Hi Manolo,
Most of the good land (and most of the population) in the central Andes is between 10,000 and 50,000 ft (crudely, 3300 and 5000 m). Most of the modern, low elevation cities were founded by Spaniards, in part because they couldn't tolerate the high elevations, especially women trying to have children. At low elevations on the Pacific coast, there isn't a lot of water outside the tropics, so arable land and townsites are fairly limited.
That's why I was asking about high altitude smithing. It's one of those things no one talks about, and I don't know whether it's because it's a non-issue, or because so few blacksmiths work at high elevation that it's not really thought about. Otherwise, iron ore is fairly plentiful in the Andes, so raw material wasn't an issue.
F
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