Merida Adventures: Catatumbo

All of the group chose the two day optional trip to go from Merida (where we had three days of options) to Catatumbo. This is on the largest lake in South America. There was an hour on a river before we reached the lake. On the river, we went on a leisurely pace to view birds, monkeys and other wildlife. On the lake we went 1.5 hour at full speed to the place where we stayed the night. This is part of the country that few tourists ever go. (Overall there are very few Western tourists in the country--we always seem to be the only ones here! And very few people speak English, but I´m getting by.)

The villages here are on stilts and fishing is the main occupation. The main reason for coming here is to watch the nightly lightning show. We slept in hammocks (with mosquito nets). We went early to sleep--9 pm, because at midnight we were woken to see the lightning show. The night sky is full of lightning. After an hour, we went back to sleep, only to be woken again just past 2am when a huge downpour came down. Again the lightning was amazing. After another hour of viewing nature´s show, we headed back to bed. At this time of year, this lightning show happens every night.

The next morning, we went butterfly hunting. Our guide, Allen, has discovered two new subspecies of butterflies here. He manged to capture one, now named after his grandfather. The color of blue in its wings was very beautiful. He was unable to capture the one, now named after him, because it flies in the high canopy. But we did glimpse it.

Afterwards, we took a tour of slilt village. (Venezeula gets its name from these villages, because in Spanish the name means little Venice). You can tell no tourist come here, because there were no tourists trinkets for sale. This is real deal--seeing how local people actually live.

On the return trip on the lake, we encountered a rain storm. We got totally soaked and the waves were larger than the day before. It was like a free amusement ride. We arrived back in Merida after 9pm. What a contrast between the noise and grime of the city versus the wonders of the nature world.