Phot-o' the Day: Wax Palms in the Valle de Cocora, outside Salento, Colombia

Wax palms are the Burj Khalifa of the palm tree world.* They are the tallest of the palm trees, which means they are very tall indeed. They are able to survive strong winds because of their slender shape. The place to see wax palms is the Valle de Cocora Nature Preserve in Quindio province, near Salento, in Central Colombia. This is the western slope of the Central Cordillera that runs through the middle of Colombia.

(Geology lesson o' the day. In southern Colombia, the Andes mountains split into three ranges, or cordilleras, as the mountains move northward to where the South American tectonic plate bangs up against the Caribbean. Or, if you prefer, the three mountain ranges that run like spines, north-south, through Colombia merge to form the single mountain range we know as the Andes, continuing all the way down to the very southern tip of the South American continent.)

Visited September 2012.
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 *  I have never been to Dubai. I have never seen the Burj Khalifa. I hear that it is tall. Hence the analogy.