Lake Maracaibo or Lightning Lake

 Lake Maracaibo or Lightning Lake 

We hired a taxi and left Merida to go down the valley to sea level. We had left behind the big and slow but dependable truck to take a side trip. We were going to have an overnight stay in a house built on stilts in a large lake. 

But this is no ordinary lake. Its hydrological characteristics may better describe it as a bay or estuary as it is connected to the Gulf of Venezuela. The area is rich in oil and gas reserves. This results in eutrophication caused by oil pollution which is a major problem facing the lagoon. 

Its alternative name of Lightning Lake gives  clue as to where so many people want to visit it. It is the place on earth with the most frequent lightning on the planet. The lightning can light up the night sky for hours on end without the often associated rain or thunder. All forms of lightning can be experienced such as fork lightning, sheet, cloud to cloud and many more. 

It was midday but we were in no hurry as we were descending from a bright and comfortable 1,600 metres to hot, sticky, sea level, so arriving late afternoon and avoiding some of the midday heat by seeing things on the way seemed a good idea. 

We stopped briefly at Laguna de Urao. It is a saltwater lake created by plate tectonics. It is named after the mineral found in the lake, Urao, produced by a concentration of salts leached from the local rocks. It is a popular recreational site and tourist attraction surrounded by attractive mountain slopes. There are several local legends about the lake, the source of an element traded amongst the Amerindians and the mythical home to a large snake. There are many stories, and some that are hard to believe but the lake does have a certain air. 

We stopped at some cliffs overlooking the river. There used to be condors throughout the Andes. The birds in the Venezuelan Andes had disappeared years before. There was a government sponsored project to reintroduce them.  

Eggs were collected from abroad. They were hatched and the youngsters carefully brought up in remote areas. They were tagged and chipped. They were fed well and looked after but with the minimum of handling so that they would not become tame or habituated to humans. Condors take at least six years to reach sexual maturity so the programme had to be well funded over a long period. 

Several areas were selected by scientists whch they thought would be suitable for the condors to be reintroduced. The birds had different ideas. When the day came for them to be released into their new homes, the birds flew due west to Colombia where there are other condors and where the mountains are higher. Within just three hours, all of the condors had flown over the border to Colombia and were never seen again in Venezuela. 

The main road follows the river valley from Merida. It descends through rugged mountains and includes Venezuela's longest road tunnel at 1,475 metres. When I cross referenced this, Google still claims that the La Cabrera Tunnel is the longest road tunnel in Venezuela at 520 metres. It is situated between Maracay and Lake Valencia and we had passed through it just a few weeks so everything you read on the internet is not up to date or correct. 

At the end of the valley through the mountains lies El Vigia. Loosely translated, it means 'The Watchman'. The indigenous tribes wanted to defend their land. The location of El Vigia is ideal as it protects the valley approach to Merida. It also overlooks where the narrow valley widens as it reaches a broad plain. It oversees Lake Maracaibo and any threat posed by invaders arriving by boat. 

The land here is considered some of the best agricultural land in the country. It used to be known for its beef cattle and the production of beef. In recent years, agricultural production has shifted. Thee are now many large scale plantation operations in the area. Despite Venezuela's largesse in heavy oil reserves, the area produces a lot of palm oil. There are also a lot of banana plantations and the country is the second largest South American exporter of bananas after Ecuador. 

We reached the port of Concha. I didn't recognise the approach but I instantly recognised the port. It was unchanged. There was a small communal wharf. There was a large crab processing plant on the far side of the harbour, as the major industry here is crab fishing. 

Trump and America have introduced sanctions against Venezuela, but they still buy Venezuelan oil, their palm oil and all the crabmeat processed here is sold to America. 

The trip to Maracaibo included an overnight stay in hammocks. I love to snooze in a hammock after a big lunch, or perhaps have a quiet afternoon siesta but I don't sleep well overnight in a hammock. My local fixer knew this and had provided a mattress just for me. 

