Ciao Laura and hi everyone!
By now, I'm in Puerto Colombia, a nice small beach town 5h from Caracas. Apparently it's the only town in Venezuela not cooking Cachapas, my favourite food here so far. A very simple corn-pancake filled with melting cheese and not so melting ham. E non esistono altri ripieni, tonna.
Amanda, Sophie and I left our group, Rosita the truck, 5 days ago - a very smart decision. We've been enjoying every second so far. Travelling with Tucan had his advantages, for instance we had the chance to see Catatumbo and Los Llanos with Alan Highton, a fotographer with astonishing biological skills.
The lake Maracaibo is well known for its Cataumbo Lightning phenomenon. In the high season people have to wear sunglasses at night to protect themselves from up to 100 strikes a minute. Unfortunately mid april is far from high season, so we've seen just a couple of bolts. But we've been on the butterfly hunting boat with Alan, with his 7m long pole with the net to its end, swinging wildly around, directing the boats driver's full speed at the same time... at 9:00:00, if the sun is out, the female blue morphus - the queen - makes its rounds over a small channel. A chance he's not willing to miss. Alan discovered 4 new butterfly species and named them after his family.
Los Llanos is a savannah in the south of the country. Its wildlife is really impressive, hundreds of different bird types, anteaters, giant otters, anacondas, grey foxes, pirañas... all living as in a big family. A big family feeding on each other, but a big family nontheless.
But it doesn't matter how many hundreds of caimans or fleeing capibara herds you see: the really unique thing we saw, was a small bird trying to hop out of our cars way. The road was muddy and the weight of the vehicle dug small tire-crates in the dirt, squishing the rest of the mud aside forming a small wall. This small, white, funny fellow underestimated his jumping abilities and taking a leap - insted of flying - over one of those small walls, tripped tragically and fell straight as a log, with his beak ahead, into the mud pool on the other side. Acting as if nothing had happened the now brownish bird tried to hide his epic fail into a nonchalant hopping along. Didn't work.
Right before Los Llanos we passed through Caracas, probably the most dangerous city in the world. As we tried to leave the hotel after 8 p.m. the clerk first tried to persuade us not to. As we still wanted to go, he said it was forbidden. Since we tried to leave anyway he stood in our way and said: you're not going out. Go back, it's too dangerous when it's dark. Daytime is a lot better: you ask locals for directions and they tell you: "go that way around, you'll walk the double but the road is a little safer." Why don't they say SAFE?? Pretty preoccupying.. Back at home I'm used to help tourists by saying - go that way it's faster, easier to find, come with me... in Caracas it's: I'd like to show you where, but from now you're on your own...
The Angel Falls were our first highlight in beautiful Venezuela. The trip to the world's highest waterfalls was a delight. First a 19 person plane, then on small motorboats 3h on a river through a huge canyon. The slept a night in hammocks at the feet of the falls. The next day we walkedour way up to the bottom of Angel Falls and since it was dry season we were lucky enough to take a swim in the natural pool right below it. Only a couple of us managed to take a shower underneath the water, the current to get there was too strong and the weight of the water on my head nearly shaved me bald.
I'm really looking forward coming home now. There's a challenging bus ride back to Maracay, Death Road II - but I already found a girl leading me to her father's Cachapa place at the bus terminal as soon as I get there.
See you soon, love
Meo