Quick Hello from Jericoacoara

The internet here is SO slow and SO expensive - so my long blog will have to wait until the next town. We are here in ´Jeri´for a total of 5 lovely relaxing days - it's a fabulous beach town and our posada is AMAZING (we could easily stay here for weeks)! Only 3 more night to go - bummer! I promise to get up my VERY long blog post asap:) Abrigada! (one of the few Portuguese words we have picked up - means thank you)

Oh & a belated Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends and family in Minnesota:)

Brasil - Part 2

Waiting in line for our second overnight bus ride

Day 12 – November 12 (cont)

We went to a typical Brazilian restaurant for lunch – a kilo restaurant. You pick out the food you want from a buffet, and then you pay based on the weight of your meal. Nice food, and SO nice to be able to see the food and THEN decide what exactly you want to eat without trying to figure out the menu in Portuguese!

The meat available at the kilo restarant

Me blog blog blogging away in Manaus

Piranahs are so cute! Check out those teeth!!

We had a nice drink down at the docks with Steve - lovely sunset view!

Day 13 – November 11

We were picked up at 8:30 am and taken to the docks to catch our ferry boat to the jungle.

Life is pretty tough on the Amazon! Guarding some yummy watermelons!

First we went to see where the Rio Negro meets the Amazon River – because of the different ph levels in the water they don’t mix.

Then we continues on a 3 hour boat ride to the jungle

View of Manaus from the water - residential area

Shelly and Steve on the boat

Our floating green shack 'hotel' - cool idea, would have been better without the steel roof though! Thank GOODNESS there were no bugs! Kinda nice not to have to coat in deet for a few days!

It was literally a shack floating on submerged trees. We each had a little cabin with beds & our own bathrooms with showers, but no mozzie (mosquito) nets on the windows and a huge gap between the top of the wall and the steel ceilings. But our guide Charles assured us that because of the high ph levels in the Rio Negro there aren’t any mozzies, the steel roof though was a nightmare. WHY they would use steel for a roof when it’s boiling hot every day – I do not know.
Our first meal on the shack (lunch) was rice, spaghetti noodles, sliced up tomatoes, onions and cucumber, and some (as we called it) KFC catfish. Breaded and fried – not great. After lunch our guide Charles took us all our piranha fishing. Mayer got 4 (AFTER he offered 5 US dollars to the first person who caught a fish – shoot) and then Shelly got 1 and Jackie got 1. The rest of us just kept baiting our hooks (with BEEF – yes beef – ewww) and the piranhas nibbled and nibbled, but never grabbed hold enough to catch them.

Shelly's piranah

We stopped for a swim on the way back (at a beach where he promised us there was no piranhas or crocodiles cause of the lack of vegetation). And we all enjoyed a lovely sunset. The water is SO dark – when you get out you can see the soot on the hair on your arms – bizarre! Shelly and I hopped in with everyone, even though we only had our swim suit tops on , and not bottoms., So the shorts got wet as well, oh well, you’re only in the Amazon swimming once right? The water was SO WARM – like a warm bath – only refreshing when you stood up and caught a little breeze. The humidity is SO high in this area though that even when you are sitting in the shade you are sweating like crazy! But the view was GORGEOUS and it still felt nice to have a dip in the water.

After dinner (same meal as lunch – but with chicken instead of fish) we went out in the boat to look for Caimans and Alligators.

p.s. - head lamp + eating = lots of bugs in your food

We saw a few of each, their eyes glowing when the flashlight was on them. Our guide caught a baby alligator and walked around the boat so we could all touch him and see that he has no tongue. Because he has no tongue he can’t open his mouth under water, so if you’re ever chased by one you should just dive down under water – good to know! Worst part of the night trip out to alligator hunt – fish kept jumping INTO the boat! First one jumped up and hit my feet and Mary’s (who was sitting next to me). We both screamed cause we didn’t know what had jumped (could have been a piranha – you never know!!). Turned out it was just a small fish – but scared the heck out of us as it was flopping around by out feet. Then later on in the trip another one jumped into our boat and hit me square on the leg – there was a loud scream from me that’s for sure! Anne also got hit in the face by one on the way back! I guess they were sleeping and when our boat went by we disturbed them and their reaction was to jump – freaky!

Day 14 – November 12

After breakfast we all got into out little motor boat again and headed off for our jungle trek. After about an hour in the boat we got to the place where the trek was to begin. There was a small house there and a family came out to greet us before we went off into the jungle. We then trekked into the jungle for about 2 hours and saw lot of plants that Charles described what they were and what each plant is used for by the Indians. We saw spiders, heard toucans, and sweated like crazy!! Charles even cracked up a nut that had a grub inside (a firefly larvae) and then he ate it! Not surprisingly no one else was up for trying one!

Murray having a drink from a 'water vine'

A tarantula our guide spotted - he was BIG!

THEN we got to a Tarzan like vine. The boys each took a try (I messed up taking a video of Murray and it didn’t save – opps)! The vine was long, but it was also at the top of a hill that had a gradient of about 70 degrees. So at the furthest point of swinging away you were about 30 feet from the ground (really high)! The further you swung, the higher the potential fall would be. The vine was attached to the top of a VERY VERY tall tree. Also, it was slippery – from the sap, the sunscreen and deet on everyone’s hands, etc.

