I can remember growing up, watching the Miss Universe pageant, and thinking “How is Miss Venezuela always so hot?” It was fitting, then, that my first trip to South America was to Venezuela.

I didn’t know much about the country before my trip, other than that I was likely to find beautiful scenery and even more beautiful people. And I was right on both accounts. The Venezuelan people were extremely friendly and welcoming, and the weather was…well, I’d say perfect…but when you’re right on the equator like that, sometimes it’s actually so hot and humid that your eyebrows sweat. So let’s just say almost perfect.

Though the country itself was breathtaking, I found a few things to be absolutely magical. The first, was that there were secret beaches, like in that Leonardo DiCaprio movie The Beach. We took a boat from the coast and headed out to sea, in the general direction of Puerto Rico. On the way, we passed an eerie bird sanctuary on a huge island where humans are strictly forbidden. Try to picture this: thousands of birds circling an island, all types and colors and sizes. And there are mean-looking aggressive vulture-like (sorry, I’m not an ornithologist) birds working guard-duty around the perimeter of the island. And they just look at you, like, “You know you can’t come in here, right? Keep moving.” But if you look past the evil guard birds (pictured above), it’s like Jurassic Park inside. Birds just playing, chasing each other, without a care in the world.

So we move past the bird kingdom and continue to boat out to sea for another 30 minutes. And then, a tiny dot on the horizon appears. And soon the horizon becomes an island. And as you get closer, you see people partying in the ocean surrounding the island. Again, not on the beach, but in the waist-deep crystal-clear ocean. And they are drinking liquor and serving food and selling jewelry and sunglasses from styrofoam trays in the ocean. A guy even ran my credit card from a floating tray! How does that happen?? It was an entire community at sea…like Atlantis, minus the mermaids and underwater castles. So maybe if Atlantis had a small college town, it’d be like that. Still…magic.

The next visually-stunning event, which happened completely by chance, was an amazing lightning storm, the likes of which I’ve never seen in my life. It started around 2am, so I scurried to the roof of my hotel and took some long exposures. In hindsight, I wish I could have gotten closer (with lenses, silly), but then again, you never know where lighting will strike so I covered the shots pretty wide.

I had hoped to visit Angel Falls, the tallest waterfall in the world, but alas I discovered it was a weeklong round-trip with lots of trekking involved, and I didn’t have the time on this journey. So, I’ll look forward to coming back for sure.

Special thanks to the wonderful Daniela and Dayda for taking care of me in Valencia, and to Roberto for the stay in Tuacacas. I am blessed to have so many wonderful friends all around the world.