© Peter Szczerbicki 2006

These are photos from a trip to the Laguna Negra in Merida, Venezuela. As you can see from this photo, the 'Black Lagoon' isn't always black. On this day the colours were amazing. We caught the bus to Laguna Mucubaji and walked about an hour to the Negra, where we ate, and I swam. Actually, when I entered it was so cold I started to walk out, but there was a group of people on the other shore and they started shouting and motioning for me to dive in. Well, I had to really. It was freezing but, again, a great experience. Before that, sitting in the sun, I was looking out over the colours in the water, and the mountains rising up at the other end. To my right a dragonfly was buzzing around where the sunlight glittered in the water. I'm pleased with the pictures, but there is no way that they could capture what it is to be in a place like that. I hope you can get an idea at least.

By the time we arrived back to Mucubaji, the clouds had settled down over the lagoon and were just beginning to lift again. It was like a whole different world. I walked down and took some photos of that while my friends went to watch some people fishing in a stream nearby. When the clouds lifted I went to find them and we kicked a ball around, then took some photos in the sunset, before heading down to the road. The last bus back to the city (2 hours drive away) passed without stopping, and nobody would give us a lift. One taxi wouldn't take us because there were 6 of us. We prayed for God to help us and in the end decided to walk, in the dark, along the road to Apartaderos and look for somewhere to stay or something. We walked and jogged about 15 or 20 minutes below an incredible blanket of stars, before finally someone passing in a truck decided to give us a lift to Apartaderos. I lay down in the back of the truck and had an amazing ride staring up at the stars. From Apartaderos we caught a bus to Mucuchies, where we eventually stayed for free with a friend of one of the girls. What a trip.

The next Saturday I went back to the same lagoons with some different friends. Again, it was really good fun, and Marcos and I climbed up to a waterfall by the far shore of the lagoon. I swam again. Marcos also ran into the water, after I persuaded him, and dived in, before running straight back out. This time we managed to catch the bus!