Catatumbo (Venezuela) (AFP)

Lightning over Lake Maracaibo, Northwestern Venezuela, September 11, 2021 In the dark night, countless lightning bolts light up the sky and the stilted village of Lake Maracaibo in northwestern Venezuela : this phenomenon, which is repeated a hundred days a year at the mouth of the Catatumbo river, makes the area the world capital of lightning.

Poets and musicians have dubbed the area the "Catatumbo Lighthouse".

Lighthouse because the regularity of luminosity could make believe that a lighthouse has been installed in the delta of the river.

And that the fishermen guide themselves thanks to this light.

Some nights, in addition to the lightning, the Milky Way and its thousands of stars appear clearly in the sky, offering a magical spectacle that would almost make you think of a bad film editing as it seems so unreal.

The starry sky over Lake Maracaibo, in northwestern Venezuela, September 6, 2021 Federico PARRA AFP

The spectacle is also favored by the absence of light ... Here the electricity does not arrive and the rare installations or villages having generators do not light them any more because of the shortage of gasoline caused by the crisis. economy that crosses the country.

The only artificial light, a few flashlights used from time to time on the lake by fishermen at work.

Lightning over Lake Maracaibo, in northwestern Venezuela, September 11, 2021 Federico PARRA AFP

- Records -

Not enough to disturb the vision of the ballet of eclairs.

Some zigzag, others collide or cross in the sky.

Some touch the water so quickly that the eye struggles to register them while perceiving the light produced.

40-year-old fisherman Marianela Romero enjoys eclairs.

"I adore them, because thanks to them we see where we are going", she affirms, the face lit sporadically by the rays of light.

Lightning over Lake Maracaibo, in northwestern Venezuela, September 11, 2021 Federico PARRA AFP

The phenomenon, often dubbed "Catatumbo's lightning" as if there was only one, is silent - with no audible thunder.

Fisherman, Nerio Romero regularly welcomes tourists eager to enjoy the spectacle in his modest house in the Cienaguas de Juan Manuel Natural Park.

It offers a three-hour boat trip through the park where you can see monkeys and dolphins, before settling in to watch the lightning fall.

But, the phenomenon also attracts scientists.

Venezuelan environmental specialist Erik Quiroga entered the area in the Guinness Book of Records in 2014. At the time, experts had identified 250 lightning per km2 over a year.

Lightning over Lake Maracaibo, near the village of Ologa in northwestern Venezuela, September 11, 2021 Federico PARRA AFP

In 2016, NASA confirmed this high level, recording 233 impacts per km2 over the year.

"Previously, researchers had identified the Congo Basin in Africa as the place of maximum lightning activity," recalls a 2021 NASA press release.

According to the American space agency, Lake Maracaibo benefits from a geography and a climate favoring the development of electrical storms with an average of "297 nocturnal electrical storms per year", with a peak in September.

A man on a boat on Lake Maracaibo, in northwestern Venezuela, September 5, 2021 Federico PARRA AFP

Erik Quiroga, who discovered lightning as a child, has been working on the subject for 26 years but never tires of it.

"It's the smile of the night," he said.

© 2021 AFP