Please note that the following itinerary is for your guidance only. The order of the activities may vary without prior notice depending on local weather conditions and your point of arrival and departure.
Daily Itinerary
Day 1
You leave from Mérida in the morning, heading for the hato (cattle ranch) in Los Llanos. On the way you pass by San Rafael de Mucuchíes (3,140 m) and the glacial lake in Mucubají (3,450 m) stopping in some of the small Andean villages in the Sierra Nevada National Park. As you descend from the Andes into the vast Llanos plains, you will begin to notice the wildlife all around you. After a break for lunch, you continue your journey for a few more hours before arriving at the camp, situated near a wildlife sanctuary. Then you have the time to settle in and enjoy a few drinks with the other guests, followed by a light dinner and then bedtime in your mosquito net and hammock.
Day 2
After breakfast you take a small boat that will gently drift through wildlife sanctuary where you can see pink dolphins, turtles and alligators as well as a wide variety of birds including ospreys, hoatzins, jacanas, sunbitterns and the great black hawk. You will stop to fish for piraña, the infamous flesh-eating fish that populate the rivers of Los Llanos. These taste great when fried up with a little garlic: so eat them before they eat you!!! After a lazy lunch you will go searching for caiman and anacondas. These snakes can grow to over 8 metres long and can be deadly, but your experienced guides know how to catch and handle them without harming either the snakes or the guests! Once again in the evening after dinner you can enjoy a few drinks with your fellow guests before retiring for the night to your comfortable hammock.
Day 3
After breakfast, you go for a guided walk through the savannah gallery forest, on the lookout for more animals, birds and reptiles. Your guide can explain to you about the characteristics and habits of this abundant local wildlife, as well as other features of life on the plains. After lunch, you say goodbye to the Hato and travel by road for a few hours to the Acequias River, which runs down from the foothills of the Andes Mountains. You spend the night here in an Adventure Camp on the banks of the river, where you have the chance to go white-water rafting before dinner.
Day 4
Breakfast and – if your itinerary permits – back on to the river for a few hours. Then you leave the Camp for the drive either back through the Andes to Mérida, or on to Barinas airport and on to the next part of your Venezuela adventure.