The harbour was covered in floating plants, blown here by an onshore wind.

The crab processing plant. Lake Maracaibo had highly oxygenated water, resulting in strong algae growth that u=in turn feeds a lot of fish and crabs. The abundance of fish also attracts predators so there is a lot of wildlife in the lake. 

A colourful flower of one of the floating water lilies

Just one of several boxes filled with crabs caught during the day. Some of the smaller crabs were thrown overboard as discards. I was still astonished at the number of fishermen and boats that we passed as we went out to our stilted house on the lake as they came back to harbour with their catch. There are no quotas here. 

We left the harbour. The channel was deepened and widened in the 19th century to allow easy access for ocean ships to reach a harbour near Merida for trade. It was a partial success but with improvement in vehicles, roads and the road infrastructure, most goods were soon moved by road. 

A view along the tree lined river with floating vegetation covering the surface.

A howler monkey jumping from one tree to another. 
                                       
At the mouth of the river there is a ranger station where visitors to the national park sign in. It also acts as a beacon as it has a generator and is lit up at night until 10pm.

Our house on stilts was just a hundred metres away from the ranger station. It had its own pier where our boat tied up and we unloaded our luggage, our hammocks, the food, the charcoal for the barbeque and a generator.

Our hammocks.

I was concerned that it was a swim to the outhouse but we had our own facilities...and it wouldn.t have been a swim...

...as the water here isn't very deep. Our captain jumped into the water to rescue a kara kara that was drowning in the water. He left it to dry out in a corner. It proved that it was only waist deep. Much of the lake is shallow but it does get deep in the south, the deepest point being 60 metres. 

The sun was setting and it was time to go and find some wildlife.

We motored along the shore looking for dolphins and manatees, both of which live in the lake but we saw none. We passed some mangroves. We heard something large moving in the undergrowth but couldn't see anything. It was probably a crocodile of a caiman.  

Whilst we were cooking our barbecue, the captain caught two fish so these were gutted and cooked as well. We settled down to watch. Lake Maracaibo is the world's lightning hotspot and this is what we had come here to see. It has an astonishing 233 lightning flashes per square kilometre. Lightning occurs on average 297 nights a year for up to ten hours at a time. The phenomenon is called the Catatumbo Lightning, named after the river that flows into the lake which provides over half of the lakes freshwater from the surrounding mountains.

Those mountains are the cause of the lightning. The air above the water and in the mountains heat up at different rates and at night, they cool at different rates. The air above the mountains cools and creates mountain breezes that rush down the slopes and collide with the warm moist air above the lake. When these air masses meet, they cause electrical discharges that light up the sky. 

We didn't all stay up all night, but one person stayed awake with instructions to wake the others when the lightning started. There was a display off to the south west. It was partially obscured by cloud but there was sheet and fork lightning that lasted for more than an hour. It was pointless trying to get pictures without professional night time photographic equipment but we had witnessed the lightning for ourselves.

Tim still on lightning watch as the sun rose.

Then it was time to pack up and retrace our steps to get back to the harbour. We passed some yellow shouldered macaws. They are noisy parrots and you often hear them before you see them.  

And of course we saw more monkeys and had to stop to watch them as they moved through the trees. I wasn't so lucky this time getting a photo of them. 

We were soon back at the harbour to catch our taxi for the three hour return journey to Merida n the mountains. I was just glad to get away from the heat at sea level to relax in the insect free, cool mountains. 

The largest brewery in Venezuela has a polar bear as its marketing emblem with brands called Polar and Plar Light. They have depots and retail outlets throughout the country and many has a statue outside, and having sampled many of their brans, I had to have a photo of a polar bear. 

To Merida

 To Merida  

We left Santo Domingo. The plan was to have a truck breakfast in the grounds of the hotel and then a long drive. It had started raining at 5.50am. It was still raining when the kitchen was to be set up at 7.45am for an 8.00am breakfast. 

