Viva Venezuela – Anacondas and Rum!

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Internet access in Venezuela has been sparse but here we go with my latest blog update and as ever, if you just want to look at the pics, here are the links:

Part 1 - Angel Falls etc
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.10150225978870236.348656.691995235&l=3c05252651

Part 2 - Catatambo, Los Llanos
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.10150235473160236.361771.691995235&l=b536f99a11

Victoria, Iguazu, Niagara……the world’s greatest waterfalls and I’m lucky enough to have seen them all. Only one has eluded me…. Angel Falls - the waterfall with the longest sheer drop on the planet; at 979 metres, a ribbon of water cascading down a vertical rock escarpment, deep in the heart of Venezuelan jungle, accessible only by boat... It did not disappoint.

Packed and ready for 2 nights in hammocks in the exotically lush national park we were dropped at Ciudad Bolivar airport before boarding tiny 19 seater planes that rattled ferociously as we took to the skies and flew for 40 minutes into the midst of Guayana province to the indigenous village of Cainama – our base for the falls excursion.

Having bumped and wobbled our way down the tiny runway with my heart in my mouth (my Aeroflot aircrash c 1994 renders me a little uneasy when there is turbulence in a Boeing 747 let alone a mini plane that is more suitable for passengers of pygmy stature), we clambered into long motorised canoes for the 4 hour trip upstream through Cainama National Park. Although it is the dry season at the moment there has been unusually vast amounts of rain which bode well for the Falls and meant we could utilise the Churun river access all the way to camp. In the heart of the wet season, the waters are too turbulent for the canoes and in the midst of the dry season, there is substantial stopping and starting to carry them over the rocks. We were fortunate enough to have optimum conditions and the drivers negotiating the rapids demonstrated expert skill as the Grade 3 waters churned and flowed towards us. Sitting on wooden slats for the entire time meant that my derriere was utterly numb and my back in need of a session with an osteopath by the time we reached camp. However, the views of the majestic tepui – enormous table topped mountains which rise out of the ground and dominate the landscape – were breathtaking. These towering rock formations seemed the tropical equivalent of Monument Valley in the US – vast tree covered buttes rising from the valley floor.

Every bend in the river brought us closer to the Falls on the mountain of Auyantepui where the flume of water descending down into the Canon del Diablo is 16 times higher than Niagara. Angel Falls greeted us as the sun was setting and we swam in the river under its towering presence.

After a night in the Jungle, it was up at dawn to find the tepui and the view of the Falls shrouded in a veil of mist that clung to the forest. As the sun broke through, we got glimpses of the entire drop and it is one of the most spectacular settings ive ever seen. Civilisation is a distant memory and its just you , the jungle and this enormous behemoth of a mountain with a kilometre of water pouring down. A fairly strenuous hike took us up through the forest to the base of the falls where we swam and took it all in. The water plunges down….changing in character on its descent. From an apparently thin white ribbon to an ethereal spray to a thundering, foaming end. The rock formation behind the flume changes in colour acting almost like a picture frame for the cascade. It is stunning.

Later that afternoon we navigated the river downstream to return to Cainama and spent the following day exploring the lagoon and many smaller falls in the vicinity. The lagoon sits on a sandy palm fringed beach with gushing torrents of water pouring down from the upper rivers that feed it. Exploring the volcanically formed landscapes and walking behind the curtains of water was fabulous.

Leaving the National Park to head to Caracas involved another long drive day. Mango trees burdened by the weight of fruit hanging like large green testicles were everywhere and as we left the campsite they bumped across the top of the roof of the truck. A sound I shall take away with me! After a 10 hour drive day, we were back in a polluted, grey and utterly unbeguiling city which failed to excite me in anyway. After the beauty of the Falls, anything urban was quite jarring and with no museums of galleries open (and no inclination even if they were), I spent my day in Caracas enjoying my bed and air conditioning and catching up on the joys of handwashing.

After 44 days of travelling with Toucan we bade farewell to some members and welcomed some newbies who joined us for this second leg all the way through to Quito. Their introduction to the trip and Rosita the Truck was a baptism of fire with a 16 hour drive day to get us from Caracas to Merida – deep in the heart of the Venezuelan Andes. Painfully long and with landslides impeding the mountain roads we had a circuitous ride high up to the town and could only imagine the glacial sculpted mountains as the rain lashed the truck in the dark of a late night.

With a packed few days ahead we were met by Alan, our Guide for the trips to Catatumbo and then Los Llanos and the following day we set off for another big Venezuelan adventure.

First up was 2 days exploring the largest freshwater lake in the world – 13,000 sq kms of water, the Maracaibo Lake is home to a truly beautiful phenomenon – the Catatumbo lightning. This is the place on earth that receives the more lightning than anywhere else in the world. Sadly, it is not the best time of year to see these bolts…the season started merely a matter of days ago and although we did manage a few flashes which were amazing , it wasn’t what I had hoped we would witness so I defer to Alan’s website http://www.cocolight.com/english1.html for you to see the truly awesome phenomenon. When the storms are at their strongest, the lightning can strike up to 100 times per minute! Alan said that sometimes he has to put his sunglasses on as it gets too bright to look at the sky.

From the tiny village of Puerto Concha speedboats took us along the river where mangrove swamps lined the banks and we explored the tropical flooded forest of the lowlands. Howler monkeys and a plethora of birds accompanied us down to the Lake where the river opened up into a huge expanse of brown sediment rich water. So large and desolate it could have been an ocean ahead of us. More bumping on wooden slats in the boats as they sped across the wind whipped waters of the lake , great swathes coated in thick viscous duckweed and the occasional siting of a pink river dolphin, its tiny dorsal fin popping above the mocha coloured waters. What exhilarated me was the vastness of the sky and the beautiful cloud formations.

