The Mouth of Rio Catatumbo (pictures here!!)

photos were taken by Paul, the man who was bit by a piranha and survived!




hey yáll,

it´s been a while since my last post, but i´ve been sick in bed for the past two weeks. it sucked, but i´m better and can finally eat real food again. a.k.a mcdonald´s, cake, and more hamburgers. anyhoo, i just got back from a cool spot called Rio Catatumbo.

there were 5 of us that took the trip. Paul, Rina, Elise, Mark, and me. This is the same place that me and Carl tried to get to a few weeks back, but were too far away to see the real action. after a 5 hour drive we made it to puerto concha. we actually stood on the same spot where i saw that dead body. we loaded up on beer and rum and jumped in the boat for an hour ride into laka maracaibo. on the way we saw monkeys, birds, and a couple of dolphins. these howler monkeys make the scariest noises. sounded like king kong was behind the trees and about to break some shite!

after eluding kong, we made it to this house on stilts out on lake maracaibo near the mouth of Rio Catatumbo. it was a pretty sweet spot, got to sleep in hammocks and eat fresh fish for dinner. we went out for a night boat ride looking for animals and such. we came across more crocodiles, and the captain gave me a baby croc to hold. it was pretty cute until it peed on my hand. nothing worse than crocodile pee... except for snake pee.

back at the house, we hung out and drank beer until the show started. around 9pm we saw our first lightning. slowly at first, then it picked up in frequency and strength as time went on. everybody had their camera out and were shooting like crazy. everyone thought i was a freak for shooting on film, but i´m old school like that. digital sucks anyways! this went on till late in the night, a few people crashed out around 1am. i stayed up until 3am and shot lightning until i was down to my last three frames. all in all, we must of seen 150 lightning strikes. that´s pretty dang exciting for a bloke from california, where we have no thunderstorms to speak of.

on the way back home we stopped at this chicken shack. they gave us two huge plates of chicken, some yucha(similar to the potatoe), and tomatoes with mayonnaise and eggs. damn it´s good it eat again! (i was only eating water and crackers for two weeks while i was sick). i think i lost my some serious weight! my pants are too loose and i can see my toes again!

later,

-patrick

chavez and the vote

yep, chavez lost the vote.

been hearing a lot of hoopla from a bunch of people before the vote went through. at the hostel, there were political junkies, activists, and journalists. there were also venezuelans with their own views out and about. not knowing who to believe, here´s what i heard on the street:

those for chavez say:

-he´s a great man, doing great things for the people of this country.

-there is free health care for everyone... even tourists! better get those pectoral implants before i leave.

-those without means can get a free meal. the poor people of this country benefit from chavez´s actions



those against chavez say:

-he´s a dumbass, always saying the same thing over and over.

-he´s a dictator, wants to be president for life...but how many dictators have free elections? and after he lost... he acknowledged this and told his supporters to be calm. doesn´t sound like a dictator to me.



hmmmm... when bush lost the election to gore back in the day, he demanded a recount and somehow won the bid for presidency. it came down to one state, florida.. just so happens his brother was govenor of florida at the time. hmmm... if it were my brother, i would do everything i could to ensure his victory. and not to mention going to war with iraq with farce reasons. aka weapons of mass distruction.

i´ll get off on my bush rant now. for the past month in venezuela, i´ve come across a slew of propaganda. from the spraypaint on buildings and mountain rocks, to the billboards with chavez´s facade, to the television smear ads(my favorite being a cartoon where the devil tricks a citizen into voting a certain way.)

i´d have to say that those for chavez had a lot more $ and people power behind it´s platform. i´m actually suprised that he lost. i´m sure he will come back with the same initiatives soon enough.

take care homies, next week i´ll probably be back with some crazy camping story.

-patrick

Me, Carl, and the dead body

hey yáll,

just checking in with you folks. my mom wants me to email her every week to let her know what´s up, so yáll are gonna get an update from me if you like it or not!

so, this past week i met this bloke from England at the hostel. His name is Carl and since he spoke english, we became quick buds. here´s a pic of carl lakeside at lago maracaibo. no, he´s not naked, and yes he´s happy to be beach-side. anyhoo, we planned an expedition to see the infamous ¨Lighting of Catatumbo.¨ we could of paid a crapload of $$ to go on a tour, but we decided it would be much more macho to find it ourselves.

