Del Lago Intercontinental Maracaibo

... br>traffic all over hard to compute.

Fresh fruits wonderful cheeses,
warm air little breezes,
Cola queueing for an eternity,
narrow minded in mentallity

Colourful slums named barrio,
seeing the people working around the law,
beach parties sun and women,
coconut kisses sold on the street ...

Yo tome un helicóptero y visitar Salto Ángel. Yo jugué en la laguna y la playa de Canaima. Saque muchas fotos de Golodrina Salto, Hacha Salto, y el agua de rojo. Come en La Churuata Restaurante. La comida es bien, pero poco caliente. Llegue a Tapuya Hotel a dormir.

Maracaibo was a hot, bustling and gigantic city located next to the country's largest lake. We only stayed here for one night so we could leave for Colombia early in the morning, and allow us to get to our destination during daylight. So goodbye, Venezuela. The last signs we saw as we left the country stated ¨Socialism, Patriotism or Death.¨ Oh, Venezuela. Just in case we had any doubts that Chavez is just a wee bit crazy.

... the black market was good, so we changed a small amount to get us by for now. We then walked across the border to the Venezuela side for processing. It was strange but simple, three teenage girls sat on chairs in the open air, no tables, wrote out the tourist cards (DEX) and handed them to us with our passports. We then went to a blacked out screen with a small hole at the nearby concrete building and handed our passports through with the ...

... on. Made me think though... what kind of bus are we travelling on? Quito... Quito has quite a reputation. From what I'd heard if I was ever going to have anything stolen, it would happen in Quito. And... Quito didn't disappoint. I was riding a rather crowded electric bus when my bag was slashed. I didn't even know it had happened until after I got off it. I went to the tourist police and filed ...

... annoying kids for the entire thing - ******* and vomiting all around us. Finally arrived at Maracaibo, finding only one bus company to take us to Maicao and the border with Colombia - leaving at 4am. Maracaibo is not a pretty city, so did not bother sight seeing instead went straight off posada hunting, finding one near the bus station with most of the luxury amenities, in much less than luxury condition! It was not like we were staying for long, so ...

Am Morge frueh simmer z-Maracaibo acho. Mir sind daenn au gad zum Huus vom Grosi vom Luis (Fruend vode Elisa) gfahre und sind herzlich begruesst worde. Die noechschte zwei Taeg haemmer daenn eifach det verbracht mit de Familie, will ebe au gad no de geburtstag vom Luis gsi isch und mir sind so verschmuust und verwoehnt worde, wie scho lang nueme. S-Grosi vom Luis, es wunderwunderbars alts Fraueli haet die ...

This was my first visit to Venezuela in ten years. My aunt Carol was getting married so my parents allowed me to go. Venezuela isn't exactly that safe anymore, especially for "tourists." I got to spend time with my family which was absolutely awesome.

My aunts wedding was absolutely amazing. Words cannot describe how gorgeous everything was. As soon as I can, I will upload pictures because that's the only way to get the full effect.

Some of you will remember me before leaving gleefully spouting about how I had finally got my Irish passport, which would make my travels far (insert your own complimentary adjective here), far more (insert your own complimentary adjective here) and especially far far (insert your own complimentary adjective here): in sum, the proverbial sun was going to shine out of said passport's proverbial rear end, possibly even to the extent that it caused me problems ...

... a couple of hours kip mid morning (I didn´t manage any), it was a quick shower and then onto another family member´s house for more drinking, dancing and a typical "Sancocho", a soup containing ribs, chicken and various types of vegetable. Perfect hangover cure, so I´m told. By about 11 that evening, after some 38 hours awake, I could no longer go on and managed to pass out (tired but mainly drunk)!! So in a nutshell thats a typical Venezuelan Christmas; at least in my family it is.