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
Patagonian Desert desert iguana, western ribbon snake, and various species of eagle and hawk are a few of the variety of animals living in the region. The flora of the region is quite common for its climate and includes several species of desert shrubs like "Acantholippia" and "Benthamiella" and tuft grasses like "Stipa" and "Poa". Aquatic grasses and larger flora exist on the outskirts of the desert and around the ephemeral lakes that form from the Andes' runoff. The desert has hosted various indigenous peoples in its past, as evidenced by cave paintings in the area. The earliest inhabitants of the desert