Animal Planet: Giant Anacondas in Venezuela

Local Venezuelan guide Juan Carlos Ramirez of Akanan Adventure and Travel recently took scientist-explorer Niall McCann on a hunt for giant anacondas in Los Llanos and the Rio Caura for the programme "Biggest and Baddest" on Animal Planet.

The pair started their search in Hato Cedral, a working cattle ranch in Los Llanos that is one of the best places in Venezuela to see birds and wildlife.

Apart from hundreds of species of raptors and wading birds, Hato Cedral is blessed with rivers full of cayman alligators, red-bellied piranhas, and herds of large, toothy rodents called chiguires (capybara).

It is also a place where you can guarantee an up-close-and-personal experience with an anaconda.

I once had to walk in front of the car and drag the anacondas off the road as we made our way out of the hato to the main road.

But those were small anacondas, no more than 2 metres in length. Nothing like the 5-metre beasts that have been found here.

Juan Carlos and Niall had even more success in the Rio Caura, a tributary of the Orinoco River and one of the most pristine jungle river systems in Venezuela. There, they traveled up to the mighty Para Falls, which separates the Upper Caura, heartland of the Yekwana indigenous people, from the Lower Caura.

Finally, they found their monster, a 5 metre 50 cm long anaconda, with a girth of 64 cm, although it's a baby according to the local Yekuana and Sanema (an indigenous group from the same family as the Yanomami).

For more information about anaconda watching in Los Llanos and the Rio Caura, contact Juan Carlos Ramirez at Akanan Travel and Adventure.

Further reading:
An Account of my Visit to the Yekwana Village of Nichare for a Big Fiesta That Included Copious Amounts of Yuca Beer

Some photos of my trip to Para Falls on the Rio Caura

Hato Masaragual, Los Llanos and Orinoco Caiman on BBC

Veteran BBC presenter Jonathan Dimbleby visits Hato Masaguaral, a ranch in the plains of Los LLanos Venezuela, that breeds an endangered species of crocodile commonly know as the Caiman del Orinoco, as part of a BBC series called "South American Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby" that airs on 25 September at 8 p.m.

In the hour-long documentary the broadcaster happily strokes a three day old caiman but the larger ones prove to be more challenging. The breeding males live in cages on their own and can grow up to six metres long.

Killed for fun or for their skins, this crocodile only exists in Colombia and Venezuela. It is critically endangered which is the highest risk category for wild species. This means it's numbers will decrease by 80 per cent within three generations.

Dimbleby also explored the music of Venezuela, visiting the studio of Desorden Publico - a ska band that has been at the top of the charts in Venezuela for over a quarter of a century.
Playing to audiences of up to 150,000 people, Desorden Publico are not mere entertainers but have a profound political purpose invariably challenging the status quo.
As Jonathan stomps his feet to their energetic beat, Horacio Blanco, the lead singer is worried. He tells Jonathan that Chavez's 21st century Socialist revolution has polarised the country.

The full documentary is being shown on BBC 2 at 8 p.m. on 25 September and will be available on the iPlayer for a week after broadcast.

Venezuela's mysterious Catatumbo Lightning on ABC News

Sorry about the annoying advert. If you wait 16 seconds you can watch an interesting report by ABC News about a unique Venezuelan phenomenon known as Catatumbo Lightning, a nightly show of thunderless lightning that occurs over the southern part of Lake Maracaibo.

Hugh Hefner conditions in notorious Venezuelan jail - NYT report

New York Times reporter Simon Romero and photographer Meredith Kohut went inside Venezuela's notorious San Antonio prison on Margarita Island to produce this video report on the amazing conditions they found, including a swimming pool, a dance floor and private rooms for conjugal visits.

"Bikini-clad female visitors frolic under the Caribbean sun in an outdoor pool. Marijuana smoke flavors the air. Reggaetón booms from a club filled with grinding couples. Paintings of the Playboy logo adorn the pool hall. Inmates and their guests jostle to place bets at the prison’s raucous cockfighting arena," writes Romero in his report. 

He also interviewed Paul Makin, a British national who was arrested at Porlamar airport in Margarita on 16 February 2009 with 24 kilos of cocaine concealed in his luggage.

According to Makin, who says "it's the best jail in the world", the unusual privileges are down to Teofilo Rodriguez, known as "El Conejo" (The Rabbit), a convicted drug-trafficker and top dog at the prison.

Read Romero's fascinating article in the York Times: "Where prisoners can do anything, except leave"

A gripping new book by two British lads who spent four years in Venezuela's violent Yare prison has just been published: "Banged Up Abroad: Hellhole"

BBC documentary explores Catatumbo light show

All photographs copyright to Alan Highton

According to the British particle physicist and documentary maker Brian Cox, a unique natural phenomenon in Venezuela known as El Relámpago del Catatumbo, or Catatumbo lightning, could contribute to repairing damage to the ozone layer.

A professor at the University of Manchester, Brian Cox is a famous face in UK after presenting a number of science programmes for the BBC, most notably the visually stunning 2010 series 'Wonders of the Solar System'.

Cox and a BBC camera crew are currently in Venezuela filming for the first episode of his new series "Wonders of the Universe", after jetting in from Sao Paulo, Brazil.


The popular TV scientist made his comments about the ozone layer after spending a few days on Lake Maracaibo, trying to capture on film the electric light show known as Catatumbo Lightning played out nearly every night in the skies above the stilt-house villages of Congo Mirador and Ologa.

Nowhere in the world can you see lightning like you can in the Sur del Lago, with great arcs of thunderless lightning going off across the sky all night, with just seconds between the flashes.

"This phenomenon is unique and occurs because the swamps in the area generate methane gas that rises into the atmosphere, cools and creates the conditions that produce these lightning flashes permanently," Professor Cox said in an interview with Venezuelan daily El Universal.

He also said that he wants the footage of the Relámpago del Catatumbo to open the episode on light in "Wonders of the Universe" as it brings a human dimension to the phenomenon and what lightning means to us.

"I spoke to the people of Ologa and they shared experiences and knowledge with me about the lightning," he said, "having this lightning here permamently affects the people who live on the lake."

Cox and his BBC film crew visited the Sur del Lago with of Catatumbo tour specialist Alan Highton of Cocolight, who has been bringing vistors to experience the lightning for years and knows the lake and its inhabitants like a native.

The four-part series, which first airs on BBC 2 on 6 March, 2011, not only features Catatumbo Lightning but also Venezuela's greatest natural treasure, Angel Falls, the highest waterfall in the world.

Dr Cox explains that the same laws of light, gravity, time, matter and energy that govern us here on Earth are applied in the Universe and uses spectacular footage of the 979-metre plume of water cascading down from Angel Falls to demonstrate the way light behaves around a black hole.

The first episode of Professor Brian Cox's documentary series "Wonders of the Universe" airs on BBC Two on Sunday, 6 March, at 2100. 

Watch a teaser video for the series in glorious HD.

To buy the book that accompanies the series click here:



Video of Catatumbo Lightning