Yungas in the context of Huayna Potosí

The Argentina–Bolivia border is the international boundary between Argentina and Bolivia. From west to east, the border goes from the Altiplano to extend to the Chaco flat through the tropical environment of the Yungas.

The Qulla (Quechuan for south, Hispanicized and mixed spellings: Colla, Kolla) are an Indigenous people of western Bolivia, northern Chile, and the western portions of Jujuy and Salta provinces in Argentina. The 2004 Complementary Indigenous Survey reported 53,019 Qulla households living in Argentina. They moved freely between the borders of Argentina and Bolivia. While mostly living in arid highlands, their easternmost lands are part of the yungas, an altitude forests at the edge of the Amazon rainforest.

The Bolivian Yungas is a tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion in the Yungas of central Bolivia.

The La Paz Department of Bolivia comprises 133,985 square kilometres (51,732 sq mi) with a 2024 census population of 3,022,566 inhabitants. It is situated at the western border of Bolivia, sharing Lake Titicaca with the neighboring Peru. It contains the Cordillera Real mountain range, which reaches altitudes of 6.6 kilometers (22,000 ft). Northeast of the Cordillera Real are the Yungas, the steep eastern slopes of the Andes Mountains that make the transition to the Amazon River basin to the northeast. The capital of the department is the city of La Paz and is the administrative city and seat of government/national capital of Bolivia.

Illimani (Aymara and Spanish pronunciation: [iʎiˈmani]) is a prominent fold mountain within the Cordillera Real of Bolivia, a subrange of the greater Andes, and located approximately 82 kilometres (51 mi) southeast of La Paz. With an elevation of 6,438 metres (21,120 ft) at its summit, it is the highest mountain in the Cordillera Real and the second-highest in Bolivia, surpassed by Nevado Sajama.

The mountain lies in the transitional zone between the high Altiplano plateau to the west and the deep valleys of the Yungas region to the east. Its snow-capped massif consists of four major peaks arranged on a north–south axis. Its composition is of made of metamorphic rock and intrusive granites. Its formation results from the ancient folding associated with the Andean orogeny, as with the majority of the neighboring mountains in the cordillera. The snow line lies at about 4,570 metres (15,000 ft) above sea level, and glaciers are found on the northern face at 4,982 metres (16,350 ft).

The Cordillera Oriental or Eastern Cordillera is a set of parallel mountain ranges of the Bolivian Andes, emplaced on the eastern and north eastern margin of the Andes. Large parts of Cordillera Oriental are forested and humid areas rich in agricultural and livestock products. Geologically, the Cordillera Oriental is formed by the Central Andean fold and thrust belt.

The Bolivian tin belt lies in the cordillera.

Tierra caliente is an informal term used in Latin America to refer to places with a distinctly tropical climate. These are usually regions from 0 to 3,000 feet above sea level.The Peruvian geographer Javier Pulgar Vidal used the altitude of 1,000 m as the border between the tropical rain forest and the subtropical cloud forest (Yunga fluvial).

Most tierra caliente regions are along coastal plains, but some interior basin regions also fit the label. Agriculture in those areas is dominated by tropical crops, such as bananas and sugar cane.