The boys all went fine, but it was difficult to hold on. Jackie (who is my age) also took a turn and towards the end slipped quickly off – thankfully she wasn’t too far from the hill and just slid a little bit and didn’t get hurt. Then Lori went, a Cambodian woman in her mid 50’s who isn’t light or in great shape and has small hands and arms. From the start we were all biting our lips, thinking it was not a good idea. But who could say anything? That was up to her husband. He filmed as she swung out, hands near the bottom from the start cause she wasn’t tall enough to reach up higher. The guide was even worried and ran down the hill to hopefully catch her if she fell. But she held on past where he was standing and fell mid swing and flew over his head – about 15 feet from the ground. At first we just thought she had knocked the wind out of herself (we could hear her trying to catch her breath). But then her husband went down and after she tried to get up and screamed we knew it was all bad. They tried to calm her down for about an hour, she tried getting up and screamed in pain, that’s when we knew it was bad. So our guide and the two Steves went back to the place we started from and got a hammock, some life jackets, and a pillow. They got back to us all about and hour later and set about making a stretcher to carry her out of the jungle.

Steve exhausted after his trek back to get the hammock for Lori

They hung the hammock from a long strong piece of wood, and then used the life jackets to keep it from folding in on itself. She screamed when they tried to life her, so they ended up just rolling her to her side and slipping it under her. It took an HOUR AND HALF to get out. The poor boys carried that super heavy load the whole way – they were beyond amazing. Our guide went ahead to cut down the brush as much as he could to clear a wider path, but they still had to lift the pole above their heads many times and climb over logs, etc. Shelly and I took up the rear of the group, carrying 2 backpacks each, being great helps by crying – worrying about our husbands carrying such a heavy load – this is NOT what we signed up for!

Eventually – Finally – we got back to the shore line. They set her down on a picnic table and just collapsed. Murray’s head was bright red and his shirt was soaked with sweat. We got them some cold coke’s from the local guy, and our guide got on the mobile phone (thank goodness there was one) and confirmed the plan. She was taken by a tiny little boat to a nearby village where a car was waiting for her to take her back to Manaus to the hospital where our guide Leticia would meet her. After the boys recovered a bit we all hopped back into our boat and went back to our camp. The accident happened at 10:30 am, and we got back to camp at 3pm. What a mess. Such a stupid decision, and I was beyond livid – that one dumb decision by someone else meant Murray had to put his back and shoulders at risk to help carry her out – unbelievable. Thankfully he’s ok, just got a bit of heat rash and a mildly sore back thank goodness.

After lunch we all vetoed going on the planned canoeing tour and asking instead to just be taken to a beach to swim and relax. When we were ready to go, Murray and Steve were still in the water and yelled to us ‘we’re throwing rocks at a stick.’ Ha ha – I’m glad they were having fun – amazing what constitutes ‘fun’ now – but whatever! It felt great to just relax, then we all went back to our floating shack and got a good night’s rest.

Steve, Murray and the stick (just to the left of Steve's head)

A cashew nut fruit!! I never knew! Apparently if you don't pick the nut right away it grows this fruit - interesting!

Day 15 – November 13

We got up at 5am and took the boat out to see the sunrise – stunning. After breakfast we went to see a ‘local village.’ It was a rubbish tour though. I really don’t like those tours where you just go and look at people, and there honestly was not much to see. I also now had as we call it ‘runny tummy’ or ‘jip gut’ so wasn’t too thrilled to be walking around in the hot sun. Afterwards we went for a lovely swim to cool down – our last in the jungle!

Gorgeous sunrise

Cute little boy in the village chewing on a whistle

I love this photo - all the family animals relaxing in the shade under the house.

Mom tending to the pressure cooker that was about to explode (she has 12 kids - one of which was our lovely cook at the shack).

Dad chilling in the hosue - I assume there are no steps to keep the chickens out

The Cayman who hung out at the back of the shack - we could see him out of our window!

After lunch we decided not to stay for our final night – which would have been sleeping in hammocks in the jungle. Murray’s back was sore, my stomach was bad, and we just weren’t up for it (even though we had already paid). So we caught the boat back to Manaus with Jackie and Mary. Lance and Shelly came as well because Lance was feeling under the weather – he had had a cough for 6 weeks and it was only getting worse – so wanted to go see a doctor before we went on our Amazon boat trip. We all had a GREAT dinner out – yummy Italian food (my tummy finally was feeling better by then after ‘starving the bug’ all day) and then we crashed in our AIR CONDITONED room – nice nice nice. Wound down the evening by watch a few episodes of Entourage – oh how I love having this laptop on holiday. Not quite a normal backpackers tool I know – but gosh it’s nice to have (mostly for Murray’s photo stuff – the tv shows and movies we have on it are added wonderful bonuses)!

Day 16 – November 14

We popped out to the grocery store with the group in the moring to pick up some supplies for the Amazon boat trip. We heard that it was similar to the jungle trip food – very monotonous and not of great quality – so we figured we had better stock up on edible stuff. Got lots of bottled water, some nuts, some crackers and cans of tuna with salsa. We all headed out to the docks at 2:30pm to check out our ‘home’ for the next 5 days. The ship was………… interesting.

