Is it a bat, no it´s a bird!
Trip Start
Nov 29, 2007
1
10
12
Trip End
Dec 30, 2007
Caripe,
Venezuela
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Organising everything at this time of year has been uncertain and locals are quick to warn us that it may not be possible to get transport even to such crucial destinations as Caracas (a place not recognised here, where it is pronounced 'Craca', which completely baffled me when we arrived). But so far these warnings have not been justified by events. But the transport has been awkward. An example of which follows. Bear in mind that this entry concerns a major tourist attraction.
Our next destination was the famous Cave of the Guacharo, which is the bird equivalent of a fruit bat. We consulted extensively about how to get there and back and it sounded very difficult. We could take private transport to various towns not mentioned in the Book, no doubt at great expense or do complicated routes with buses and delicate timing that might not work out. Naturally we chose the latter. So early on the 27th we got the bus from Rio Caribe to Cumana (just under 4 hours). This was risky because there is only one bus to Caripe(near the cave,) and we might miss it. We didn't, but the bus is actually a minivan. I asked when it left and the man said something about 11. Excellent timing, as we had arrived well ahead of schedule at 10.45. But we didn't leave at 11, nor11.30. In hindsight he may have said that they left when they had 11 people, but he actually waited until we had 14 and I was starting to feel that we might be on a chicken van. We left at 12, on a nominally 3 and a half hour trip to the cave that closes at 4pm. But at least we had made our connection. Our driver stopped frustratingly often to talk to people, and twice for a beer, but he was a nice guy and lent us plastic bags to cover our backpacks when it started to rain. We were discouraged though to find that we spent about an hour and a half driving back towards Rio Caribe. It didn't look like any backtracking was required on our map.
We arrived at about 3.40 and Nancy organised tickets while I dealt with the luggage. And we were able to do a tour, though somewhat shortened, and they let us leave our packs at reception!
The cave
The cave is fantastic. It is a big jagged hole in the cliff that penetrates for 1200m, and as soon as you get in you hear the low clicking of the birds as they navigate in the dark, and their loud shrieking as they complain about the intrusion and other matters. The first sound is a little like tapping a pencil on a desk, the latter like tearing paper or the chatter penguins make.
No torches are allowed inside, and the only light is the guide's hurricane lantern which produces an unfocused glow so as not to harm the birds. This makes the birds hard to see although they are obviously numerous and can be dimly made out fluttering around the cavern. The are other things to see. Many stalactites and stalagmites fancifully thought to resemble all kinds of things from the heads of elephants to South America. Some resemblances are quite plausible, to be fair. More interestingly, there are three species of rat. We saw many representatives of one species, who is quite cute in light grey and white. We saw albino catfish (up to 10 cm long), crickets, a longish centipede, and some of the birds. I found the remains of one on the floor. And the floor itself is quite interesting. It is composed of the guano of the thousands of birds that live here, but more so from the thousands of seeds that these birds regurgitate after their night out collecting fruit. Sickly looking plants try to grow in the cave but don't seem to be able to get past about six inches. Looking back to the entrance, we could only see a bright green light, so vivid as to look unnatural.
We had about an hour in the cave which seemed to pass much faster, and were lucky to get that. Everything, including the office with our bags, was shut when we got out (but the key was available).
We planned to camp across the road that night so hat we could watch the birds head out for the night. How to get back to main bus routes so that we could get to Craca for our flight on the 29th? Well, a 'bus' goes by at 6am, but might be full at this time of the year, and another minivan at 6.30 am. Not much chance of getting to the museum then. The bus was described as a Jaguar sprinter. Not a bus model I am familiar with.
So our tent finally got an airing. Exactly three months after we left, it got its first use (I'm pleased that it has got some use, having carried it all this way). We did watch the guacharos come out, but they did it in ones and twos not in a great cloud, although accompanied by great shrieking, clicking and high pitched sounds which I assume came from them and not from bats.
Then we ate our delicious dinner of pasta we had cooked the night before(thinking ahead)and tuna with coriander and tomato. It was fabulous, although not having had time for lunch helped. We fell asleep to the sounds of guacharos overhead. We wanted another shot at the birds so we got up at 4.30 the next morning and started organising, but the birds came back when it was still too dark to see much.
We discovered that a surprisingly unstarved black dog had curled up a few meters from our tent during the night and he kept us company through the morning as if asking to be kidnapped. We were tempted too.
Nancy had expressly checked the night before whether the 'bus' might come by before 6. No. But it was a good thing that we don't trust that kind of assurance because we caught our transport at 5.56. There was one other person on it, so we weren't in peril of spending another night with the birds. But it wasn't a Jag, but a land rover. Almost everyone it picked up along the way was a woman with young children and babies in tow. Why this class of person should travel more than others, I don't know.
We didn't stop for beers this time and were back in Cumana by 8.30, and at our beach for our last real night in Venezuela.
The Guacharo
It is apparently the only the only nocturnal bird in the world that is not carnivorous, and though it can see it uses echolocation. It grows to 55cm with a wingspan of 1m and has long sensitive whiskers. It collects food over night, which I think it stores in its crop to be consumed and digested inside the cave, including the spitting out of fruit seeds.
