Venezuela road trip 2014-Henri Pittier and el Limon

Venezuela road trip 2014, Henri Pittier and El Limon

After a great first year in Venezuela we decided to tour around a bit before heading home. The first part of the trip was inspired by the Griswold family vacation- We left Caracas with surfboards (instead of grandma) strapped to the roof of the car. We stopped at Colonia Tovar, Choroni, Chuao, the Henri Pittier National forest and El Limon, Morrocoy, Bejuma, and back to Caracas. The second part was Inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle's book "the Lost World". To see if there really were dinosaurs living on the Tepui's we flew to Ciudad Bolivar and then Kavak. We explored canyons, journeyed by indigenous canoe, and slept in hammocks at the base of Angel Falls- didn't find Conan Doyle's creatures but had an amazing time. Will try to do justice to each of the legs of the journey- enjoy!

Henri Pittier National Forest

So being Colorado hiking type people we were really looking forward to this part of the trip. National forest = hiker paradise right? Well not exactly. There are no hiking trails in the Pittier forest! There is one that leaves a research center but when we stopped by the guide said no hiking that day as he wasn't available (didn't feel like it). Our indignation lessened when we learned later that guides were necessary not due to the rough nature of the trail but because people were getting robbed when allowed to hike alone. So we did a lot of driving- it is an incredibly beautiful cloud forest but we were bummed to not be exploring. 

Our mood was vastly improved when we stopped by the "gran ola" roadside restaurant. We just wanted a quick empanada but got much more. It was father's day, the world cup was on, and a small stream was flowing by out back. We wandered down and slowly things just got cool. Lisa and Luca started catching bugs and shrimp with some kids, we shared some pears with a family bbqing and they shared some tasty meat off the grill. I sat there just feeling complete- all I needed was with me: Lisa, Wilder, Luca, and bbq.

An empanada is a fried bread concoction filled with carne, pollo, or queso. 

The river out back

Camilla was teaching Lisa spanish and Lisa was teaching Camilla english- very cute.

 Catching crawdads in a cup

this is luca "fishing" drop some bread in the water then hit them with a rock.

 We didn't stop here- but I liked the sign "queen of the empanada"

 The posada in el Limon was groovy, Kids kept the trip journal going and Luca found a dead snake.

 In the end I didn't get this car for father's day- but I did get some strangely familiar PAN shorts- SCORE!!