We set off Tuesday morning after acquiring a new tent, some cans of tuna, and some jam. We took a bus to El vigia, then a van to santa barbara, then a vintage Ford Fairlane 500 to the town of Puerto Concha. there´s a bunch of old classic cars turned taxis down here, it´s awesome! we arrived to puerto concha only to find that it would cost alot of $$ to take a boat out to these houses on stilts to view the lighting.(the lighting is based near the mouth of the river catatumbo which flows into lake maracaibo). we decided to take our chances on land and find someplace to camp for the nite.

on our way out there was a bunch of commotion near the docks. people were crying and gathering around. i pushed my way through the sea of people to find two officials picking up a dead body from the ground and slapping it onto a metal slab. this was quite odd, since i´ve never seen a dead body up close before. looked like he must of drowned in the river... it was wierd, some people were crying, others were giggling and making small jokes. anyhoo, we were losing daylight, and had to find a camping spot.

Near dusk, we broke into this farmer´s field of small palm trees. we set up camp and fought off the thousands of moquitos buzzing around. the mosquitos were so bad, we could barely open one can of tuna before giving up and retreating to the tent. the heat and humidity was sweltering. my clothes were drenched in sweat and i couldn´t stop itching my left arm´s colony of bug bites. we saw a few flashes of light that night, but nothing spectacular...

anyhoo, this email is becoming long winded.... too bad, there´s more to it....

the next morning we changed tactics and ventured forth towards the town of Bobures. a van, a bus, and a dodge dart later we came to our destination. it was beautiful. on the other side of the lake, we landed ourselves on a small beach, with perfect weather, and a perfect spot to camp and view our lighting. dinner was a treat with tuna, rice, and bread. we had some time to kill so we swam in the lake, drank beer, then drank some rum.

later that night, it started to rain like crazy. we found our tent to be a bit soggy, but it was better than being outside. around 2 am carl woke me up to see the lighting show. it was pretty cool to see. it was flash after flash, withing seconds of each other. this natural phenominom occurs every night at the mouth of the river. lighting strikes consistently thoughout the night without any thunder following it. i watched it for the next hour, and i eventually passed out.

the next morning we packed up our wet belongings at set out for the hostel. all in all, i think it was an excellent adventure. however, i might go back though for a closer look. i really want to get some good shots of the lighting. even though we could see it from across the lake, we were too far away for decent photography.

that´s all this week folks!


later,
-patrick

amazon adventure

hola amigos!

just got back from a 3 day amazon jungle trip! it was crazy! From Merida, i took a jeep with three other people, Aldo(italy), Paul(Germany), and Linda(france). Linda was also our guide throughout the trip.

The drive into Los llanos took 7 hours and then we took a 2 hours boatride upstream to this remote farm in the amazon. the boatride was really cool because the river is this chocolate brown color... it´s as if a semi-truck filled with coco-puff cereal fell into the hudson river and turned it into a sweet brownish treat.

anyhoo, we got there and our host,(Gabriel) had dinner ready for us. there were a million mosquitos and even with the bug repellent, i got bit a million times. i counted 50 bites just on my right knee! we slept on the patio in hammocks and fell asleep to the sounds of crickets, bugs, cows, and other bugs. i woke up alot throughout the night because the stupid rooster started crowing at 2am. i really hate birds. they are pretty to look at but they are really loud. they had a couple parrots too, and they wouldn´t shut up either.

in the morning, we went horseback riding for a couple hours. the horses were pretty tame. they weren´t like the other horses i´ve ridden where they go buck wild and start running without any concern for the rider. my horse was really hungry and would eat grass and flowers throughout the ride. we came up to a large lagoon/marsh area and we decided to get wet and ride on through with the horses. that was my favorite part. we had two little dogs tagging along and they had to doggie paddle their was through.

later that day, we went out on the boat and fished for pirranah! all i had was a two foot long stick, some fishing line, hook, and little bits of red meat. it was really easy to catch them, you just stick some meat in the water and within seconds, they go for it! when we ran out of red meat, we cut up the smaller pirranah and used them for bait! they were eating their brothers! Paul got bit by one of the pirranahs... that was pretty funny. those dang germans.

