plateau.
The highlands receive tropical rainfall and snow during the southern summer, between January and February; This climatic phenomenon is called «Bolivian winter». Both the aridity and the height limit and determine life: the flora and fauna, strong and specialized, survive the extreme conditions above 3600 m.
There is a great biological diversity whose most representative samples are protected in national parks and monuments. Thus, vast and colorful, dotted with lakes, swamps («bofedales»), salt flats and geysers; crowned by volcanoes of more than 6000 meters above sea level.