Michael Palin in Venezuela
Filter by Day
Filter by Location
Filter by Country
: ()
Day 1, Simón Bolívar International Airport, Caracas, Venezuela
‘SE BUSCA’ (WANTED). An arrest warrant notice for Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia.
Day 1, Simón Bolívar International Airport, Caracas, Venezuela
Day 2, Chacao, Caracas, Venezuela
Caracas, dwarfed by the green-clad range of the Parque Nacional El Ávila.
Day 2, Chacao, Caracas, Venezuela
Day 2, Chacao, Caracas, Venezuela
With Ana in Plaza Francia.
Day 2, Chacao, Caracas, Venezuela
Day 2, La Hoyada, Caracas, Venezuela
Eye-catching mosaic murials.
Day 2, La Hoyada, Caracas, Venezuela
Day 2, La Hoyada, Caracas, Venezuela
Street vendors at La Hoyada market.
Day 2, La Hoyada, Caracas, Venezuela
Day 2, La Hoyada, Caracas, Venezuela
Day 2, La Hoyada, Caracas, Venezuela
Day 2, Plaza Bolívar, Caracas, Venezuela
The greatest Venezuelan of them all, Simón Bolívar.
Day 2, Plaza Bolívar, Caracas, Venezuela
Day 3, Petare, Caracas, Venezuela
Home to around a million people, Petare is one of the many barrios that cover the mountainsides around Caracas.
Day 3, Petare, Caracas, Venezuela
Day 3, Petare Plaze Sucre, Caracas, Venezuela
Another triumphal equestrian statue, for once not bearing the name of Bolívar, but that of Antonio José de Sucre, his friend and fellow liberator.
Day 3, Petare Plaze Sucre, Caracas, Venezuela
Day 3, Petare, Caracas, Venezuela
Katiuska Camargo, known to all as Kati (centre in the photo), a community worker and woman of great warmth.
Day 3, Petare, Caracas, Venezuela
Day 3, Petare, Caracas, Venezuela
Yaya and her nephew Aleph.
Day 3, Petare, Caracas, Venezuela
Day 3, Petare, Caracas, Venezuela
Colourful buildings in the neighbourhood of San Blas, Petare, originally built to house the workers drawn to Caracas during the oil-led economic boom of the 1950s, ’60s and early ’70s.
Day 3, Petare, Caracas, Venezuela
Day 3, Caracas, Venezuela
One of the many walls, bridges and billboards in Caracase festooned with the face of the nation's founder, Simón Bolívar.
Day 3, Caracas, Venezuela
Day 3, Caracas, Venezuela
The Bolívar Mausoleum - Simón Bolívar's final resting place.
Day 3, Caracas, Venezuela
Day 3, Caracas, Venezuela
The National Pantheon - Simón Bolívar's previous resting place.
Day 3, Caracas, Venezuela
Day 3, El Hatillo Town, Caracas, Venezuela
Valentine's night in El Hatillo with television star Valentina Quintero.
Day 3, El Hatillo Town, Caracas, Venezuela
Day 3, El Hatillo Town, Caracas, Venezuela
Valentine's night in El Hatillo with television star Valentina Quintero.
Day 3, El Hatillo Town, Caracas, Venezuela
Day 4, Cerro El Ávila, Caracas, Venezuela
The Humboldt Hotel. Opened to the public in 1956 and recently renovated by President Maduro.
Day 4, Cerro El Ávila, Caracas, Venezuela
Day 4, Cerro El Ávila, Caracas, Venezuela
The chic interior of the Humboldt Hotel.
Day 4, Cerro El Ávila, Caracas, Venezuela
Day 4, Cerro El Ávila, Caracas, Venezuela
Families with picnics, tourists and affluent customers all make their way up to the mountain top hoping for the spectacular view of Caracas on one side and the blue Caribean on the other.
Day 4, Cerro El Ávila, Caracas, Venezuela
Day 4, Cerro El Ávila, Caracas, Venezuela
View of Caracas from the dedicated cable-car lift carrying guests up the mountain and to the Humboldt Hotel, 6,500 feet above the capital.
Day 4, Cerro El Ávila, Caracas, Venezuela
Day 5, Canaima, Venezuela
On board a Brizillian-built Embraer 190 on my way to Canaima.
Day 5, Canaima, Venezuela
Day 5, La Gran Sabana, Canaima, Venezuela
A glimpse of a tepuis (flat-topped mountain).
Day 5, La Gran Sabana, Canaima, Venezuela
Day 5, Canaima National Park, Venezuela
Canaima Airport.
Day 5, Canaima National Park, Venezuela
Day 5, Waku Lodge, Canaima National Park, Venezuela
Our home for the next two nights.
Day 5, Waku Lodge, Canaima National Park, Venezuela
Day 5, Sapo Falls, Canaima National Park, Venezuela
'I'm 81! I shouldn't be here! I should be in bed.'
Day 5, Sapo Falls, Canaima National Park, Venezuela
Day 5, Waku Lodge, Canaima National Park, Venezuela
The dawn chorus of toucans, macaws and parrots remind me that I've left Caracas well behind.
