HAPPY VALENTINES DAY FOLKS!
This email is from my travels, which I sent to friends and family, and is from february 6th.
I cannot deal with attaching photos on these net terminals here in Venezuela but eventually there will be photos from this trip:



Friends and Family,

I have just returned from, as Anthony eloquently phrased it, `deep in
the guts of Colombia`. Our `base` was Puerto Inìrida in Colombia.
From there we went two or so hours more into the country, to one of
the most spectacular places I have ever seen, called Mavicure. There
are three large relics of a time gone past, huge granite outcroppings
that have resisted eons of jungle conditions and squeaked past the
powers of erosion. Dark in colour due to lichen and other growth upon
them, and interlaced with veins of quartz rock. I climbed the
smallest, which was probably 1000 foot and afforded views out into
Brazil, Venezuela, and Colombia, over endless expanses of rain forest
canopy. Indeed the lungs of the earth were right in front of me. I
could see larger mountains far far in the distance, like hazy blue
mirages on the horizon. A very peculiar falcon with yellow eyes and a
band of yellow orange around it`s face visited us whilst we were atop
this behemoth in the middle of flat flat land. I was able to take some
great photos here, especially during the heavy and brief jungle rains,
when the other two taller and much more steep outcroppings become
conduits for water to channel down, creating perhaps 100 waterfalls of
various side and dimension, streaming down the side, appearing as
Sharon speechlessly spoke as we beheld this phenomenon in the pouring
rain: `silver blood`. Though, after some more photos...

Unfortunately, my own camera has ceased to function for reasons I
cannot deduct, perhaps it was simply the power of intense amazonian
vibes, equatorial sun, torrential downpours, and something magical that
I certainly felt the whole time there. However, my companions have
cameras, including Anthony`s quite nice Nikon w/ a telephoto, so I
won`t miss being able to share the rest of this trip with ya`ll. That
said, I do have photographs attached to this e-mail from my times prior
in Venezuela. The Internet cafe`s here in Puerto Ayacucho are more
advanced than the ones I found in Caracas, and you have to cross three
rivers, including the Orinoco, on barges, to get here. They had full
capacity camera memory card readers and CD burners. Internet + Amazon,
it certainly is a new world! We will either head northwest or
northeast. To the NE we will see the Grand Sabana, and then Orinoco
Delta, before seeing the famous oil-birds of the caves on the northern
coast. To the NW we have the possibility of seeing desert type
landscape, dunes, and flamingos on the coast. Tonight the group will
likely decide the next course of action. Time in the Amazon was
surreal, and as I said before, magical in it`s own way. It was
something to look out over.

Here are some photos on a page I found, of the place in Colombia:
http://www.angelfire.com/la3/guainia99/mavicure.htm

Hola,

I write from a computer in the home of my friend's grandparents, here in Caracas, Venezuela.
It is indeed, saturday night, and I indeed, am on the computer. I have been reading, writing, and listening to music, earlier this evening, after dinner.

For those not up to date, but who do know me or read my journal, or catch me here or there on a friends page, thanks for taking the time! : ) I've been traveling since mid-december, spending the first 3 weeks of travel in Southeast Peru and Bolivia. It was wonderful down there, on the shores of Lago Titicaca, and in La Paz, etc. There is an ancient flavour that pervades that area, with native lineages and relics of antiquity, yet it seems entirely intangible, so far as really capturing this essence in word. I have a cd of the musics from there, and this comes the closest, for me.

I have spent the past three weeks in Venezeula now. a little over a week in Merida, staying at my friend's mother's home, though it was a group of 6 of us there, with no'one else, just traveling youngsters like myself. This has been a blast, and the geography, flora, and fauna there were fantastic. It was cloudforest, and the bromeliads were boundless.

A little under a week was spent at a scientific biostation in Los Llanos, the floodplains of the upper Orinoco. Here, I spotted probably 70 different species of birds, Caymens, Cupibara, crocidiles, anacondas, and more! It was very hot, and outside of sunrise and sunset, somewhat inhospitable. It is mostly flat and treeless.

Caracas is bustling, and the air is generally fresh. The World Social Forum is occuring and there are people from all over the world, though the general make up reminds me very much of a music festival or such.

I must go for now, as Javier, who's room I am in, is going to sleep!

Please comment if you would like to get my travelogue updates, as I email them to friends and family, about once a week, or less often, sometimes with some photos. Or comment, anyways, if you don't normally but read this. Love, to those of you I know, and those I don't.

Ciao,
namaste