Caicara del Orinoco
Celebrating the famous fairs of Las Mercedes del Llano and thanks to the invitation of Mr. Armando Herrera, a Thursday afternoon we parted to the town Las Mercedes in the Guarico State. We stayed at Hato Don Humberto, were we spent an especially cozy night thanks to our hosts. Early Friday morning we continue going south to explore more of these parts of the plains.
After a fast breakfast in the town of Santa Rita, we made a stop on a restaurant at the side of the road in an area known as Puerta de Cabruta. A very nice and picturesque place where they serve any kind of river fish and hunted meat, as Chigüire and Baba, they also have a beautiful palafito-caney in the center of the lagoon that even has a barbecue, that is, everything needed to tempt us to open some beers and stay there, but since our goal was somewhere else, the beers will have to wait until next time.
We then got to the small town of Cabruta and there we waited for the ferry that will take us to Caicara. We could not get enough of our Orinoco, taking pictures during the entire ferry trip. The majesty of the landscape is almost incredible, we could see the plains behind us and the plentiful river separating the difference and limiting the Bolivar and Guarico states. A short review over Caicara was enough to discern Plaza Bolivar, the Mayor’s office and the Church, as well as the “El sol y la Luna” petroglyph.
We continue our route toward Ciudad Bolívar and stopped at Cuchivero River and after negotiating with the townsmen, we decided to navigate on “curiara”. We had a good time navigating for a while trying to fish some payaras, without avail. When dusk settle, we promptly returned to Caicara to take the last ferry back, and that was the best decision since we could enjoy a great sunset full of bright reds and oranges, and a spectacular sky that we couldn’t stop admiring.
We arrived to the Hato late at night, were we found already a lot of people that had come to celebrate and enjoy the Las Mercedes festival. Some of us decided to stay at the Hato since we were pretty tired, but others went to see the “tailed bulls” rodeo. The festivities went on almost all night, among bulls, horses, tailers, music and beer. The next day, a large group got ready to go to the Aguaro-Guariquito park, specifically to the area known as Vuelta El Oso, we rode through flooded roads enjoying the spatter and taking pictures, but when we arrived to the Aguaro River we could see that it was still too high and could not cross it, so we decided to relax, take a swim and spent a nice afternoon among friends.
We arrived to the Hato late at night, were we found already a lot of people that had come to celebrate and enjoy the Las Mercedes festival. Some of us decided to stay at the Hato since we were pretty tired, but others went to see the “tailed bulls” rodeo. The festivities went on almost all night, among bulls, horses, tailers, music and beer. The next day, a large group got ready to go to the Aguaro-Guariquito park, specifically to the area known as Vuelta El Oso, we rode through flooded roads enjoying the spatter and taking pictures, but when we arrived to the Aguaro River we could see that it was still too high and could not cross it, so we decided to relax, take a swim and spent a nice afternoon among friends.
That night we went to the “tailed” bulls ring at Las Mercedes, enjoying this traditional sport of our country that brings joy and celebration to our people.
We went back home on Sunday having experienced once again the craving to explore the world. To know, appreciate and share our experiences is food for the soul…that is why we always ask ourselves…where are we going next weekend? Overland life is just like this!
