Los Llanos in the plains of Venezuela 07.34.98N 69.37.00W
Chaser 2
Yvonne Chapman
Mon 24 Sep 2007 14:22
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Monday morning came, it was time
for us to leave our Posada and make for Los Llanos, so we packed
our rucksacks, said goodbye to our hosts and walked round the corner to a
small bar for some breakfast. Our tour manager Carlos said he would meet us
there to introduce us to our driver and guide. He'd already explained our
itinery, and what to take, clothes, bug spray etc. He told us the accommodation
is basic and we would have to sleep in hammocks, but there are toilets and
showers.
Our driver Namier arrived with the jeep and we were
introduced to Pablo, our guide for the week, after a short delay getting a cold
box, we put our gear into the truck and said goodbye to Merida..It was going to
be something like a 10 or twelve hour drive to Los Llanos stopping on the way
for drinks, toilets and meals. We stopped at a great restaurant where they serve
the best kebabs ever. Not really a kebab, its like a side of a cow on a broom
handle roasting vertically against a log fire. They had beef, pork sausages and
you pay by the kilo. Our food was all included in the tour price, Pablo
just ordered meat enough for the six of us, together with salad, vegetables and
half a dozen cokes. This was the best steak I've ever tasted, crispy burnt on
the outside succulent in the middle. We were interested to know what these
meals cost, Pablo said they charge 40,000 Bolivars a kilo, that's less than 5
pounds. We had a kilo, and that price includes a drink and the accompanying
salad and vegetables, less than a pound each.
We drove on and on, it was a long way in a 4 x 4.
Chris wasn't feeling too good at the time, but we just wanted to get there. The
national guard stopped us and checked our papers causing more of a delay, but
eventually we arrived in the darkness greeted outside the gates by a 6 foot
alligator. Inside the camp we were introduced to our hosts for the four day
stay, Nicolandro, the owner and his wife Rosa. We were shown to our
accommodation. Well Yvonne and I have lived in Spain for the past 15 years, we
speak a bit of Spanish, but in Venezuelan Spanish some words are different. One
of these words would appear to be 'basico'. Now basic accommodation means a room
with out TV or video doesn't it? Our Posada in Merida was 'basic', bed,
shower and toilet. Bearing in mind we were looking at this through
tired eyes,but we were shown into our round hut with mud/cow
dung walls and straw ceiling which housed its own eco system of insect life
raging from cockroaches to large spiders. We didn't mention the spiders to
Chris, she really doesn't like them. We did have a pole in the centre
of the room, in case you wanted to do some dancing I suppose, it also served to
support the other end of our hammocks. It wasn't all bad we did have an electric
light bulb. The toilet block was across the hallway, (we wish) it was across the
field outside. Tony and I thought we'd investigate in case one of us needed
a night visit. The toilets had a lightbulb too, but only till 11pm then the
generator is turned off, which is quite forturnate in some ways as the single
cylinder Lister diesel was thumping away outside our hut. I opened the door to
the shower to see a brick walled shower and a black and white speckled marble
floor.Unfortunately on closer inspection it was a white floor covered with 200
bugs and roaches together with a frog the size of rabbit.We closed the door, --
quickly! The dunny wasn't as bad, bad but not that bad.
We strolled rather quickly back to our hut,
wondering how to explain this to the girls, but what the hell, we're all
Transatlantic sailors, and now backpackers we can handle these things. Well, we
had to because there was nowhere else around for 50 miles and their
accommodation was the same. We didn't unpack our bags, we just raised them
off the floor into a spare hammocks so we didn't get any unwanted occupants. We
accompanied each other to the toilet, Tony took his machete, before rolling
into our hammocks hoping that with the light of day things would look
different. Curfew came at eleven and lights were out, you've heard the
_expression_, 'Can't see a hand in front of you' well we couldn't. It was
black, which was a little disconcerting knowing that we had to give way to an
alligator outside the camp, and inside the camp in one of the trees were
two Boa Constrictors. The noises outside let the imagination run wild too,
with chickens squarkin, cows mooing aswell as many unknown sounds, so much so we
just could help laughing. We then got a fit of the giggles which kinds helped us
go to sleep and avoid hearing the footsteps that were no doubt going on inside
our hut.
