Something magnificent is happening in the night sky above the northwest corner of Venezuela.

It's where the Catatumbo River meets Lake Merikaibo.

They are above the lake, streaks of lightning, shock the sky.

From a distance, the lightning is completely silent, but out there on the lake, in the thick

of it.

The atmosphere rumbles and thunder crashes.

And it happens like this almost every single night.

This phenomenon, this storm, has been happening here for as long as people can remember.

I'm Dylan Therese, and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange,

incredible, and wondrous places.

And today we're joined by Nitrogide, author, and photographer Alan Heighton to talk about

the most electric place on Earth, the ever-lasting lightning storm.

That's after this.

Where I am right now, I am three minutes walk from one of the most beautiful coasts in

the world, and sandy white beaches.

It's Alan Heighton.

He is a nature expert, a photographer, and right now he's spending time with his family

on the Caribbean island of Barbados.

Take my wife and go to my daughter sometimes to the beach.

They just like to swim and enjoy the sun and the sun, but my thing is the waves.

I go in the ocean when the waves are great for surfing.

Alan's from Barbados originally, and it's where he met his Venezuelan wife in 1981.

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