Day 5, Waku Lodge, Canaima National Park, Venezuela
Day 6, Canaima, Venezuela
Freddy, our pilot, sit's quietly as we are given a safety briefing. He has a shock of white hair and bears an uncomfortable resemblance to Airplane! star Leslie Nielson.
Day 6, Canaima, Venezuela
Day 6, Carrao River, Canaima, Venezuela
Amongst the uniform green cover are odd treeless patches of white and brown, the results of illegal gold mining.
Day 6, Carrao River, Canaima, Venezuela
Day 6, Carrao River, Canaima, Venezuela
The contrast with the rainforest is striking and depressing. Stripped of natural cover and leached with mercury to free the gold, the result is a wasteland.
Day 6, Carrao River, Venezuela
Day 6, Kamarata, Canaima, Venezuela
I am invited to lunch by Arturo, my Pemon friend. His wife and daughter have cooked a traditional meal: fish stew, palm-tree worms, and a sauce made from much sought after ants’ bottoms.
Day 6, Kamarata, Venezuela
Day 6, Angel Falls, Canaima, Venezuela
To the Pemon people it has always been Kerepakupai Merú (waterfall of the deepest place).
Day 6, Angel Falls, Canaima, Venezuela
Day 6, Angel Falls, Canaima, Venezuela
Our landing pad: a rocky platform, about half the length of a cricket pitch. Looking around I realise how - and indeed why - very few people have ever stoood here.
Day 6, Angel Falls, Canaima, Venezuela
Day 6, Angel Falls, Canaima, Venezuela
I don't think I've ever been confronted with nature quite as dramtic as this. Falling water hits the ground just a few feet from where I'm standing. Behind me the perilously slippery ledge on which we landed.
Day 6, Angel Falls, Canaima, Venezuela
Day 7, Los Roques Archipelago National Park, Venezuela
The sand-circled islands of Los Roques archipelago.
Day 7, Los Roques Archipelago National Park, Venezuela
Day 7, Gran Roques, Los Roques Archipelago National Park, Venezuela
Welcome sculpture at the entrance to the old town.
Day 7, Gran Roques, Los Roques Archipelago National Park, Venezuela
Day 7, Gran Roques, Los Roques Archipelago National Park, Venezuela
The old town is homely and unpretentious, but every now and then extravagant trophy houses spring up wherever there’s room.
Day 7, Gran Roques, Los Roques Archipelago National Park, Venezuela
Day 8, Hacienda Santa Teresa, Jose Rafael Revenga, Venezuela
The palatial courtyard room at the Hacienda Santa Teresa.
Day 8, Hacienda Santa Teresa, Jose Rafael Revenga, Venezuela
Day 9, El Consejo, Jose Rafael Revenga, Venezuela
Once in the grip of the gang Tren de Aragua, the town, with its multi-coloured shops and houses, seems calm enough but still has huge problems.
Day 9, El Consejo, Venezuela
Day 9, El Consejo, Jose Rafael Revenga, Venezuela
Once in the grip of the gang Tren de Aragua, the town, with its multi-coloured shops and houses, seems calm enough but still has huge problems.
Day 9, El Consejo, Venezuela
Day 9, El Consejo, Jose Rafael Revenga, Venezuela
Prison guards and players at Alberto Vollmer’s rugby rehabilitation programme, Project Alcatraz.
Day 9, El Consejo, Venezuela
Day 10, Plaza del Estudiante, Sabaneta, Venezuela
An ugly mess of a statue.
Day 10, Plaza del Estudiante, Sabaneta, Venezuela
Day 10, Sabaneta, Venezuela
A plaque beneath the statue of Hugo Chávez shows it to be a gift from Vladimir Putin.
Day 10, Sabaneta, Venezuela
Day 10, Sabaneta, Venezuela
Vivid murials of a young-looking Hugo Chávez gaze at us from across the road during our unscheduled stop with the Venezuelan Intelligence Service.
Day 10, Sabaneta, Venezuela
Day 10, Los Llanos, Venezuela
A hearty dinner at Hato Cristero Lodge, after a long and difficult day.
Day 10, Los Llanos, Venezuela
Day 11, Los Llanos, Venezuela
Returning a 12-foot, 30-pound anaconda found by the side of the road to the wild.
Day 11, Los Llanos, Venezuela
Day 11, Los Llanos, Venezuela
With Armando, a tall, strapping llanero (cowboy) from the family-run Hato Cristero Lodge, and Rómulo, an enormous Orinoco caiman.
Day 11, Los Llanos, Venezuela
Day 11, The Trans-Andean Highway, Venezuela
The cool foothills of the Andes.
Day 11, The Trans-Andean Highway, Venezuela
Day 12, Mérida, Venezuela
The magnificent surroundings of Estrancia La Cañada.
Day 12, Mérida, Venezuela
Day 12, Mérida, Venezuela
The Teleférico Mukumbari, the highest cable-car ride in the world, at 15,629 feet (4,765 metres) above sea level.