We woke next day early, day break, quickly checking
our hammocks to see if anyone had moved in. We took turns to venture outside to
the amenities. The shower had been cleaned up or the frog had a large meal, but
the floor was empty. Checked the toilet to see they hadn't moved house, but that
was ok too. We took turns to stand under the hose pipe in the shower and have a
chilly but refreshing rinse off. We were called in breakfast, the table
was filled with bread, some ham, scrambled eggs fresh passion fruit juice and
coffee.
Our first trip was in a kinda dug out canoe with an
outboard motor up river through the savannahs. This was beautiful, that's
what we wanted to see. We soon saw some freshwater dolphins, nothing like the
one we see in the ocean, these were blind and dumb looking, no dorsal fins,
strange creatures. Moving on further we came across large Iguanas, and as we
stopped to take photos Nicolandro edged his boat slowly backwards to the bank,
dived head first into the water and brought out the ugliest looking
turtle we've ever seen. We were probably three hours or more travelling
across the savannahs before returning to the base camp where we got back
into our jeep to return for lunch.
After our meal of beans, chicken, rice, plantain
etc we had a siesta for a couple of hours before returning to our jeep for
a safari across some of the drier parts of the savannahs looking for wildlife,
Carupani, the worlds largest rodent, kinda 3 foot high guinea pig, Alligators
and Anacondas. Anacondas frequent these areas in large numbers and can be
up to 20 feet long, unfortunately after so much rain they were proving
hard to find despite Nicolandro persistence walking through the
marshes with bear feet poking around with a stick. It was getting near dark
so we started to make our way home, but Wilfredo, Nicolandro's son-in-law saw an
alligator dive into the water as we drove past. He told the driver to stop
and he and Nicolandro jumped over the fence, ran into the water, again
with no shoes, poking around with a stick in one hand and a lassoo in the other.
Wilfredo managed to do the rope worked and as the noose tightened there was
large thrashing around in the water until Nicolandro manage to jump on its
back, and this was only a small one! They managed to lift it out of the
water and bring it back to the road where they tied some string around its
snout. We all took our turns for the foto shoot, but it was so good to see and
handle a live croc. After the release four very satisfied Sailors, backpackers,
and wildlife hunters were driven back to camp for the evening meal. After dinner
we had a quick chat with the family and our guide before falling into our
hammocks for our second night.
We were beginning to accept our conditions a
little more now, realising too that we had the top end of the tour because
our 10 seater jeep had only us 4 in it, our hut too would have had to
accommodate any other passengers in our jeep. Chris and Tony are good friends,
they respect our privacy as we do theirs, but another 4 strangers would have
been too much I think.
Next day after breakfast we were back aboard
the jeep for a trip up river to do some Piraña fishing, we were all given
hand lines and some meat in order to catch the voracious eating machines for our
dinner that night. That we did, we even
have the jaws to prove it. It was very hot though and I was feeling the heat for
some reason that day, but come 1200hrs we headed back to the camp for lunch. I
wasn't too hungry, we're not used to eating so much especially midday, but Chris
and Tony didn't let us down they managed to make our cook feel needed. Tactful
aye? After our siesta it was horse riding time, this was one Yvonne wasn't
looking forward to, you remember she doesn't like heights especially wobbly
ones, but she was given a sleepy horse and we all trotted off. About an
hour along the road our young horse riding guide Wilfredo, a great horseman,
said we should go cross country through the water to look for wildlife. I didn't
really fancy my horse stepping on an alligator but Wilfredo assured us
there was no problem. We were about a mile inside these water logged fields when
Wilfredo galloped off, he saw something in the distance, it was a giant
anteater, which he rounded up, then shouted at us to come closer. Now these
charter horses seem to know who is boss, and it certainly wasn't us. They go
when they want to go and stop when they want to, Wilfredo managed to come a
little closer and call our horses and they trot towards him. The anteater was a
great find, we were lucky to see one this time off year. They are apparently a
member of the bear family, in Spanish they are called an ant eating bear and
when you see their large claws you can understand why.