The dock in Manaus - a bit crazy!

Bottom floor is ALL hammocks – strung up one after another – so so many people. Floor two is hammocks at the back and second class cabins at the front (that’s us). Top floor is first class cabins and a bar at the back. The hammock people had to have someone watching their stuff at all time because there is so much theft we hear – and gosh it looked hot and crowded and miserable down there!

Our guide Leticia stayed behind to help Lori and Jerry finiaze their plans, and be their Portugese interpreter at the hospital. It was decided that she would have to fly back to the states and cancel their trip since she had hairline fracture in her pelvis and pubis bones – ouch (she will need at least a year of rehab apparently).

Our boat left 45 minutes late at 4:45pm which meant no dinner was served (I guess cause they usually start serving hammock class by then).

Ominous cloud over Manaus as we were leaving

Our room was a tiny little cabin – barely space to walk in, bunk beds and a smelly little bathroom/shower room. We spent the evening relaxing in our room, eating tuna and crackers and watching – yes – entourage. But there was literally nothing else to do – other than drink beer in the bar – and we were not up for that.

Me snacking in our room on the bunk

Dinner time - tuna yumm! (actually it WAS pretty darn good)!

Day 17 – November 15

The best thing we bought for this trip: silk sleeping sacks – wow is it nice to know you are laying in nice clean sheets no matter where you are, the pillow insert is an added bonus, so not one part of you actually touches the provided bedding. Nice and large sized sacks and so cool cause of the silk – SO glad we bought those!!! The blankets on the boat were BEYOND smelly – so glad it didn’t actually have to touch my skin – ewwww! But the air was constantly on so you HAD to have a blanket on at night – so chilly! And we didn’t dare leave the window open in case someone tried to rob us while we were sleeping.

We slept terribly – kept waking up freezng cold and little kids kept running up and down the corridor just outside our room yelling until late. Breakfast was awful – hot dog buns, sweaty cheese, mystery meat slices and watermelon. We only had watermelon then went back to our room to have one of our bran breakfast bars. Afterwards we headed upstairs to find a spot to read. They had the Portugese music on level 1000 and the sun was already boiling – 4 days of this – can ‘t wait – not! The Amazon river is SO wide – at the mouth it is actually about the same distance as between London and Paris! Which also meant, we couldn’t really see anything while crusing down the river other than jungle from a distance. The water looks sooty brown – same as the water in our toilet and sink and shower.

So, we spent the day reading, working on our ‘badges of unemployment’ i.e. tan marks from our hiking sandals, and napping.

Shelly and me - relaxing on deck

After dinner (chicken that actually wasn’t horrible) we had a few sneaky rum and cokes with the group (alcohol isn’t allowed on so you have to sneak it from your room) and then – yes – some more entourage (we love that show)!!

The normal dinner - pasta & chicken

Just as we were about to go to bed we were all called out of our rooms for a passport check. The federal police came onboard and checked passports. Interesting system though – they just pounded on everyone’s door – and you were supposed to go upstairs and line up to have your passport checked. BUT they didn’t have a list – so if people just didn’t answer the knocking, no one knew! A few people in our group just slept through it! The guy looked at my passport photo – looked at me – then back at the photo then said something. I said to the captain Douglas (who is a jolly guy from Belize who spoke great English) – what is it casue my hair is a different colour now? And he said – no he just says you are very beautiful. Oh ok whatever, can I have my passport back now please. Odd. So after they paged through our passports we went back to our room and locked the door. Later on we heard a knock but just ignored it. I heard the next day that Lance and Shelly had answered and the police came in with flashlights to search their room! So random! Oh well – no biggie.

Day 18 – November 16

We woke up docked in Santarem. They were unloading TONS of stuff from the hold onto trucks on the dock – I couldn’t believe how MUCH stuff was down there – including long life milk, alcohol, grain bags and paint! After some breakfast (bran bars only since the only thing they had in the canteen was sweaty cheese, mystery meat and crackers – um no thanks) we ventured into town. Captain Douglas said we’d be docked until noon, so we took a much needed break from ship life.

We wandered a bit and then a boy of about 14 came up and said to Murray ‘mister – you speak English?’ Murray exchanged a few pleasantries with the boy, while holding on tightly to his wallet, then we walked on, trying to lose him. But he was like a little stray dog – just would NOT go away. He followed us into every shop – and would get the shop assistants to show us shoes & stuff – so bizarre. WE just ignored him (thinking maybe he was part of a gang that would try and distract us then rob us), but no it was just him – and we couldn’t lose him! Finally in one shoe shop Murray picked up a girl’s show and said ‘do you want to try this one on?’ He said no – Murray said ‘do you like any of these sandals? Want to try any of them on??’ the boy said no. So Muz said – SO why are you following us? The boy shrugged and said I don’t know. Murray said ARE you following us – he answered ‘poquito’ – a little bit. So Murray said WHY? And of course he just shrugged. So we moved on, with our shadow still right behind us. Then we spotted a nice looking kilo restaurant and quickly popped in. Our shadow came in too, but when he saw we sat at a table for 2 he hesitated, looking all confused, then left – thank goodness.

