Photos

This is a view of frailejones, typical plants of the cold region of the Andes, close to the Laguna de los Anteojos (glasses lagoon). When you're lucky, there are no clouds and you can see the Lagoon; other times, you barely see it through the clouds. This picture was taken after taking the cable car to the Pico Espejo (mirror peak), which is the longest and highest cable car of the world.

Scanned from picture.

The slopes were covered with tough grass and dotted with frailejones (the Espeletia plants), the characteristic plant of the paramos. The frailejon is a ground plant, a globular cluster of furry swordlike leaves about two feet in diameter - from a distance, the barren hills appear to be covered with tens of thousands of mint-green beach balls.

Of the 300 known species of frailejones, 45 are found in Venezuela.

Taken in part from an article published in the NY Times:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=travel&res=9403E0D91138F93BA15755C0A967948260