Hotel Aqua-Vi Suites & Marina Puerto La Cruz

... roots) die hier met zijn broer is op familie bezoek (Jose en Allejandro). Ik word uitgenodigd om bij hun te komen zitten, krijg een biertje in mijn hand gedrukt en life is good :) Wat ik hier doe, en wat mijn plannen zijn? Als ik vertel dat mijn plan is om over een paar daagjes naar Ciudad Bolivar te gaan, kijken ze me aan alsof ik gek ben. Ciudad Bolivar schijnt nogal een gevaarlijk te zijn! Nadat ze me daar 10x van hebben overtuigd vraagt Jose of ik ...

... wel beter uit zo. Mijn doel is in principe Playa Colorado wat hier niet al te ver vandaan schijnt te liggen. Morgen maar eens kijken of ik een bus kan vinden die die kant op gaat. Daar dan maar weer een paar dagen chillen en dan richting Ciudad Bolivar denk ik... Logeer vandaag in Hotel Pippo, wat een redelijk aftands ding is maar goed, het is ...

... payments. Faced with a taxi driver that needed paying and only 10 english pounds we resorted to staying at the airport to plan to get money. Money was changed and spent on phone calls to sort out the cards and with just 5 Bolivares left (about a pound), we were told, "yeah, its been happening a lot, just keep trying!". Little bit frustrating, little bit worrying! Anyway time for an upside, and the banks eventually let us draw money (we started at 9 in the morning, didn´t leave ...

... got it back and working at 845, and 15 mins later there was a complete power failure... The hotel has two whapping great geneators which kicked into life 2 mins later with the noise that could ahve woken the dead... We decided we had had enough for one day and turned the lights out, cranked the AC up and slept like the dead. Next day we changed our plans and decided to head straight throuygh Santa Elena de Urayen, and go straight to Boa Vista.

... them at the beach we had just come from before heading for lunch (Maria biscuits for me and chicken and salad for the rest). After lunch more snorkelling at a little island. Unfortunately this beach was strewn with litter- national park? Final stop was an island with white beach, warm shallow sea and hummingbird and butterflies. The usual afternoon rain could be seen on the mainland. Saw a pod of small dolphins on the way back which was lovely.

... at the Sante Fe "resort" speaks any english..... Nope again, my spanish phrase book is now officially my new best friend!! Our Posada is on the beach and the views are great, dont get me wrong the place is very beautiful and our room is fine, but the place is 3rd world and we are staying in what is arguably the best place here, but the standard is not much higher than the cheaper posadas along the beach which are between 50-80 BS a nigh CHEAPER ...

... Onze Duitse vrienden, Wolfgang en Beate zijn er ook. De club waar we oud en nieuw mee hebben gevierd is weer compleet! Blanquila is een geweldig eiland. Een spierwit strand met twee (!) palmbomen, veel schelpen en koraal. En echt ontzettend mooie riffen met kraakhelder water. We maken ook nog een wandeling door het droge, met cactussen begroeide achterland. De ontvangst bij de douane is geweldig. We worden hartelijk welkom geheten, krijgen ijskoud water ...

... downstairs into the restaurant owned by the Posada and celebrated my birthday with a gorgeous dinner of squid, garlic prawns, salad, chips and a few beers. 28/05/08 - L Decided we deserved another lazy day so basically sat, read, swam and relaxed in the sunshine. We started the day with a little jog but that soon stopped when I smacked my baby toe into a rock and the nail split and bled a lot. We were on the internet till late that night....... 8pm, at which time no ...

... Today we met a couple from Argentina who invited us along with a few others up to a waterfall. We local guide was literally a crack head! He stopped a few times along the way to smoke in the woods! But he was a good guide, born and raised here, but parents had fled Germany after the war, so he was called the mountain gringo!! How funny!! We took a bus up to the falls and then hiked down following the ...

... introduction of a lovely Argentinian couple and set sail for some islands in the national park. It was a lovely day and the ocean wasn't too rough. After about an hour or so we reached our first island to do a bit of snorkeling. The place was lovely although the coral wasn't up to much so we stayed only a couple of hours. One quite amusing incident was (not to our skipper) when I tried to scramble across the deck trying hard not to tread on any supplies and slipped causing me to ...