We had some lovely cold diet cokes, some nice snacky food, and when we left he was no where to be seen. Found the internet, and then some lovely ice cream – SO nice!!! And wouldn’t you know – as we were working our way back to the ship our shadow found us again! Odd odd odd. We just ignored him and he finally gave up and went away.

Quiet afternoon on the ship, as usual, then that evening we got together with Anne, Steve, Shelly and Steve for some cards. They taught us a great card game called ‘shit head,’ and we all had a bit too much rum and a great time! It’s a fun card game for a group because JUST as you think you are winning you can suddenly be really far behind – good fun!

Mary, Lance & Shelly & some Skol beer

Day 19 – November 17

Quiet day at sea – well, river. Murray now has jip gut and is REALLY not feeling well. He stayed in bed all day with bad bad cramps. I think the air con is making everyone sick as well. I now have a chesty cough as does Shelly. There are a few other sick from the boat food as well – gross. Thankfully today there was at least something to look at. The river narrowed and we saw tons of little huts along the river. As we would pass them Mothers and children would come paddling toward our boat in little canoes and people would throw clothing to them. Amazing to see these people from hammock class throwing arm fulls of clothing to these people – quite touching! I suppose it’s their form of a charity shop?

Paddling to grab some clothing before it sunk

A little home along the Amazon river

Murray finally left our room in the evening, just to be able to sit upright for a bit (our bunks aren’t high enough). A DJ set up on the back deck and played dance music and had a bit of a laser light show on the Amazon jungle canopy – can I just say SURREAL! Wow.

We were woken at 2am when the boat rolled nearly 45 degrees towards our side. Things fell off shelf and the movement woke both of us up. We were worried the boat was sinking so Murray grabbed our life jackets and opened the door to see what was going on, Turned out we had hit a sand bank on one side and then keeled over sharply to the other side. The captain said it was no big deal – um but at 2am it was pretty darn scary!

Day 20 – November 18

Murray felt a bit better today thankfully – but is still having cramps now and then. Luckily Steve was great and helped us carry our very heavy bag off the ship since Murray was a bit weak after not having eaten much in 24 hours. We got into Belem at 4pm and WOW were we happy – everyone cheered when we saw the city around the corner! AND Leticia was there waiting for us – fab!

YAY we' in Belem and we see Leticia!

She’s so sweet – she gave us all hugs saying ‘I missed you my chickens.’ We are now at an ok little hotel in Belem and had a GREAT meal out – pizza, risotto and awesome ice cream. Tomorrow we spend the day here – checking out the markets and then perhaps some botanical gardens before catching another night bus – fun fun fun! I am just SO glad to be off that stinking boat. It was an experience – but I’m glad it’s over & we can sit up in bed and watch tv now!!

Murray and I enjoying ice creams in last night in Belem - apparently they have the best ice cream in Brasil here!

Day 21 – November 19

Today we caught a cab and tried to go to a zoo - closed. So we tried the botanical gardens - closed. So we tried the butterfly and bird place - closed. Oh, so now we know - everything closes on Mondays - bummer. Oh well - it's a nice cool temperature (well, not boiling at least - with a bit of rain). Tonight we catch a night bus... I can't remember where to though (bad, I know)! Leticia did say though that it is a rough ride - bumpy, holey road. Last time she took this bus someone threw up ON her -ewww! I'm sure it will be fine. We're going to a colonial town next, then on to BEACHES hooray!

Quick Blog from the Amazon

We have a quick (well, 6 hour) stop in Santarem today - about half way between Manaus and Belem (our final destination).

I have a LONG blog post with pics that I will post when we have more time in Belem. Today is Friday, and we arrive there on Sunday. This is a VERY welcome break as the boat is beyond boring. There is nothing to do other than read, look at the same scenery for hours on end or sleep, literally (it is a small boat - so even finding somewhere to sit where they are not blasting Portugese music is difficult). But I am still very glad we are not sleeping in hammocks - you would NOT believe how many people are squished down on the hammock deck!

Just wanted to wish a Happy (belated) birthday to our friend Mike in Minnesota
and my Mother-in-law Lyn in Australia. Hope you both had GREAT days - we were thinking of you!

Brasil - Part 1

Day 11 - November 9

Crossing the border from Venezuela to Brasil was interesting. We crossed over in cabs, Murray and I rode in a VERY small car with the Canadians Anne & Steve. We were chatting away when all of the sudden we felt the car jerk forward with a loud crash. Anne and I turned back to look and there was a dirt bike, under the back bumper!!!! Our first South American car crash! The traffic had slowed down to nearly stopped, but the biker hadn't noticed. He pulled over to the side of the road to check out the damage to his bike. OUR driver left us, in the car, still in the middle of the road! The biker wasn't hurt badly, but was VERY upset, and he left a big dent in the back of our cab. The chain came off of his bike and the front light fell off, thank goodness he was wearing a helmet! The biker was SO upset, cursing and crying and jumping up and down, running off to scream in the bushes, etc. Anyway, eventually they exchanged details and we were off again to the border.