Day 12, Mérida, Venezuela
Day 12, Mérida, Venezuela
View of Mérida - or to give it it's full name, Santiago de los Caballeros Mérida - from the cable-car.
Day 12, Mérida, Venezuela
Day 12, Mérida, Venezuela
A huge national flag billows out majestically in the wind at the cable-car terminus on Pico Espejo.
Day 12, Mérida, Venezuela
Day 12, Mérida, Venezuela
Mount Humboldt. Until recently it was the home of Venezuela's last and largest glacier.
Day 12, Mérida, Venezuela
Day 14, Mérida, Venezuela
Weaving our way out of the mountains towards Lake Maracaibo.
Day 14, Mérida, Venezuela
Day 14, Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela
The much-sought-after blue crab.
Day 14, Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela
Day 14, Ologa, Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela
The low shacks built out onto the lake are called palafitos, loosely translated on Google as 'overwater bungalows'.
Day 14, Ologa, Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela
Day 14, Ologa, Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela
Although it's a lovely spot, it's also an economically distressed one. Fishermen here earn barely enough to scrape a living. The local school has closed, and no government help is at hand.
Day 14, Ologa, Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela
Day 14, Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela
Our palafito for the night at the mouth of the Concha river.
Day 14, Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela
Day 14, Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela
Settling down after a sensational supper of grilled blue crab.
Day 14, Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela
Day 15, Pan-American Highway, To Maracaibo, Venezuela
Nodding donkeys, or pumpjacks as they used to be called, seemingly appear from nowhere by the side of the road.
Day 15, Pan-American Highway, To Maracaibo, Venezuela
Day 15, Maracaibo, Venezuela
Carrying the road over Lake Caracaibo, this bridge, named after General Rafael Urdaneta, a contemporary of Bolívar's, is five and a half miles long.
Day 15, Maracaibo, Venezuela
Day 15, Maracaibo, Venezuela
The abandoned Gran Bingo.
Day 15, Maracaibo, Venezuela
Day 15, Maracaibo, Venezuela
Beside a huge, seemingly empty residential block, we arrive at our hotel, and our long day's journey comes to an end.
Day 15, Maracaibo, Venezuela
Day 16, Maracaibo, Venezuela
Few people are out on the sidewalks. Businesses and shops with locked doors and screens over the windows. The good times seem to have passed.
Day 16, Maracaibo, Venezuela
Day 16, Maracaibo, Venezuela
Brightly coloured houses around the Pa' Que Luis.
Day 16, Maracaibo, Venezuela
Day 16, Maracaibo, Venezuela
Miss Zulia, winner of one of the twenty-three reginal heats of the Beauty Queen of Venezuela competition.
Day 16, Maracaibo, Venezuela
Day 16, Iglesia de Santa Bárbara, Maracaibo, Venezuela
One of the many brightly coloured churches in Maracaibo.
Day 16, Iglesia de Santa Bárbara, Maracaibo, Venezuela
Day 17, Médanos de Coro, Coro, Venezuela
A sea of golden sand dunes stetching 35 square miles to the coast.
Day 17, Médanos de Coro, Coro, Venezuela
Day 18, Chuao, Venezuela
Fisherman's boats become marine taxi's during carnival weekend.
Day 18, Chuao, Venezuela
Day 18, Chuao, Venezuela
With Elena, who runs the cocoa-producing Empresa Campesina Chuao company.
Day 18, Chuao, Venezuela
Day 18, Chuao, Venezuela
The very beginning of the chocolate-making process - the cacao beans.
Day 18, Chuao, Venezuela
Day 18, Chuao, Venezuela
The fermentaion room at Empresa Campesina Chuao.
Day 18, Chuao, Venezuela
Day 18, Chuao, Venezuela
Experience is everything as cacao beans are sorted.
Day 18, Chuao, Venezuela
Day 18, Chuao, Venezuela
Finishing touches are made to make-up and hair ahead of tonight's carnival celebrations.
Day 18, Chuao, Venezuela
Day 18, Chuao, Venezuela
It's much grander than I expected - dancers, young and old, in dazzling costumes, providing an energetic, well-rehearsed song-and-dance overture.
Day 18, Chuao, Venezuela
Day 19, Caracas, Venezuela
Two large inflatable figures look down on us from the top of a peaje gantry - the President of Venezuela as Super Moustache and his wife.
Day 19, Caracas, Venezuela
Day 19, La Guaira, Venezuela
The La Guaira carnival has all the hallmarks of government-sponsored fun. The floats themselves are fine, if a bit corporate. But much cheering and applause as they go slowly by the crowds.
Day 19, La Guaira, Venezuela
Day 20, Simón Bolívar International Airport, Caracas, Venezuela
The distinctive, colourful, bold and bright tiled floor of the airport.
Day 20, Simón Bolívar International Airport, Caracas, Venezuela
While every effort has been made to trace copyright holders of content included within this gallery, if any have inadvertently been overlooked, themichaelpalin.com will be pleased to acknowledge them.