Time to spill the beans on where we are going - Catatumbo on Lake Maracaibo. This will probally not mean much to most people and it didn't to me either until recently. If you type Catatumbo into google you will probally see references to lightening, remote stilted villages and wildlife. In fact further digging indicates that this area has the most intensive lightening in the world, up to 20,000 bolts of lightening per night during the wet season. It is a phenominar still without scientific explanation.

The guide book says Catatumbo is a remote area that is used as a smuggling route between Columbia and Venezuela. To go here independantly it advises that you hire personal security. The easier option however was to go with a 'tour' from Merida. There was two tour groups that we could choose from. One was run by the pasada that we were staying in and the other was with Coco light or to be more accurate a guy called Alan.

Alan was the easy choice and the BBC agreed as they chose him recently to help make a documentary on this area. Alan said it was called "Brian Cox wonders of the Universe" and is expected to be aired sometime during 2011.

To keep the loosing pasada in the dark we agreed to meet Alan in a nearby bakery. We were also joined by Daniel a German that Alan pursueded to also go on the trip.

The first stop was Alans house in order to store non essential stuff and also for him to explain with the aid of charts what was ahead.

Lake Maracaibo is the largest lake in South America, it is surrounded by rainforest, the Andes and is fed by the Catatumbo river. The river brings in a lot of tanin and plant material making the lake area high in methane and very dark in apperance. It is believed that these unique factors combine to create the lightening but no one yet has explained it completely.

Alan has a lot of enthusiasm and a almost encyclopedic knowledge of wildlife in the area. He showed us a large book on butterflies, the stunning one from Catatumbo on the cover was named after him - the person that discovered it.

Alan took us on a scenic route through the Andes to see some waterfalls with national monument status. It was officially the wettest November on record in Venezuela and December started out just as wet. The rain had just stopped by the time we got to the waterfall, the clouds were swirling round a mini Angel Falls that Alan had never seen so swollen. All attention however was on the massive variety of butterflies and occasional hummingbirds. Alan came prepared with a butterfly net that he used to give us a closer look.

This area of the Andes is known for small tobacco plantations. Finding a working one was problematic though the search took us into untouched villages with wonderful birds and butterflies - and er huge sphinx moths.

Dropping down out of the Andes the scenery got even more stunning. We stopped numerous times to buy pineapples, take pictures of landslides and the serpentine roads climbing improbable slopes.

We stopped at a sugar factory that anywhere else in the world would be classed as a working museum. Ancient equipment from England extracted the liqure from sugar cane. Large vates heated by fires then dried the liqure into brown sugar blocks. Of course this was a magnet for masses of very happy looking bees.

Despite being on the road for only twenty miles we had already gone through high mountain, cloud forest and now cactus forests habitats. Alan said that on the other side of a tunnel we were approaching it would change again. Sure enough the other side of the tunnel was verdent rainforest.

The Andes were now behind us, a city and the Maracaibo depression lay ahead. The temperature was back to stinking hot when we hit the city and it's traffic. I don't remember the name of the place but it's claim to fame was having the highest level of vanerial disease in Venezuela. For us it was more noted for having very cheap ice cold beers and some appropriately named love hotels at the edge of town.

The next section was typically straight roads and speed bumps. Every village has the right to request these to protect their kids. In Venezuela these always have road side stalls. The speed bumps are so severe that you can almost buy the goods before you finish inching over the bump.

When it isn't speed bumps it is police check points. There are eight of them between Merida and the lake. They seem to be totally pointless for catching anybody. The police however use them to try and find the slightest wrong-doing from people that they might be able to get a bribe off. Alan had a technique that got us through every one without being stopped.

The Maracaibo basin reminded me surprisingly of English countryside on a very hot day. Sure you had to ignore the occasional palm tree and vultures etc but it was the lush grass and cows that held the illusion.

Eventually we got to a flooded village called Puerto Concho where we had to switch to a small boat.

We travelled up a river that would not look out of place in the Amazon. We saw all kinds of wildlife including a pigmy kingfisher, Howler monkeys and numerous birds. Soon it was dark and ideal Caiman spotting time. It was ideal as shining a torch reflects light off their retinars. Yes - me and Liz both held one.

The first camp was at the entrace to the lake. It was a strange place on stilts with hammocks as the main means of sleeping. It was also a police station, but due to it's isolation the police version of the gulag. If you did something wrong in the police this is where you would end up. The police here don't have a boat so the reputed pirates out on the lake have little to worry about.

Beers and lightening finished off the evening - and of course the inevitable snoring from one of the police officers.