We had to check out of Venezuela, and then check in to Brasil. However, checking out of Venezuela they also scanned our bags, for petrol and or drugs I assume. The guy was suspicious of Murray's camera bag and made him open it up. Then he just glanced a few things, asked if they were new or old (in spanish - good thing I knew those words) and then asked how much the lens cost. I said cien dollares (100 dollars) there's no way we'd tell him how much they ACTUALLY did cost!

After crossing into Brasil we chilled out at the border bus station for a bit before catching a bus for 3 hours to Boa Vista. We had 3 hours to kill in Boa Vista before getting on our overnight bus to Manaus, so we all checked our bags (but kept our day bags with vaulables on us of course) and hopped into cabs into the centre of the city. Not a whole lot there, but much cleaner and MUCH nicer than any cities we saw in Venezuela. Lots of clothing and shoe shops, nicely dressed people, etc. But it was SO hard to find somewhere to eat!! We wandered around for ages, and at one point we were just standing on a corner, trying to decide what to do, when a guy who spoke English asked us what we were looking for. We told him - just somthing to eat!!! (Darn Portugese - I wish they spoke Spanish here - JUST as we were getting the hang of it)!! He brought us to a restaurant he used to own, helped us order by explaining the menu, and then sat for a chat. Can you believe he lived in Minneapolis for 16 years!!!! He told us that, then I said - no way, I am from Minnesota! He was so excited and told me about where he had lived, what he missed, etc. He got divorced and then moved back to Brasil where he was born a few years ago.

Anyhow, we had an interesting meal of pastry pockets with meat inside, tiny ham and veggies pizzas, and LOVELY freshly squeezed pineapple juices. Then we found a HUGE supermercado (supermarket). OH MY GOSH, it was like heaven. More food than we had seen in one place since we have been in South America! Picked up a few snacks and some fruit for the bus, and then we caught cabs back to the bus station.

We caught the 9pm bus for Manaus. It was a 12 hour ride and it was very bumpy (dirt roads) and the bus swayed a ton (top heavy) felt like we were on a boat! I actually felt a bit sick at one point and had to drink a bit of water and open up the air vents - NOT a great ride!

Day 12 - November 9

So we arrived in Manaus, and it is HOT! They tell us it is 90% humidity here all the time, and usually around 36c (102f) at least. We signed up for a jungle tour which leaves early tomorrow morning. It's includes two days sleeping on a floating hotel on the Amazon, then one night sleeping in hammocks in the jungle - I hope we see lots of animals!!! Then it's back to the hotel here for a quick shower, pick up our bags, and then we're off on our Amazon boat ride to Belem. That takes 4 days - and I hear it is fabulous (nice big comfy boat) - and for once we are first class! (I think that just means cabins rather than hammocks).

ANYHOW, so I am assuming I won't be able to blog again until after the Amazon trip, so that will be around 7 days from now.

:)

Venezuela Part 3

Thanks to everyone for the comments - sorry I don´t have time to reply to each one, just takes SO long to upload photos here & get my blog entry written out. This blog is my journal, so I need to get it all down in here asap so I don´t forget stuff - I just take notes in my little jounal I carry around :) We´re glad you are enjoying it though!!

Steve´s 35th Birthday Cake - so so so soaked with rum - too much actually - I couldn´t eat more than 2 bites!

Murray in the historic part of Ciudad Bolivar - all the buildings are brightly coloured - so lovely!

Now back to Venezuela - PART 3 - The Final Chapter!

Day 8 - November 6

I already wrote about our day in the last post, which mainly consisted of sitting in air conditioning (oh my gosh - like heaven) and blogging for AGES to get photos on here (I finally figured out a shortcut to speed that process up thank goodness)! All with Latin music blasting in the background, a bit like right now actually!

SO, after relaxing for the day in Ciudad Bolivar (not a WHOLE lot to do there) we headed to the bus station to get ready for our first night bus. It left at 9pm, and this time we had seats towards the front (rather than the very back like our last long day journey). Murray and I picked seats that had a good view of the tv screen and OH am I glad we did! They played Die Hard 4 - IN ENGLISH! Fabulous! But then that was it, it was lights out and everyone snoozed.

Day 9 - November 7

Our bus was stopped twice during the night and a guard in full camloflage came onto the bus to check everyone´s passports. I´m not sure what he was looking for, but he flipped through each of our passports, showing no emotion on his face, then moved on. Made for an interrupted night´s sleep that´s for sure. Then just before we arrived in Santa Elena we were stopped at another checkpoint and told we had to have ALL of our bags searched *sigh.* So we lugged everything off and lined up. Murray found one backpack under the bus that no one claimed, told the bus driver, and he said fine just leave it on the side of the road. Um ok - no one ever claimed it I guess! We had to unpack our bags in front of them, but they were not very through. If you set one of your bags on the ground, they would only look through the one on the table, etc. Our guide Leticia said the guard took out her tampons and said ´what´s this´as he was SNIFFING them!!! We all had a good laugh about that! The guards are just kids really 18/19 year olds, what a crappy job! I guess they were looking for drugs, diamonds and smuggled gasoline (more about that later). He did look through each of my pill containers and I had to explain - for headache, for sleeping, etc. But in the end it was fine, just took time, then we all got back on the bus and drove the last 10 minutes to the Santa Elena bus stop.

