Venezuela road trip 2014- start at the end

We just returned from a 2 week road trip. It was simply put- AMAZING. There are quite a few stories and many many pictures of the places we visited- but I will start with the last place we visited: Bug Paradise. What a great place to end our trip... and well yeah, there was this sloth... that I'm... excited to tell you about. A few things led to us planning a Venezuelan road trip- no flights to other countries being the major one, but it was one incredible trip- the people were so kind, friendly, and fun loving- if not a little curious as to why we would a) live and work here and b) drive around. The towns we visited were: Colonia Tovar, Choroni, Chuao, El Limon (Pittier National Park), Morrocoy, and Bug Paradise. So lets start at the end shall we?

The first thing I liked was no TV, cel phone service, or internet. Kids (and parents) just had to explore. Within 10 minutes Luca had said "this is the best place ever!" 

Here is a picture of Wilder watching TV.

The Posada (actually called Casa Maria) was built and made amazing by Norbert and Gaby. They built a series of trails out the back of what used to be a monoculture field of orange trees. It still has the trees but has been returned to an incredible state of biodiversity. It was pretty cool to be able to pluck oranges and eat them as we walked.

The View


This is a Powhee bird. We were given the bucket of squishy bananas to carry around in case we ran into him. 


Some plants just know how to say "don't touch"

and then... there he was, just ...well hanging out (its what they do). Seeing a sloth has been a high priority for me since moving here and the one I saw way in the top of some tall tree in May just wasn't cutting it. This guy though was right there! So fun to watch him eat and move around. The next day... well what do you know he was right there! Same tree, and the next day as well- hey he doesn't have to move much- he's a sloth!
Enjoy

this is me on the observation deck watching my sloth

 There were cool little treasures around each corner it seemed, from a blue door/ stone archway to the tile work on the sidewalks. Great craftsmanship.

this became...

this!

They even had a pet Capybara!

teenagers!

Almost as big a treat as seeing a sloth (almost) was that they had somehow found a connection to import good German beer!  

Thanks Norbert and Gaby!