Camping Out with the Guacharo

TRIP INFO BOX
Route	Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela – Teresen, Caripe, Venezuela (10,13)
Distance	344Km
Travel Time	6 hours
Road Conditions	Mostly good tarmac
Weather	Hot, Sunny
Terrain	Hilly
Food and Petrol	Pto Ordaz, Maturin, Caripe
Accommodation	Hacienda Campo Claro, Caripe

Together with the Argentinians we head North towards the Caribbean coast, our destination being the well known tourist area around the town Caripe, where lies the Cueva del Guacharo (in the national park of same name). My bike is chewing up oil like it’s free!

It’s a beautiful, lush area in the hills (after the Andes I don’t know if we can call them mountains), an abundance of fresh produce, fresh air and forest hugging the hillsides.

Being touristic and holiday season, accommodation is pretty costly. We however manage to secure some camping space at a beautiful place called Campo Claro (http://www.haciendacampoclaro.com), apparently an old coffee farm. Because it’s raining when we get there we just pitch our sleeping mats and mozzi net under a roof they have next masonic-looking temple in the form of a stone pyramid. We find a big fat water hose next to the building which we promptly converted into a much needed (cold) shower.

Here we spend a few days living like nomads, loving every minute. What a beautiful place! We build a fire place out of big rocks and at night we grill meat and potatoes and whatever vegetables we found attractive at the superbly stocked local market stalls, and talk for hours beside the bonfire. The life!

During one day we visit the Cuevas, which is a recommendable excursion. The limestone cave goes deep into the mountain, where there are impressively large stalagmites and stalactites. The guided tour costs only sixpence so money is not a question. It’s recommendable to bring your own torch along though. And of course very interesting to see are the thousands of nesting Guacharos, which are cave birds which live there.

PS: don’t buy the cacao from the sellers outside, I did and it turned out to be very unrefined i.e. had sand bits inside it…

An interesting twist to the excursion is that we meet the same family we camped with at Salto Kaui. (Of course they were entertaining everyone, playing instruments and singing in the park outside the caves.)