We arrived around 9am and hopped into cabs to go to the pasada (guest house). I rode with Lance & Shelly and Lance thought the guy told him to slam the door hard, so he did. Then the driver started yelling at him, apparently he said NOT to close it hard, opps. But whatever, nothing broke! Lance kept saying Lo Siento, Lo Siento (I´m sorry) and the guy would yell back NO, NO Lo Siento! Finally we all sat in silence as the driver pouted - odd! Anyhow, the posada isn´t great. We are sharing again with Lance and Shelly which is fine, but no air con:( And the rooms are REALLY basic (they had to ask for clean sheets and we had to ask for towels bigger than a hand towel). Thus Murray and I are sticking with our silk sleeping sacks thank you very much! But, they have internet (not free this time though - bummer) and a decent restaurant / bar.

Then we just had the day to relax. We were all SO knackered after the overnight bus journey, so after showers we took a 3 hour nap. I felt MUCH better after that, headache gone, and appetite back. We went and had a look around the town - pretty darn small! But TONS of grocery & misc stores (these were REALLY hard to come buy in Ciudad Bolivar - only clothing shops there really). So we finally got a new bottle of shampoo, some granola bars for breakfasts & other stuff. Then just took it easy playing cards and relaxing before a group Italian dinner. We were VERY disappointed that the Brazilian restaurant the lonely planet said was good wasn´t open for dinner. Had an average meal for dinner, then the 4 of us had margaritas with Leticia until midnight - fun night in all. Although the Diablo pasta from dinner was a killer - probably the hottest thing we have EVER eaten!

The beers here are great - taste nice and SO cheap (about 4 for a dollar - cheaper than buying bottled water)!

Day 10 - November 8

Today we were picked up around 10 to take a trip into La Gran Sabana. It´s an area of the Parque Nacional Canaima - with tons of flat topped table mountains, waterfalls, etc. Only the local indians are allowed to live in the park, so it´s pretty well preserved. We first stopped in Jaspe Falls for a swim and bought some gorgeous necklaces made from the Jaspe stone which can be any colour from tan to orange to bright red. My necklace is a flower and a butteryfly which signifies Love and Happiness. Murray got a gecko which signified abundance (we´re hopeing abundance of wealth ha ha).

Murray & I at Jaspe Falls

Us at another waterfall - I don´t know the name because our guide - well, driver - spoke little to no English, so really we didn´t learn anything. Although I do know the biggest mountain in the area is called Roraimi. It was frustrating since the other group had an amazing guide who filled them with tons of info! Oh well, at least we didn´t have to ´pay´for these trips in cash since they were part of the tour fee we paid overall for the trip.

We had lunch at a little Indian place - ok food - I got a good piece of chicken - Murray´s look nasty - so we just shared. These ants above were in the hot sauce on the table - and yes they are supposed to be in there - ewwwww!

Steve tried and ant on it´s own (after much peer pressure) and the crunching sound totally put off the rest of us!

I thought this was funny - a little shack on the way to the last falls we saw on the way to the last falls - it says ´cold beer here´. Although sadly it was unmanned.

Murray and I near the falls covered with a dark red Jaspe - SO pretty!

The Group - Steve, Murray, Me, Shelly & Lance

SO, a few observations about Venezuela - now that we are about to leave (tomorrow we cross the border to Brazil around 11am, and then it´s a monumental 22 hour journey to Manaus - including another night bus - fun fun fun)!

* Toilet paper does not go in the toilet - ever. I find this odd and gross. You have to put the used tissue in the bin next to the toilet - not in it - or apparently they will overflow. I won´t test that theory - but ewwww. 10 days of this far and I´m still not used to it - I don´t think I ever will be. Apparently it´s the same in Brazil - gross.

* The food is actually more expensive than we thought it would be. But I guess that´s cause it´s Venezuela and there is all sorts of instability here, so goods are expensive. That said though, we are still on budget, so no real dramas.

* The bugs are BAD!!! Deet is our friend. The sand flies are little bothers - hate them! They leave little red dots of blood where they bite and if you scratch then they itch like crazy. I wore long trousers, socks with sandals, and a long sleeve shirt today - in the hot sun - to avoid those awful things - and STILL got a few bites!!! Mosquitos stink too - but I´ve only had about 3 bites so far, thank goodness for 100% deet!

* There are really awful sad looking stray dogs all over the place. I have seen a few that made me want to cry. Crushed legs so that they have to hobble around on only 3 is common place. Skinny awful looking things, sad.

* We took our first malaria pills yesterday - all good so far! Looking forward to the Amazon next week!

* Gasoline (petrol) is so bizarre here! It is subsidized by government, so is only 1 cent per litre!!!! I guess that is like mobilising the poor? Good, but also bad, because that means people are always trying to smuggle the cheap gas from here over to Brazil, thus even more checkpoints. There are even guys with huge machine guns at the gas stations - you aren´t allowed to fill up without a good reason! Ah well.

