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:)