It was time now to trek back, my horse came to
a standstill for some reason and despite talking to it nicely, give it a
swift kick in the groin and a whip on the shoulder, it wouldn't move and as
usual the Waylanders were out in front. Wilfredo came over, he didn't shout,
or do anything, just blew a kiss to my horse and it took off like a scud
missile, blasting past Chris and Tony and leaving them to eat my dirt for the
first time. -------Ok, granted, I fell off, these things have no brakes, and no
mainsheet to release. It did eventually stop and while I was peering up at
its belly, I considered how fortunate I was, for three reasons, one I didn't
fall in cow shit sorry dung, two I didn't fall in water and three, I wasn't
wearing my new super cool cowboy hat and poncho, then I would have felt
stupid!
My horse calmed me down after being a bit squitish
and we all trotted off back home, Yvonne,Chris and Tony didn't laugh at all
-------------- much!
Back at base came we had our last evening meal
before turning in. This though wasn't the end of our days excitement, Laying
facing upwards to our bug infested thatched roof I saw a cockroach about three
inches long, had it got a sniff of our bug spray I ask myself, was it going to
faint and fall into one of our hammocks? moments later another one appeared and
flew over to the pole, I didn't like to mention it but thought it best to avoid
a panic later, Tony got up to investigate, but couldn't see anything, but a
little later it appeared on my side of the pole, a size 9 quickly took care of
it and we were back in bed, hammock, albeit eyes on stalks looking at the
ceiling. Now Christin is not a spider lover, in fact it has to be said
they she likes spiders as much as Yvonne likes heights, staring as I was at the
ceiling waiting for lights out I saw something move at the top of the roof, it
was a big spider. Now not wishing to cause a panic I said 'Tony, eleven O'clock?
his reply was 'No not yet mate only half ten' No Tony I
said 11'o'clock above your head. Well by that time Chris had cottoned on
and she was up out and ready to move into the jeep. Tony whisper calming words
to her, which didn't help at all, because it was heading down the beam
to Chris's hammock, Tony sprayed it with some bug spray, which made it turn
round and go back up, then at the top it jumped onto the next beam and
started coming down again. The question on our minds now was, was it
going to get within the reach of Tony's machete before lights out. Chris
was getting her bag packed just in case, but fortunately Tony thrashed out,
the spider fell and I trod on it. Sorry spider lovers, but it was a big
one!
Our final morning was an early start, our bus home
wasn't leaving the terminal till about 10 at night so we decided to treat
ourselves and our guide Pablo to a white water rafting trip. It was about
an 8 hour drive from the camp to the river, so we said our goodbyes to
Nicolandro, Rosa and Wilfredo before heading off with our driver and guide
Pablo.
We arrived at the river at about 13.30hrs, our
driver went to collect the boat from somewhere up river, the raft guide was
there with him when he returned with the boat on the roof of the jeep.
We all lifted it off and slid it down the river bank, then we walked down
some steps to the dinghy to carry it across to a safe entry point. Our new guide
explained the rules, i.e.. strap your feet in, then, when he says, paddle
frantically either forward or backward according to command, if needs be stop
paddling and get inside the boat, then when told back in position and paddle.
This was all in Spanish so it was a good way to learn the language when your
life depends on it! The rafting trip was fantastic and a great finale to
our ten days away. We were tired and soaked, but after getting changed and back
in the jeep we were driven 20 miles or so back to our bus
terminal.
The bus was late, we were tired and smelly (apart
from me) and when the bus turned up at midnight our seats weren't available, in
fact we thought there weren't any seats at all, but after a little fuss
four individual seats were found. We didn't lose much time going to sleep and I
didn't wake until 5am when the bus made a stop. At that time some people got
off, which meant Chris and Tony could come out of the boot to upstairs, I could
then go back with Yvonne and we had 4 seats together in comfort
again.
Back at Puerto De La Cruz around 2pm we jumped into
a cab back to our respective boats, Oh! the luxury, clean soft beds, no bugs,
clean toilets and hot water, Television, cold wine and a rum and coke -
with ice!
Did we enjoy the ten days? would we do it
again? Fantastic, we all had a great time, and we would do it all over,
some of us may avoid the spider and horse riding, but it was a great experience
and we'd recommend it to everyone. I do think if our jeep was full, the ride
would have been very uncomfortable, not be able to stretch out on a sideways
facing seat for twelve hours. Also sharing a hut with many strangers with no
facilities or space to put things would not have been much fun. So, just being
the four of us worked, Chris and Tony are great company, will all enjoyed
ourselves and are looking forward to another adventure together.
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