Venezuela: Chama River Dry Valley

The road from the lowlands of tropical lowlands of El Vigía up into the high-altitude Andean city of Mérida rapidly ascends via steep inclines and multiple tunnels. This route is one of Venezuela’s most dramatic mountain drives, rapidly transitioning from humid tropics to cloud forests to steep river gorges covered with all types of cacti. The massive columnar ones are Cardon Data and Cardon de Lana, while closer to the ground are various other succulents like Aloe Vera and Agave Cocuy (the latter is endemic to Venezuela and the source for the Cocui alcoholic spirit which is much akin to mezcal in taste and production methods.