Monte Desert Monte Desert The Monte Desert is a South American ecoregion, lying entirely within Argentina and covering approximately the submontane areas of Catamarca, La Rioja, San Juan, San Luis and Mendoza Provinces, plus the western half of La Pampa Province and the extreme north of Río Negro Province. The desert lies southeast of the Atacama Desert in Chile, north of the larger Patagonian Desert, east of the Andes and west of the Sierra de Córdoba. The delineations between the Monte Desert, the Atacama Desert, and the Patagonian Desert are not exact and the desert seems to be more-or-less continuous with the
Catamarca Province low humidity and high solar radiation. Before the arrival of the Spanish conquest, most of today's Catamarca was inhabited by the Diaguitas indigenous people, including the fierce Calchaquí tribe. In 1558 Juan Pérez de Zurita founded "San Juan de la Ribera de Londres", but since it was constantly under attack by indigenous people its population remained small; it was re-founded several times at new sites with new names. The sixth foundation was by Fernando de Mendoza Mate de Luna on July 5, 1683, with the name "San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca". When the Viceroyalty of the Río de la