Ok I am running out of internet time now. SO - soon to Brazil! I will try and blog again in a few days:)

Venezuela - Part 2

Murray & I at the airport in Sydney

The camera bag in it´s security cocoon at our hotel in Caracas (makes us feel better about leaving it in the room)!

The view of Caracas from the bus as we were leaving

Gorgeous beach outside our hotel in Puerto La Cruz (that orange boat is the one we took to the beaches)!

Our dinner that we bought fresh at the market that cooked on the BBQ at the posada

Steve & Murray after a swim, enjoying their beer cans with ladies in bikinis on the side

The iguana who was overlooking us at lunch

Up close and personal - he was big! (about 4 feet long)

Me relaxing in the gorgeous clear water in Murray´s hat

Sunset outside the posada - stunning !!!
The shower that gave me a shock - nice wiring job huh?

The group enjoying our home cooked fish meal
from left then clockwise round the table: Shelly, Leticia, Me, Steve, Anne, Larry, Lori, Mair and Jackie (Lance is the one cooking away at the BBQ)

Our ´taxi´to the bus station - that´s me at the back on the left holding onto someone´s bag so that it wouldn´t fall out
Lance looking a bit confused, and Steve on the right telling tales to the German Jackie (p.s. these are the normal buses that we travel on - very nice comfy seats that recline SO SO far!
On the streets in Ciudad Bolivar - You can see me across the street in the tan shorts
A boat on the Orinoco River (the river is 2140 km long)
This is the price you pay when you try to charge up your batteries - the electrical custodian!!

OK so now that I have caught up on pictures, Venezuela - PART 2

Day 5 - 3 Nov 2007

We flew on a small plane from Ciudad Bolivar to Canaima. The plane fit just the 5 of us and the pilot, and was a surprisingly comfortable and bump free flight, although since Shelly and I are the lightest we had to sit in the back and our seats were actually ON the floor of the plane! No checking baggage here, just piled it up behind us girls in the back! Beautiful views of Ciudad Bolivar as we flew out, and just outside of the city the view was endless jungle - so so dense with a few waterways running through it. It was just and hour flight, then we landed in Canaima (NOT comforting to see a plane lying in pieces near the runway though - I must say).

Lance & Shelly waiting for the flight in their tour t-shirts (that´s a cuy i.e. guinea pig on the front - roasted up for dinner)

Me & Shelly getting onto the plane (notice my team t-shirt, the girls got The Hoff i.e. David Hasselhoff on the back - sweet).

The flight was scary for Lance, Steve & Murray

Me & Murray on the runway at Canaima

After we arrived they had us walk over to the main lodge for a briefing, then we were off to pile into a long wooden boat - 2 to a wooden bench seat in prep for our trip through the Canaima National Park via the river. All of the bags were piled in the back inside of a tarp - because they said it was likely we would get wet.

The boats

View from the boat, yes lots of spray!!

After 30 minutes or so we had to walk a bit, while they got our boat & bags through some nasty rapids.

The Hoffs on the walk (the 5 of us got ´team´t-shirts, the boys organised it and then surprised Shelly and I a few nights ago - they are so cute! The boys have girls in bikinis on the back though of course, only Shelly & I were honored with the Hoff)

Little local hut was saw on our walk

Butterflies from our walk

Then we got back on the boat to soon follow by lunch and a swim at a gorgeous little waterfall. SO SO nice! Lunch was jamon y queso (ham & chesse) of course - my goodness we have had that meal a LOT already, but it was yummy after that swim and boat ride in the hot sun!

A little guy we found hanging out on our clothing

View from the small falls we swam at

Us enjoying the falls - sitting up on the rock is from left: Leticia, Murray & I (we look tan already huh? NOT!)

Then we got back on the boats to ride another 2 1/2 hours (we travelled 80 kilometres in all!) to the campsite.

View from the boat - imagine 3 hours of this! Thank goodness the scenery was gorgeous!

And wow what a campsite it is - directly across the river we had an amazing view of Angel Falls (Salto Angel). The campsite was basically one large area covered by a roof with open sides, and bars along the long side from which to hang hammocks. Our guide Ernesto set up our hammocks and mosquito nets while we enjoyed the sun and dried off from the splash filled boat ride there (I got soaked)!

Gorgeous Angel Falls (it is fuller in July/August which is wet season)

Hike, hike, hike

Checking out the view- nearly to the swimming spot now!

Lovely - at the bottom of this white downfall is where we swam! (freezing freezing ice cold)!

So - a little history lesson, Angel Falls was made famous in 1937 by an American bush pilot named Jimmy Angel. He came across the falls, but when he told the outside world about the huge falls with gold nuggets all around that he found, no one believed him! (he was a well known tall tale teller). So he took a plane back out there with his wife and two friends, they found the falls, landed to check for gold, and then couldn´t take off again cause it was so marshy!! So they ended up hiking out of the jungle for 11 days!!! It was verified in 1949 and then they named the falls after him. It is now one of Venezuela´s top tourist sites (do I sound like a guide book? - ha ha). It is 979 metres tall - just under a kilometre tall - the highest waterfall in the world (16 times the height of Niagra Falls)!! It leaps from the heart shaped table mountain of Auyantepui (mountain of the god of evil) and funnels into Canon del Diablo (devil´s canon). It´s in the distant wilderness and there is no road access, you can only get there by boat or plane.

