Editor's note: For anyone visiting this part of the world we can thoroughly recommend Sylvain Lanctin who maybe contacted directly via selection37@hotmail.fr

Most tours are environmental one way or another, to see wildlife or spectacular mountain scenery but they are also the more thrilling such as white ´water´ rafting and parasailing off 1000m or more mountain cliffs. We opted for the wildlife and scenery, with a little trekking and horse riding thrown in, must be getting old! First up a bus ride, 700km to Barinas where our tour guide would pick us up, sounds easy. We embark at 18:30 and proceed to freeze, on go sweaters and even our wet weather gear, why they have air-conditioning down so cold I don't know. We arrive a little ahead of schedule at 05:50 and call the guy to pick us up.

Problem, he is still 400km away so we sit around for 8 hours and wait. Eventually we unite with driver Sylvain and guide Ingrid along with 3 other intrepid tourists, and charge off in the 97 Toyota Landcruiser. A quick but pleasant local chicken lunch and off to the Savannah of Los Llanos. This is the first time I have ever been a real back packer in my life, its fun. An hour out of Barinas the traffic on a country road comes to a standstill, two trucks had collided on a small bridge, not wide enough to take two trucks! Sylvain decides to go back to Barinas and take an alternate, longer route as it may take many hours to clear the bridge. Seven hours later, with only a brief stop for a watermelon bite,
rief

we reach our camp,

3 dormitories, and two toilet blocks, one with showers and a kitchen /eating area. Our dorm had 5 sleeping hammocks and one double bed.

The sleeping hammocks just had to be tried. For those uninitiated a sleeping hammock is wider than the usual hammock you have swung in for short while. You sleep sort of diagonally, neither lengthwise nor straight across. Not sure about anyone else but I was asleep in seconds and, from accounts next morning, so were most others. Before sleep however it was shower time, now that was an experience. No light, attracts the bugs, so we intrepid back packers go in with torch to find the shower recess and toilet to be home to numerous frogs. Sasha went arse up as she stepped into the shower recess which was even tiled, well sort of. The water tap was a 90 degree lever action shut off valve, only cold water, no problem here, and no shower rose, just a pipe out of the wall. Welcome to backpacker paradise, all good fun.

In the morning, after lovely fresh fruit, cereal, scrambled egg style omelette and coffee in the communal dining area, it was off to the first activity, horse riding. I hadn't been on a horse for 40 years and was surprised at how quickly it all came back, barely even ended up with a sore bum.

Along the way we rode among thousands of water birds, mostly big whit Egrets, saw Piranhas, Caymans (local crocodiles)

Capybaras, (largest rodent in the world) all very close up. For the afternoon it was off on "safari" with the main aim to find and Anaconda in the swamps. For the best view, climb up and sit on a plank of wood tied on the roof rack and hang on for dear life. The technique for finding Anaconda entails walking through knee high swamp water, with or without footwear, and prodding around with a long stick to feel for a snake. Alas, no luck but there was a Cayman caught for close up viewing and a female  Anteater with baby on back herded in towards the car by a couple of the local guides who were with us.

Another beautiful night’s sleep in the hammocks followed by a long boat ride along a Piranha infested creek through the swamps.

Again a plethora of animal life including, as our guide described, "prehistoric" birds and tortoise,

as well as pink Dolphin. At first I thought someone was kidding, pink Dolphin, not only pink but living in fresh water several hundred Kms from the sea but sure enough we saw some; their colour coming from eating Piranha. We zoomed along in the 1m wide 15m long dough out boat, through some passages just wide enough for the boat, ducking under overhanging branches and generally having a great time.

On the way back to the camp, getting on towards sunset, we stopped at a bridge over the river and got out the fishing lines already set up with wire traces, made from fencing wire, and some red meat bait for a spot of Piranha fishing to catch dinner. Just dangling the meat at the top of the water bought snapping Piranha to the surface, hundreds of them, certainly didn't want to fall in! Soon it was a competition, first to catch one and who would catch the biggest. Aussies won both! Our driver, Sylvain took out the big prize however, with half a Piranha on the hook a Crocodile idled up to it as he held the bait just above the water and latched on. Hooked, one croc about 2m long, a bit too big for the line however! We took a dozen or so Piranhas’ back to the camp where they were deep fried and presented for dinner.

The following day it was pack up and head for the city of Merida, about 8 hours drive.

The mid way point was Barinas where we dropped off 3 of the intrepid tourists while Sasha and I continued on to Merida via the mountain pass of Apartaderos and a lake, Laguna de Mucubaji, at 3,300m. We parked and took the scenic walk down to the lake, a bit chilly at that altitude and, on the walk back up a short hill to the car, noticeably less oxygen!

Half an hour later we were on the outskirts of Merida but it took almost 2 hours through the traffic to get to our Posada. A Posada is something akin to a "bed and breakfast", a bit better than the cheapest hotel, with rooms like a hotel, ensuite bathroom with hot water (but not always as we later found) but also common room areas and one one interaction with the owner. Ours had about 30 rooms. We slept well! Merida is at 1,600m with surrounding steep mountains to 5,000m and valleys to less than 100m.