Well its been a few days since i've written anything and thats because i've been well away from the Internet connected world. As was quickly becoming clear (and probably showed in the last posting) the Spanish class was a little on the intense side and so I decided to complete a week there and then take some time to absorb what i'd learned AND more importantly, put it into practice. I came to the conclusion that I can probably get by using the present, future and past tense without having to dig into the hazy world of the subjunctive.
So I left Merida and set off to Los Llanos some 10 hours drive away - Where I´ve spent the last four days. Los Llanos is in the region on Apure, south west of San Fernando (have a look at the map section to get an idea of where that is). Its a huge area of swamp/marsh land that is very sparsely inhabited (at least be humans). It is however densely populated by a huge variety of wildlife. Including THOUSANDS of bird species, large families of Capibara (imagine a 50 -70kg Rat - only a little cuter), Anteaters, Caiman, Alligators, Turtles, River Dolphins, Piraña, Anaconda (no sign of J.Lo though). It really is a long list!
Quite an amazing place, i´ll try and post some pictures soon. We had a bit of unecessary drama when one of the guides decided to catch a large alligator for us. This basically involves trying to lasoo the poor thing, before tying its jaws closed with a boot lace and then sitting on its back to hold its head down while pulling its legs behind its back WWF style (thats World Wrestling Federation DEFINATELY NOT World Wildlife Fund). I was never entirely sure what the purpose of the exercise was, but I don't think it was greatly appreciated by the other people on the tour and i'm quite certain the Alligator didn't appreciate it! The only thing more challenging that catching an Alligator is how to release it again once you've really annoyed it. It raises questions such as 'who is getting off its back last?','How do we get that bootlace off its jaws?' and 'Where do you run to in a swamp?' Suffice to say I was quite glad we weren't in a rubber dingy (I think you know what I mean Rick :-))
As our guides seemed to be 'on a roll' with ambushing the local critters, we went in search of an Anaconda. Now these really do take some finding, there are lots of them around, but they are very good at not being seen (unless you happen to be lunch). After a few hours we did eventually find one lurking at the bottom of a pool and it wasn't long before our very own Venezuelan Steve Irwin had it by the tail and was dragging it out. It was certainly a decent size, i'd say 3 -4 meters. I did get a few photos here so I will try and add them to the site soon.
Other highlights of the Los Llanos experience included a horse trek through the swamps (desperately hoping that my 'trusty steed' would manage to avoid standing on anything that really didn't want standing on - i.e. Alligators or Anaconda!) Piraña fishing, although my personal attempt was more along the lines of a conservation effort as I didn't succeed in catching any Piraña, but did manage to feed them large amounts of meat from a big hook. Fortunately, the team effort brought in 9 fish which later joined us for dinner.
I managed to offset the discomfort of three night sleeping in a hammock with a fine balance of local beer. All in all 4 great days and a great group to share the experience with.
