On Friday, Jan. 24, we set out for Los Llanos. We were on a 4 day/3 night excursion operated by Expediciones Jaguar. Our guide was Carlos, our driver Daniel. Lois and Don were joined by a third paying client, Michael, from Denmark. The trip to our camp in Los Llanos took about 10 hours by Toyota Land Cruiser. The plan called for some interesting stops to break up the long, arduous journey. From Merida we climbed to the pass at Santo Domingo, over 4000 meters high. This took us through alpine terrain, called "paramo". The Frailejon is the characteristic plant of the paramo, unique to this part of the world. The first stop was in San Rafael, to visit the stone chapel and house/museum of Juan Felix Sanchez, a renowned artist, Renaissance man, and self-taught architect (he built the chapel from his own design, all by himself). Next we stopped at the pass, where we set out on foot for an hour and a half walk down (yes!) the trail to Lake Victoria. Shortly below the lake, we rejoined Daniel, who had driven the Land Cruiser from the pass to meet us. We followed the tortuous main road down the mountains from there into Barinas, on the edge of the plain.

01-CapillaPiedra.jpg	02-CapillaPiedra.jpg	03-SanchezHouse.jpg	04-Frailejon.jpg	05-CarlosMichaelDon.jpg
06-LagoVictoria.jpg	07-LoisCarlos.jpg	08-LagoVictoria.jpg

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