El Hidalgo Porlamar

We took an early flight out of Gran Roque to the Island of Margarita. The island is the country's main Caribbean holiday destination, larger than Los Roque, is about 40km off the coast on Venezuela, where the Andes meets the Caribbean, and a much larger island than we thought. It is popular with both Venezuelans and foreign visitors so is far more commercialized; the airport is set up for charter flights from Europe and North America (not that we saw much ...

... inclusive beers and cocktails with the other guests. Despite reassurances from my new friends off the beach that it is safe for me to go out around here (but only if I go with them), I decided the sensible option would be to stay in! Oh, the joys of being a girl alone. Here at the hotel there are plenty of people, so I’ve had some fun. I’ve not met any other English people, but have met an interesting mix of people including one ...

I am here in Ciudad Bolivar trying to catch up with the blog entry that I have missed over the last few days. This was just a small trip to Isla de Margarita and I never knew that there was such a place, nothing happens and everything is happening. There is so much development here but the transport to the Island is appalling, at least the one we were on ...

... avisar no hotel de Aruba que íamos atrasar. Tentou falar inglês, espanhol e até francês e no final deu certo. Curioso foi percebermos quando chegamos a Aruba que a menina do telefone era portuguesa!!!! hehhe!!!<br> Continuando em Caracas....enfim saímos de dessa cidade as 21hrs e chegando em Curaçao o vôo estava..... longe.... já tinha ido a muito tempo para Aruba, afinal tínhamos chegado ao primeiro mundo, né?!<br><br>

Zo daar zit ik dan op Isla Margarita... het was lastig genoeg om er te komen dat wel; Op schiphol aangekomen was er gelijk al een vertraging van 2u, Arke Fly ¨kost niks, maar dan heb je ook niks¨... 9u, 2 kleffe maaltijden en geen onboard entertainment (moest los voor betaald worden) later kwam de captain met de mededeling dat het weer boven Isla Margarita te slecht was om te landen en dat we 1st naar Curacao zouden vliegen... Ah nee he, geen Curacao!!!! Dus toch naar curacao ...

... getting robbed though, so I`ve left well alone (and Venezuela is fairly cheap anyway). <br>I´m eating about ½ kilo a day of a fruit called a "parchita" at the moment. Parchitas look a little bit like small plums, and they taste vaguely of cherries, but they`re neither. Picture, if you will, a rectangular snowman with a tiny, tiny head, and that`s what the seeds look like. <br>There are huge cultural differences between here and the Andean countries like ...

... the acclaimed film Cuban, "Fresa y Chocolate" (Strawberry and Chocolate) in the local Cinemateca (the free state cinemas - an attempt by the Chavez government to provide free and accessible culture to the masses). The film shows an unlikely friendship between Diego, a gay, non-conformist (and later a future exile) and David, a heterosexual and devout-Marxist. It is about the intolerance inherent in the Cuban communist regime, and proposes an eventual reconciliation between ...

... then squirt hot or green sauce in the hole so you get spicy goodness all the way down to the bottom. There is an empanada stall outside the hostel and we went everyday for breakfast as they also did freshly squeezed orange juice and coffee. After breakfast of course comes lunch and that means hot dog time. I don't like hot dog sausages but I do like them Venezuelan style (which means you can't taste them). The buns are steamed and then the dogs are covered with chopped onions ...

... they knew about a cheap-ish and nice place, and I'd only pay my half instead of the full price. I felt the whole time like there was something on the hook.... So I was careful. But nothing. They never ever asked for anything back, and none of my things disappeared. They were just some happy, friendly people who wanted to share. The next day they left, and me too, but to a different place - to Playa el Agua, as Juangriego wasn't quite as much ...

... the entire time I was gone, only to move on to a new couple when I returned. Not that I was jealous at all, the man looked like the Great Leader Kim Jung-il in his grey pants and fully buttoned suit jacket. He even went so far as to wear gold sunglasses and I swear he styled his hair to look like the North Korean leader! I found out later from our bartender Juan that he was singing about having only one love in life and capturing that love and being in love and all that ...