Catatumbo Lightning

to Lake Maracaibo for Catatumbo Lightening

You will be driven from Merida (or El Vigia airport) to Puerto Concha on the southern shore of Lake Maracaibo from where you take a boat trip through mangroves to stay in a stilt village house in the Ologa lagoon. Stay for two nights at a rustic cabin on stilts. Sleep either in a dorm of bunk beds with fan or in hammocks with mosquito netting on the deck. For a mix of an ethnographic experience, some waterbirds and hopefully the famous Catatumbo lightening. Between April and December there are lightening strikes on 95% of nights. On 70% of nights these start in the early evening as multiple lightening storms - distant fork flashes recurring at the same point in the sky. On about 40% of nights there are big dramatic storms after midnight. The village base is 20km from the spot where more lightening strikes the early than anywhere else in the world.

exploring Catatumbo Delta by boat

Today we explore the biggest lake in South America with a boat trip to visit the village of Congo Mirador and make forest and wildlfie observations. The glassy waters, huge sky, reflections of the local houses built on stilts are very photogenic. These stilt village communities were seen by the Spanish and are said to have given rise to the country's name, Venezuela or "little Venice". Tonight you have a second chance to see the lightning display.

a.m. boat trip in the the lake and the channels of the National Park Ciénagas de Juan Manuel. This habitat is home to manatee, caiman, jaguars, river dolphin, white and blue heron. Then return to Puerto Concha from where you are transferred by road either, back to Merida or to El Vigia airport (e.g. for an evening flight back to Caracas)