Looking back our first attempt at Anaconda hunting was somewhat inexpert, though what we lacked in experience we made up for in ignorant exuberance. Our guide was first into the swamp feeling his way with a large pointy stick, Zorba nabbed the one remaining stick and followed him leaving Ricky and myself to proceed stickless. Not a problem, we thought, no doubt we can feel any snakes with our bare feet. Our guide picked an interesting moment to tell us this might be a bit risky. He waited until Zorba had prodded a small cayman with his stick, jumped in the air, soiled himself and shouted for help before pointing out, somewhat redundantly, that we really ought to have sticks for this kind of caper. Sound advice no doubt, but hard to act on when you're in the middle of a swamp some distance from dry land and the nearest stick.
Fortunately there were no more close encounters of the reptilian kind that day and eventually Zorba stopped shaking. I fear, though, that his memory has been irreparably damaged by the shock as every time he recalls the incident the creature involved gets bigger. By tea time the guide's estimate of 1 metre had been doubled, the next day it was 2.5m and by the time he got access to facebook it was not even a cayman any more but a 3m crocodile. I haven't asked recently but I expect by now it's probably at least the size of a t-rex.
Other than that we were uninjured by our experience and the next day, having procured some large sticks, we set out once more on the hunt. This time we had more more luck and bagged ourselves a 5m specimen with minimal fuss and no intervening caymans (caymen?).
It was also in Los Llanos that the much vaunted Venezuelan birds started to live up to expectations having been distinctly disappointing so far. Amongst my favourites were the Scarlet Ibis and the White Egret, though, if only for its fishing abilities, the Black-collared hawk was hard to beat. Not that 'crocs', snakes and birds were the only things to see, the whole place just teems with wildlife and we were lucky enough to see capybara, piranhas and even the inappropriately named giant anteater, which in fact spends a lot of its time eating normal ants.
Next up was a trip to Lago Maracaibo to see the world's most consistent electrical storm and source of much of the planet's ozone: the Catatumbo Lights. It was indeed consistent, in fact it went on most of the night, but, perhaps due to the full moon, it was not as spectacular as I'd hoped. What was interesting was the village of Congo Mirador two hours out into the lake where people live on stilted houses in a manner the Spanish found similar to Venice, hence the name Venezuela.
Meanwhile, my inadvertent election campaign was gathering pace, our week long sojourn in the country having apparently done nothing to arrest the groundswell of public opinion. 'Vota Si' notices were springing up across the nation covering everything from walls and roadsigns to boat engines and hillsides. Unless I've really got the wrong end of the stick, the people of Venezuela have decided that now is the time for a new Simon to finish the work that Bolivar started two centuries ago. My only opponent seems to be a shadowy, faceless individual known only by the initials NO. I'm not overly concerned, he seems to be running a very negative campaign whilst mine is an intrinsically positive message. Besides which there are so many posters in support of me that he's struggling to get his message across, it's as if Hugo Chavez himself has thrown his weight behind the Si campaign.
And with that comforting thought in mind I have decided to cease campaigning and continue my travels and thus am currently in Colombia preparing for government.
Hasta la revolucion
Don Simon.
Photos at: http://don-simon.smugmug.com/gallery/7817469_GNyAD
Special election album 'Isn't it Sironic?'
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