Frailejones

A couple of days ago I received a comment on this photo I took during my last trip to Venezuela. The photo was a landscape of the “Páramo Andino”, which is a unique ecosystem in the Andes, and the comment was to inform me about a project, called Projecto Páramo Andino, aiming to protect this very special environmental niche, home of endemic fauna and flora, and inhabited by people rich in history and tradition. If you can read spanish, go and visit that site, it is very interesting. They also have a blog that serves as a point of contact for international students interested to participate in the activities promoted by the center.

Today photo is a shot I took while driving on a small road in the venezuelan Páramo, almost at sunset. The bushes you see in the foreground and on the mountain crest are called frailejones, and are a species typical of this ecosystem, which I am particularly fond of. These mountains are very different from the other mountains I love, with their completely different vegetation and much dryer climate. But both are mountains, the high places I miss while in this New England flatland where the horizon dies in the next row of suburban houses. Fortunately there is the ocean, with its mysteries and timeless stories.

On a related news, the Guardian reports that the Venezuelan government has decided to distribute 1 million free copies of “Don Quixote” in occasion to the 400th anniversary of the book. Lines of people patiently waiting for their copy are reported all over Venezuela. Idealistic move? Yes, but I wish all governments were so idealistic, don’t you think? We don’t live of pollitos only...