"It is dangerous," the Troll hisses...

February 24th, 2010: The dirty man obviously does not work for the National Park Service as he stands in front of the trail for the waterfalls and hisses, "It is dangerous...", trying to get me to hire him for a guide and bodyguard. He was missing his two front teeth...either he is ineffective in helping people or just never got his two front teeth for christmas from santa clause because he has not been a good boy. Okay...I heard that dangerous line before, another man feasting off peoples fears. I told him, no thank you and stepped off the trail and walked around him thinking that he was not going to do anything to stop anyone nor did I need a tour in spanish. The others that he stopped moments before were walking away because they did not know how to get around the troll. Seeing me pass, they too made a run for it following me down the trail.

Seeing one of Venezuela´s largest caves I was not too impressed. They were missing the high tech lighting, head sets and a concession stand in the center for those who might get a bit thirsty from all the walking. So it wasn't spectacular visually but the noises of the main resident which is the Guacharo bird was quite amazing. It was different hearing their loud screams and seeing them flying around in a bat like fashion from far far far into the mouth of the cave while I am use to seeing bats and hearing their small squeaks. There were other creatures that roamed about the cave. There was a large amount of blind rats and huge hand sized crabs...yes, this seemed strange having to watch out for them on the trail in a cave and not to step on the crabs let alone step on a blind rat. The guide stated they were blind...I am not sure about that but, he did wave his hands in front of a rat face perched up on a rock and it did not doing anything - it could have be just...just...dumb.

It took me a very long time to get to the caves and waterfalls. Not because of the distance, but because of my cheapness. I tried to get a local bus for $0.25 but after a hour of no success, I ended up just paying the $2.50 for the 12km cab ride. I did get a local bus back which involved a 2km workout walking down hill - I am exhausted just writing about it.