That evening we had a nice chicken meal prepared by our boat drivers and then hunkered down in our hammocks. Let me tell you - NOT comfortable - not even after a few rum and cokes! I found out later we missed the demonstration on how to lie in a hammock comfortably, oh well, I´m just glad I wasn´t hanging next to the guys who snored!

Group Dinner at the camp

´Organic´chickens that he cut up on the raft paddle down at the river for dinner
Steve thinking hard about how fun it will be to sleep in a hammock (his even had tassles that dangled in his face - fun fun)!

1.5 inch long bullet ant - apparently if they bite you are in serious pain for 24 hours, this one was climbing on the clothing line, just after crawling on Murray´s shirt!



Day 6 - 4 November

After a very restless night´s sleep we got up (to no running water!!) and had a nice hot breakfast (yummy pineapple jam!!) then got ready for our tough hike to a pool that comes down from the falls (about 3/4 of the way to just the base of the falls). It was an hour and a half of tough hiking, mostly uphill, lots of giant tree roots and rocks, not easy! Thank goodness it was mostly in the shade of the jungle though, not good bug wise, but at least we didn´t have to sweat even more from the hot sun! After an hour and a half of hiking we finally got there, and all quickly stripped down to our swimmers to enjoy the ice cold water. NICE!

Our view of Angel Falls from the campsite

Shelly & I on the boat - risking going overboard in order to pose for a photo

View from the boat

Murray hiking with his 15 kilo camera bag



Me & Murray & Angel Falls


Enjoying the very strong falls - from Left: Murray, Lori, Lance, Leticia & Ernesto


Gorgeous Falls down to the pool we swam in (the water comes down from Angel Falls)

Anteater at a camp on the way

On the way down I put back on the bottom of my zip off trousers (or longs as the group likes to call them) because I got a few mosquito bites on the way up after taking off bits of clothing due to the heat. I did learn my lesson though after the bit on my back swelled up, and the one on my leg. So on the way down it was longs and a long sleeve shirt. Hot, but at least I didn´t get any more bites.

My mosquito bite

When we got down they had a nice tuna spagetti meal waiting for us, then we enjoyed a bit of a ´swim´ in the river. It was just such a strong current that we had to hold onto rocks and just let our bodies hang in the current - bizarre - but so refreshing!

Then it was back on the boats for the 3 hour ride back to Canaima. Of COURSE we didn´t bring out rain jackets with, since we figured we´d get wet from the spray - not big deal. Then it start to pour with rain - so quick - out of no where! Oh well, just got nice and wet. Back at camp they set us up in rooms (oh my gosh was I happy to see a shower, even though it was like 1/4 of what a hose would spit out and was cold). That evening we had a lovely fish meal and more rum and cokes then hit the sack. Funny how your perspective changed - I was thrilled to just have a bed and a fan and clean clothing - it was so great! Although we did have to share with stinky Lance & Shelly again:)

Day 7 - 5 November

After a GREAT breakfast of pancakes and eggs we got back on the boats and did a quick trip in front of the waterfalls close by. Then after a 20 minute walk we arrived at a gorgeous waterfall. We packed up our cameras in plastic bags and got rid of clothing we wanted to keep dry before walking underneath the waterfall. SO loud!!! And so so so beautiful! It was quite slippery though, so Ernesto made sure we all took care and pointed out the mossy spots. Then we went along to another bigger one and also walked underneath it, pretty darn cool. After drying off back at camp it was another flight back to Ciudad Bolivar.

Me & Murray on the beach in Canaima

View of the waterfall we walked behind!!!

Poisonous black and yellow frog

Murray near the falls

We had a nice dinner out for pizza to celebrate Steve´s birthday (now that his stomach is back to ok). We had a nice large one with ham, olives, onion, mushrooms and PEAS! Yes, peas, so odd, but not bad! When we got back to the posada our guide Leticia got out the cake she had ordered and we sang Feliz Cumpleanos to Steve (happy birthday). The cake was SO rich though, tasted like it had been soaked in 10 bottles of rum!

We shared a room again with Lance & Shelly, but we kept it on the down low that our room had an air conditioner (ours was one of the few). Oh it was like HEAVEN! We had the loft again, almost like our own little room, quite nice.

Day 8 - 6 November

Today we had a GREAT sleep in, then enjoyed the yogurt, cereal and fruit we had bought last night for breakfast. After much packing we locked our bags in the shared room after check out at 1pm. Our night bus doesn´t leave until 9pm tonight, so we have the day to do as we please. We had a nice Arabian lunch with hummous, taboulle and falafels (sorry about the spelling but Spanish spell check isn´t doing me any favors). Oh and we got all of our clean lovely laundry back this afternoon, so so nice to have some clean clothing!

At Canaima airport - this is Jimmy Angel´s airplane that they later rescused from the falls!!

Oh and a BIG BIG congrats to my friend Sarah in Minnesota and her huband Mike. Their baby boy Connor Zachary arrived on Friday 2 November. Congrats you guys - we´re really happy for you both:)