Llanos

The Llanos, Venezuela is a grassland area that floods seasonally and covers about a third of Venezuela and an eighth of Colombia. It is situated on huge downward denture on the earth’s crust or some sort of exposed aquifer. It lies squarely on the meeting between Caribbean ridge and the Andes ridges. The Llanos is comprised mostly of alluvial sediments from the Quaternary and Tertiary eras.

The Llanos, Venezuela boosts of a great diversity of wildlife. It is most famous for its swamp dwelling wildlife like the ibis, scarlet, capybara and Orinoco goose. The grassland is in its full splendour in the months between July and October when flooding is at its optimum. The dry spell thereafter leaves the land parched up. The fauna at the Llanos comprises of about 3,400 flowering plants. There are about 450 different bird species and 148 mammal species. The Llanos also boosts of the largest snake species in the world like the Anaconda and the Orinoco crocodile.

The wet forest ecosystem includes the cloud forests which form the barrier separating the llanos of Venezuela and the great basins of Lake Maracaibo. The climate of the Llanos, Venezuela is heavily dependent on the north easterly trade winds mostly in the dry season that spans from December to April. The inter- tropical convergence zone, precipitates the highest rains in the year.

The Llanos include several national parks in the same eco-region, El Tama, Tama (Colombia), Sierra Nevada, Dimira, Yacambu, General Pablo Penalosa and Sierra de la Culata. With the availability of so many parks, there is assurance that one will not get bored.