i was freaking out since we saw a crocodile about twenty feet away from us. i was like, ¨should we be throwing red meat into the river with that croc over there?¨ it didn´t seem to bother our guide or boat driver. so, we went on fishing.

speaking of crocodiles, there were all over the place! we went out for a boat ride at night and we saw over thirty crocs! i had my super flashlite with me and their eyes light up when you shine on them. we came across a bunch of tiny baby crocs, so we stopped and linda and our driver jumped out to grab a few. they were really cute, about 10 inches long with little paws. once again i was like, ¨should we be handling these baby crocs when momma croc is sitting just 15 feet away?¨ everyone was so excited about baby crocs, they didn´t seem to care.

that´s about it... or at least the highlights. we saw a bunch of other stuff too. monkeys, dolphins, iguanas, chickens, parrots, anacondas, and bats. one bat almost fell on me when i was swinging in the hammock. Gabriel saw it and smacked it with his flip-flop(much to the horror of our guide Linda) it sat there for a bit, until one of the cats saw it and ate it up within seconds! that was pretty cool too.

gotta run, talk to yáll soon. and keep those emails coming to S america. i look forward to hearing from you guys,

-patrick

lost my tent in maracay!

hello folks,

I´m out of Caracas and spent a week camping on the beach at a place called Grande Playa, in Henry Pittier Nacional Parque. camping on the beach is a surreal experience, since you have no shower(except for the ocean), no bathroom(except for the ocean... or you could spend .25 cents to use the public bathroom), no kitchen, and no bed(except for my sleeping bag). anyhoo, i got a nice sunburn my first day out, the water is so perfect out here!

besides being a beachbum for a week, i started my spanish lessons, which consisted of me writing 600 flashcards from my dictionary and memorizing as much as possible. this plan is working, as i´m picking up words in conversations and I feel like i will be semi-fluent in 2-3 weeks.

i managed to lose my tent when i left the beach on my way to my next stop. i honestly can´t believe i did that! at least i got a good one weeks worth out of it. it was so hot in that bus, i just wasn´t thinking coherant. it must of been 101 degrees with 120% humidity!

speaking of buses, the next bus i took was a 12 hour overnite ride to Merida. it was so F"$%ing cold in that bus! it was like 30 degrees the whole way! of course i was wearing shorts, and my gear was stuffed in the luggage under the bus. anyhoo, they were having a movie marathon which included ALL of the Rocky movies! heeheh. i must say that Rocky III is the best of all. You have a guest appearance by Hulk Hogan, Mr T. pushes rocky´s trainer(Mic) down and kills him in the process, Rocky loses his title to Mr T, only to come back in the end and win it back! Netflix it today, you won´t be disappointed!... yep it was cold. so cold in fact, my brain wasn´t working correctly and i got off at the wrong stop! aih-ya!

things are looking up though, I´m in Merida now(the sports adventure capital of Venezuala). found a really cheap place to stay, have a really cool room-mate from greece,(he gave the lowdown on how to exploit the exchange rates between Columbia and Venezuala... extra moola!) and i think i´ll stay here for a week or two since there is so much stuff to do. since i have the extra cash, i´ll get to do some adventure sports.. ie. canyoning, paragliding, etc.

here´s some snapshots i took.. my place on the beach, and a museum i went to today in merida. i really like the wavy lantern, i think that´s gonna be my next lighting project when i get back to NY.

miss you all and i think of you every day!

-patrick

tales from venezuela

hey yáll,

i´m doin´just fine down here in Caracas, venezuala. it´s a crazy city, cars and motorcycles fly around with no regard to road rules. cars going the wrong way on the road, motorcycles fly on the sidewalk.

just making it here was a trip. i was still packing my bag in the taxi on the way to the airport! when i finally got off the plane in caracas, i realized that i packed too much stuff! my gear weighs in at 90 pounds! and i could only walk six blocks before i was exhausted. i plan to lighten my load by dropping a few items:

-grappling hook,
-converse shoes,
-slippers,
-south america travel book
-clothes,
-tripod....well maybe i´ll hold on to that

anyhoo, just wanted to drop a line while i had the chance. i think the next stop is the parque nacional henri pittier, which is a cool national park next to the beach. from there i´m headed to the town of merida for some paraglyding.

take care,

-patrick