In the floating isolated village of Ologa, where rickety houses precariously balanced on stilts above the water line, Alan’s property sits in 3000sq kms of National Park – a simple structure; 1 room with bunkbeds and hammock hanging space outside on the veranda. The land has its own small palm covered beach and with the wind blowing the waters, it felt almost tidal and oceanic.

I think my expectations for the actual lightning phenomenon were unreasonably high so although we did see a couple of bolts, I wasn’t totally ‘stunned’ (bad joke sorry!) …however, the time here wasn’t just about the lightening. Just being on the water, visiting the bizarre floating villages of Olga and Conga was fascinating. It was a joy to head into the flooded forest and learn about butterflies Alan himself has identified…the radiantly blue morphos which flit in the early morning sunshine along the river channels. Brandishing a huge retractable butterfly net, he was able to catch them to show us their delicate beauty and shimmering azure hues. His enthusiasm was utterly infectious….i have never seen the Group get so excited about something collectively. I just adored the whole experience. The passion of a true enabler. The skies darkened late morning and we got soaked as a storm blew in across the Lake …pelting us with intensity. It continued for a while as we navigated the journey back across the lake to the mouth of the river but with ferocious sun, we dried out as fast as we had got wet.

I would like to have spent longer there and ideally id have liked there to have been far fewer people. There were just too many to have any peace and tranquillity there and for me, that is intrinsic to the whole experience.

I did manage to get that in Los Llanos though. A vast fenlike savannah, known as the mythological heart of Venezuela and compared with the African Serengeti or the Brazilian Pantanal this was two days of sheer bliss with the natural world. 300,000 sq kms of wetland ecosystems packed full of birds, reptiles and mammals…it was an orgy of nature and as my photos show, I was extremely shutter-happy It actually holds the world record for the highest number of bird species spotted in a day at 171 different types… we saw quite a few of them for sure. Scarlet ibis, kingfishers, cora coras, chakalakas, herons, burrowing owls, tanagers, cardinals, ospreys, eagles, hawks, finches, vermillion chested fly catchers – I think I am turning into twitcher! Although many in the Group were less than enamoured by Alan’s avian enthusiasm, I was entranced and just so taken with the silence of the place. Silent but yet a symphony of birdsong and cicadas and crickets and toads and throughout the warm winds blew across the land.

We came across giant anteaters, , white tailed dear, capybaras, , sinister caimen, water buffalo, turtles, iguanas and the piece de resistence the enormous anacondas of the waterbogged swamps…we saw them all.

The anaconda moment was something I will never forget…a creature of immense proportions and so powerful, as humans we are fairly insignificant next to its size and strength. Searching for them involved Alan either donning wellies or rolling his jeans up and wandering barefoot in the river hyacinth filled bogs feeling gingerly with a long stick for any potential anaconda presence. Looking for movement amidst the leaves, he found one almost immediately – a 3m angry male which he effortlessly picked up holding its head carefully so it didn’t bite. That for me would have been good enough but oh no, a moment later we heard a shout and another Mamma of a beast had been found lurking in the muddy waters. This huge creature weighed probably about 100kgs and it took 3 guys to get her out of the water and mud. She lay there, pure muscle sparkling in the sun, scales the size of large finger nails at about 5 metres long with a head larger than a big hand. I was keen to immerse myself in this fully so helped with the holding of her and in the process of taking her huge weight (it took 4 of us to hold her) unfortunately copped her taking a dump on my arm. Trust me, there is nothing pleasant about the acidic, feral stink of giant anaconda shit on your skin!

Alan’s knowledge and expertise was just mind boggling as well as his obvious love and care for the creatures. The man is a legend… known in the press as Venezuela’s Steve Irwin, he has worked with National Geographic, the Beeb and if any of you are thinking about taking a trip over here, you need to book with him. He has been to Los Llanos over 800 times but still conveyed such zeal for it all. I just wish Venezuela was not so far away as I could spend a lot more time here learning from this man. Unlike any guide I have ever had.

We explored the savannah in 4x4 jeeps stopping on the mud rutted roads every time a bird or animal was spotted, Alan would jump out of the car he was in and rush to the others to point out the siting. On our first night on the camp, the air was thick with insects - a once a year entomological phenomenon which was both revolting and fascinating at the same time. I have never seen so many bugs in one place…the space around the lights was heaving with flying creatures and they landed in every orifice and tickled like crazy. To endure it for any length of time would have been unbearable but it was a truly remarkable sight which had vanished the following evening.

Not only did we explore by jeep, some of us also rode whilst others went piranha fishing and on the second day there we navigated one of the rivers teeming with wildlife and birds. The waters heaving with giant red bellied piranha and the siting of river dolphins. The former we ate for lunch, the latter we didn’t!

Venezuela has amazed me. Warnings of it being a dangerous place meant we approached it ominously but it has been a delight. Undiscovered properly on the gringo trail and unexploited (well, apart from its oil reserves which bring in the petrol dollars), it will be interesting to see how it develops. It has so much going for it, not to mention some spectacular rum!

We did an 18hour stretch on Rosita yesterday and crossed the border into Columbia 10 minutes before my 36th birthday. Landslides and road closures and the ever present inefficient bureaucracy meant it was an arduous day but the time in Los Llanos has left me on such a high, it passed in a blur.

Onwards and upwards…Columbia is next.

Hannah x

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