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July 2000- I was excited to finally be going to the Llanos; it was high on the list of places that I hoped to visit in Venezuela. The Llanos are the plains of Venezuela and contain a dizzying array of wildlife and birds. Jo and I were going to Hato Piñero, a northern ranch boasting more than 200,000 acres of land. Despite my enthusiasm for the weekend I was a little put off by the process I had to go through in order to go to Hato Piñero. Before I even arrived I had to endure the following: 1) I go to Hato Pinero's website, check it out, and get the phone number for their Caracas office 2) I call the office, find out that the have space for the weekend, give my fax number to the woman so she can send me the info 3) Get the fax from the office, fill out the form, and fax it back to the woman 4) She faxes back the price and information for payment 5) I got to Banco Provincial and stand in line for 45 minutes to pay for this weekend 6) I fax the cancelled deposit slip to the travel agent 7) She faxes me my confirmation and a non-descriptive map It seemed to me that it would have been infinitely easier to just go to their office in Caracas, fill out a form, and pay for the excursion. The above is more typical of how things work in Venezuela however. Jo and I got off to a late start on Friday night due to some extenuating circumstances. Despite not really knowing where we were going we arrived in San Carlos around midnight. San Carlos is the nearest town of any appreciable size to Hato Piñero and our destination for the evening. Typically people arrive on Saturday afternoon but we want to maximize our time for the weekend and see as much as possible. Unfortunately it was graduation weekend in San Carlos and the only two hotels in town were booked solid. After some deliberation the two of us decided to continue on to the hato and just stay there for the evening. We reached the gated entrance to Hato Piñero at 2:00 AM and found it locked and deserted. At this point we had few choices for the evening. We ended up sleeping in the car until 6:30 AM, when a passing motorcycle awoke us and the gate was opened. I must say that Jo handled the situation very well. I tend to associate Jo with wingtip shoes and posh hotels, but he surprises me from time to time with his tenacity. |
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Jefferson, who was our guide for the weekend, met us when we arrived at the Hato. We settled in our room and showered before setting off for the morning. No one else had arrived yet so Jefferson took the two of us to the west part of Hato Piñero in a pickup outfitted for wildlife viewing. Jefferson was an excellent guide. He was fluent in Spanish and English and was very knowledgeable about the birds of the region. We saw a huge variety of birds; everything from hawks to Scarlet Ibis. Over 350 different species of birds inhabit Hato Piñero. We also saw deer and alligator on our excursion. Jefferson explained that typically we would see an even wider variety of animals, but because we were there in the rainy season they animals did not necessarily need to leave their seclusion in order to find water. From the savanna we continued on to Laguna Los Cerritos, where we took a short hike in search of anaconda. Although we never did see any serpents we did witness a family of capybara swimming through the lake. They were quite adept at swimming and Jefferson informed us that they could stay under water for up to half an hour! From Los Cerritos we went to the home of an old llanero who had been living at the hato since the Branger family bought the land in the fifties. He played joropo music for us, the typical rhythms of the area and the national music of Venezuela. The old llanero played a harp while Jefferson manned the maracas and our driver strummed a cuatro (small guitar). After four songs (all of which sounded the same to me) we headed back to the main house for lunch. Along the way we saw more birds as well as a fox. Unfortunately lunch was not very good, nor was any of the food for the rest of the weekend. I asked for vegetarian meals but Jo opted to eat meat, thinking that since we staying at a ranch the meat would be fresh and tasty. He even went so far as to ask Jefferson "Do you eat those?" for almost every animal we saw (deer, capybara, even horse). |
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After lunch the two of us took a nap and then in the afternoon we went out for another excursion after the rest of the guests had arrived. This time we went to the East Side of the ranch. We saw many of the same birds as in the morning but fewer deer and capybara. We took a short walk on a levee where we saw a large alligator (about two meters) sitting near the shore. After a while I was convinced the reptile was stuffed because it was not moving. I walked up in front of the alligator and took a picture and when I turned around he rushed into the water. Suffice to say that gave me a little scare but at least he was moving away from me instead of towards me. From there we continued on in the truck to the eastern edge of the hato where the ranchers milk cows and make cheese. I was more interested in the monkeys playing in the trees above than the cheese process. As the sun was setting we headed back to the main house. Although our guide had a spotlight and we hoped to see nocturnal animals running about, it was not to be. The full moon above conspired against us and the only things we encountered were mosquitoes. Once arriving back to our humble room we had a few minutes to wash up and change clothes before dinner. Like lunch, dinner was lackluster. The food was not that bad, however for $100 a day my expectations were not met. |
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Sunday morning we were forced to choose between going on a boat tour on the river or going horseback riding. Jo and I decided on the horses (pictures coming soon), but we were annoyed that we had to make a choice when we could have taken one of the options on Saturday morning and the other on Sunday. This may seem like a minor detail, but once again I felt underwhelmed with the whole experience. We also had to sign a waiver before riding the horses and wear helmets during the ride. This did not bother me, but I found it very un-Venezuelan. The horseback riding was quite enjoyable. Although we did not see much wildlife, we had almost three hours of riding. A group of seven of us rode to Laguna Grande. The horses were good, you could tell that they were accustomed to dealing with people and they knew the trail better than we did. My horse was good about not going very fast as I got comfortable but after a while we were galloping all over the place. Jo's horse was a little more timid and usually he only traveled at a trot, which bounced him in the saddle and made for a sore following morning. Following the riding we ate lunch and packed up before returning to Caracas. It was a very short stay considering the six-hour drive each way. Luckily Jefferson explained a shortcut to me which, combined with my 130 kph pace allowed us to return to Caracas in less than five hours. Once back we took some ibuprofen to dull the pain and still had time to go out to dinner at a reasonable hour. |
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