The Cueva del Guácharo National Park has as its centrepiece a large cave ("cueva" in Spanish) 12km from Caripe, which is the home of thousands of oilbirds. This vegetarian, nocturnal species was made known to science by Alexander Von Humboldt and named by him after the town of Caripe.

Sightseeing
The cave itself was designated as Venezuela's first National Monument, in 1949. The National Park was later created to conserve the cave-system and environment of the birds. The cave is a limestone cavern over 10 km long, with a number of large chambers and spectacular rock formations. There are a number of other creatures such as fish, crabs, rodents, bats and spiders.

Getting there
Go on a guided tour of the cave and then camp outside the entrance to watch the thousands of nocturnal birds pouring out to go and feed.