Los Llanos

Los Llanos is the immense tropical grassland that spreads across Venezuela's interior, south of the Andes and north of the Orinoco. In the wet season it floods; in the dry season it draws down into rivers, lagoons, and waterholes — and as the water shrinks, the wildlife concentrates. This is the reason to come. Few places in the Americas let you see so much, so easily, from the back of a safari truck or a flat-bottomed boat: capybara by the hundred, spectacled caiman lining the banks, anaconda in the marsh grass, giant anteater working the open ground, and flocks of scarlet ibis turning the evening sky red.

The tourism here is built around the hatos — the working cattle ranches of the plains, several of which have opened their land to visitors as all-inclusive wildlife lodges. The flagship operating ranch is Hato El Cedral, in Apure state, roughly $100 per person per night all-inclusive, with daily truck safaris across the savanna and boat trips on the caños (channels). (Note: the once-famous Hato Piñero in Cojedes was expropriated and is closed to tourism — don't plan around it.) Days start before dawn for the best light and animal activity and run through a second outing at dusk.

The best season is the dry months, roughly December through April, when the drawing-down water forces animals into the open and the roads are passable. Access is overland: about three hours by road from Barinas, or via San Fernando de Apure, the plains' main town. Los Llanos is not a beach or a mountain trip — it is a patient, unhurried wildlife trip, and for anyone who wants to actually see South American megafauna rather than hope for a glimpse, it is the single best thing Venezuela offers.