No one wants to cook in the rain or to eat in the rain. Despite having bought all the ingredients for breakfast it was decided to drive the truck further up the road and to stop at the next cafe... 

...which was a trout farm and had a tower with a trout on the top. Oh, and a lot of trout on the menu and copious amounts of souvenirs.

We continued up into the mountains up winding roads with views across the valley. We soon left the tree line and had uninterrupted views across the valley.

Looking back down the valley...

...and another view.

There were a few cafes and souvenir shops at the top of the pass. The pass lies at 3,570 metres. It was cold and it was raining so it wasn't particularly inviting. There is also a lake, Laguna de Mucubaji, and the entrance to a national park. It was closed but the ranger agreed that we could jump over the wall and take a photo of the lake if we were quick. Hence the photo but it was low cloud and raining so it wasn't much of a picture. And as it was raining, we were quick.

We passed some observatories sat on the top of a ridge. The area is known for its strawberries, potatoes and garlic.

And a vocho although it was taken from a moving truck and I only saw it at the last minute, hence its not a good photo but it adds to my collection of vocho photos.

We stopped in San Raphael de Mucuchies where there is a small chapel. It was built by Venezuelan artist Juan Felix Sanchez who was born here.  There is also a library and a museum dedicated to him adjacent to the little stone chapel.

Inside the stone chapel.

A monument to Juan Felix Sanchez.

We descended down the valley towards Merida past trees festooned with Spanish moss.

Looking down the valley...

...and looking across the valley.

And what a treat, two vochos in the same day.

The main church in Plaza Simon Bolivar in Mucuchies.

A statue of Simon Bolivar and in front of it is a slave boy and dog. When Simon Bolivar arrived in the town, they presented him with a dog. It is a native breed of dog, named after the town but also known as a Snowy or Paramo's Dog. It was declared the national dog of Venezuela in 1964. The breed is known for their loyalty, courage, loving and gentle temperment and for their outstanding working abilities. The slave boy's job was to look after the animal.

At last we arrived in Merida in the late afternoon. We were only staying one night so it was a whirlwind revisit to the city that I had seen just seven years before. The facade of the cathedral. It also houses a collection of bells. There is a street market down one side of the cathedral.

A statue of Simon Bolivar in the square opposite the cathedral.

The museum on one corner of the square.

The city cemetery but his photo was taken through the gates as there are opening times and the gates were locked so I wasn't able to walk around it. 

The chapel at the entrance to the cemetery and unlike the cemetery that was locked, the church was open. 

The view from my balcony, overlooking the cable car station that takes visitors up into the mountains. The fifth and last cable car station is at Pico Espejo, 4,880 metres high. From there it is possible to climb Venezuela's highest peak, Pico Bolivar, 4,978 metres. Merida is Venezuela's highest city at 1,600 metres so there is significant change in elevation (and temperature).

Santo Domingo

 Santo Domingo  

At the top of the main valley, it splits and a dam has been built at the confluence of two rivers to provide HEP for the community.

Other people has stopped to take in the view.

Some people had inevitably been in the way of the rising flood waters and had been rehoused nearby in new communities.

The two rivers come from different parts of the mountains and so their waters are different colours and slowly mix in the reservoir behind the dam.

Further up the valley we reached Santo Domingo. There were some fields in areas where the valley floor and sides were less steep. The ploughed fields revealed some dark rice soil and surprisingly free of stones. But after hundreds of years of cultivation, it is little surprise that farmers over the centuries have removed the larger stones.

The main church in Plaza Boliviar in Santo Domingo. It looked well preserved and modern with extensive coloured glass wndows. Not surprising as it was built as a replacement for the former church and completed in 2023. Our truck to one side spoilt the historical contect of the square. 

A staue of Simon Bolivar.

Inside the church.

And we moved on to our hotel...a grand place that had once been popular and it was both large and refined but since the financal crash, the troubles and COVID, visitor numbers have yet to pick up. We were the only overnight guests.

One of the accomadation wings.

An internal corridor.

Another wing.

The games room.