Hotel Castillo El Milagro Porlamar

... or driven out to the far west of the island but have decided to continue with our week-long mode of being lotus-eaters and have done nothing! It’s been a lovely break, we’ve been very lucky to have had use of the villa and feel that our batteries are re-charged and ready for the next month’s trekking through Brazil and Argentina to Buenos Aires. We set off again at 0600 Monday morning but we have a feeling that we’ll be back here again one day.

... I saw all those towels laid out on the sunbeds in the morning&#8230;<br> <br> The hotel I am staying in here is right by the beach and is called &#8220;Hotel Miramar Village&#8221;. Despite the fact that from the name it sounds like somewhere you might find in Benidorm, it is actually very nice. There are lots of hotels up the same road getting progressively further from the beach, but I thought it was worth the extra £1 per night to stay here ...

... I am so glad, it is imense!! (to follow).<br><br>My Spanish is coming along nicely. I was speaking with the cleaner of Tita in the morning of leaving and wanted her to slow down, so I did......."muy desayuno, por favor", she must think he is crazy asking for very breakfast! I will not forget now how to say "mas despacio"!!!! But this was fun tambien. <br>

... 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>

Traveling by sailboat we have visited 20 countries. 19 have been great. Isla Marguerita is a nightmare.  Yesterday morning, our 3rd day here, the out board motor and oars were stolen from our dingy leaving us stranded. We were told by other cruisers that this is normal here and reporting it to the police would be a waste of time.  They advised traveling with other boats while staying far from ...

... exactly had gone on with the embargo Exon Mobil had placed on Venezuela. It is absolutely crazy how a powerful company can try and bully a democratically elected government over nationalising its own natural resources. Exon have won a court ruling to freeze 12 billion dollars worth of PDV-SA assets (Venezuelan state oil) over receiving compensation for the nationalisation...which the government claims they were in talks about ...

... However, in countries plagued by historic corruption and theft, the new and old left-revolutions need to counter these obstructions to move forward. In Fidel Castro´s biography, "100 Hours with Fidel" by Ignacio Ramonet, Castro also reflects upon Cuba's future. He notes that the US has failed to crush his government with decades of hostility and a trade embargo, and warns that if Cuba does not wipe out systemic corruption, "This Revolution can destroy itself ... and we would be to blame."

... of poor with jobs, but is this a sustainable model? Their employment would be tied to the existence of a larger company or NGO, which could close its micro-franchise operations at any point in time. It probably would not reach the poorest, who are not skilled enough to run a franchise in the first place. Like microfinance, it would increase mobility up the financial ladder for some, but it does not address the basic reasons behind why there is a poverty pyramid in the first ...

... I left Isla de Margarita on a Friday, with a plane, because I had to get away, out of the country ASAP because of the voting about the new Hugo Chavez communist constitution - things were expected to get quite insane and borders to anywhere and everywhere closed.<br><br>So I opted for a 30 minutes taxi drive from Playa El Agua to Porlamar Airport, where I fortunately listened to my new German friend, Svenja, who I had met in the hotel's bar a few ...

Apparently there is a huge retro fad in Venezuela right now and everyone is into 80's music. I thought I'd go to this exotic country and hear sounds and music I'd never heard before. Instead, at all the bars and in all the cabs all I heard was Van Halen, Queen, Bon Jovi, Bonnie Tyler and Whitney Houston. Not bad, just not expected. Ok, so up until about a week ago my life for the past month and a half consisted of waking up at 12, going to the gym for an hour or two, coming ...