Hearing about the amount of Venezuelans leaving the country, we prepared ourselves for a lot of waiting at the border with Colombia. The migrant wave is supposed to be similar in size to the one in Syria. But with the amount of information we have to process these days, we have become numb even for the most disturbed news that the media is offering us. Seeing the situation with our own eyes, with red cross, army and police fully in action really left a mark on us. On the Venezuelan side the opposition party was handing out free meals and the people stormed the food stands like mad. Once in Colombia, the situation wasn't much better. The people were everywhere... Resting and sleeping on the ground, getting their documents sorted out, changing money, eating on hundreds of street-food stands that were taking advantage of the mass of tired and hungry people entering the country... Young and old, families and singles, everyone tried to find their place in this mess and somehow continue the journey. In the end, the waiting part wasn't even that bad, but seeing thousands of people fleeing their own country in total insecurity really makes you think about the world you live in. Yet again, we were the only foreigners and we were drawing quite some attention. With addition of the news about bird-flu breaking out in one of the border towns, we decided to hurry up a bit and took three consecutive busses to get to the town of San Gil.
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After more than two months in Venezuela it was finally time to continue towards Colombia. But the season was perfect for a trip to Los Llanos, the vast Venezuelan plains that we were already observing from the mountains and we couldn't just leave without visiting one of the best places to spot wildlife in South America. Before departing from Caracas we said goodbye to the friends we met during our stay there and without whom we would never have been able to see so much of what the country has to offer. Four months into our travels we sceptically decided to book our first organised trip. The agency was based in Merida and we have briefly talked with the owner Gustavo already before our Pico Bolivar trek. He remembered us when we called him (not difficult with the amount of foreign turists in the country) and gave us a good deal for the trip since two other people could join us and split the costs. We met the group in Barinas, where we mounted the agencies Land Cruiser and started the adventure. The road lead us through a large portion of Los Llanos, a beautiful flat countryside full of cattle ranches called "hatos". One of these would also be our accomodation for three days, from where we would make daily trips into the surrounding landscape to spot wildlife. Just before reaching our hato Gustavo stopped the car. In a river trench just nearby the road a big family of capybaras was calmy taking a dip. Once our car stopped they quickly disappeared in the water where we could also spot several caymans waiting for their opportunity. Immediately we got a feeling that some exciting days were in front of us. |
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February 2019
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