Maracaibo, Lake Maracaibo and Lightning Lake

We set out from Puerto Concho down the man made channel that connects the port to the Rio Concho and fro there finally to Lake Maracaibo...but first we had to negotiate some bends and monkeys and other wild life.

Some of the many family groups of monkeys having  rest by the river.

A large predator...I forget which one and if I said it was a fish eagle, Mike would be on my back withers correct Latin name.

We stopped at the corner of the National Park, where the river enters Lake maracaibo.

The ranger station that we stopped at was also a building on stilts on the water., with toilets, a tourist information point, restaurant and hummocks.

We continue our boat ride in order to get to the village where we were staying some two hours further up the lake. Although it would take more than two hours as the engine kept cutting out and our driver kept on tinkering with it...a spanner...then a screwdriver...and then a kick and what sounded like swearing but it worked again which was a relieve. The lake is 170kme long and 100kms wide so you don't really want to get stuck on it without an engine.

Some of the storm clouds brewing in the afternoon.

A view of a boat from our boat through the spray which was refreshingly cool as it covered me in a fine spray.

We stopped to watch the dolphins but they were aways too quick to get a good photo.

At a local village we bought some fish for our next meal. All the houses were on stilts and colourfully painted.

This was the platform attached to our house from which we would watch the spectacular display.

The sky darkened and the storms built until it was show time. Lake Maracaibo is also known as Lightning Lake as it has more lightning than anywhere else in the world and it is a regular every evening event. This is due to its tropical location and surrounded on 80% by mountains which causes the conven=ction currents that create lightning.

You need to have specialist equipment to catch the actual fork lightning but even with my poor camera (the reserve as the good one got wet), I still got some flashed behind clouds.

And it really did make night into day!