Hotel Chacao Cumberland Caracas

... proposal. We then turned and flew directly toward Auyán tepuí, the adjacent tepuí that towered over Canaima. I wasn't sure what caused it but the air over the tepuí was more than a little rough. And it got progressively rougher as we approached the farthest edge of the tepuí until the plane was bucking quite nicely. Enough so that Spike started turning green. Suddenly we were past the cliff's edge and into relatively still air and then, BOOM, there it was, off to the right ...

... proceeded to be advised of the specials which turned out to be great, after the seafood dishes and my few beers which were all great we got the nasty surprise of a 90 Squid bill !!!! Oh well lessons learnt. Welcome to Venzuela. Here there are two prices the official ones and the ones that we the tourists get :: The fun begins. Having checked out of our hotel early on the 5th we headed into CARACAS central with Veronica from the travel agent who is taking us to see ...

... high gas prices in the United States, gas is a mere $0.13/per gallon. The Chinese are everywhere! And that´s a good thing. In the many places I´ve traveled, including Iran, Africa, and now South America, the Chinese are responsible for building well needed infrastructure (i.e. highways and railroads). It´s great to see my fellow Asian brothers building railroads on their terms rather than as indentured servants of the past. Amen!

... Alan Highton a real exception). But the transport is comfortable (if frigid) and runs on time, mostly, and the country is small enough that there is no need for many really long travel days. Nobody let us down; nobody stole anything; we saw hardly any begging, and no starving children. We saw no hint of violence (although since leaving, two people have told us of acquaintances kidnapped taking taxis from the airport ...

... that works in the area to show me around. Yesterday, I was on my way to visit the Contemporary Art Museum in the Bellas Artes region of Caracas. After 30 mins of wandering off in wrong directions and trying to find the right entrance, I was disturbed by an ever growing crowd of people on the streets. I knew that the "No" (Anti-Chavez reforms) march was going to take place that day, but I hadn´t realised it would be starting from Bellas Artes. I decided to position ...

... blbec mi rika, ze se nemusim bat, ze tam je spousta kokosu) Rano zahajuju svuj navrat domu... ve 4.30am vstavam, objednanej taxik neprijede, nastesti opodal stoji dalsi. Podrimuju v taxiku a kdyz otevru oci, vidim povedome doky ...sakra ja chtela na letiste. Taxikar pouziva mene vybirava slova a valime to zpatky na letiste. Na muj let ceka asi 8 lidi a nas boeing stale nikde... mistni se bouri, ze to je jasny, ze to zas neprileti jako minule. No pro tu hrstku lidi se fakt ...

Damn Catholics and their Sundays off. Caracas is bustling, but apparently useful businesses like internet cafes are mostly closed, which resulted in me wandering the streets for an hour until I found this one. Super annoying. Anyway... Yesterday was spent lounging around the first class lounge waiting for my flight out of Houston. It went surprisingly quickly, and there was much ...

The flight was only 3 and a half hours to Caracas, and we arrived at the airport about 5pm. It was nice to be back in a warm climate again! We explored the possibility of a taxi to a suburb of Caracas called Sabana Grande but the price tag of US$120 put us off. Instead, we opted for the public bus costing US$2 but ended up not going to Sabana Grande after all. We tagged along with a Spanish couple and took a tube then a 2 hour bus west to Maracay, where we stayed for one night.

... can't see myself ever ordering fish over chicken, beef or pork (especially not ribs) I may on occasions sample fish from other peoples plates (though if the heads still on, forget it!) Snorkelling Apart from one paranoid moment in Los Friales where I was seemingly being chased by hundreds of small fish (thank god for flippers, though I might have knocked a few out) the snorkelling has been fantastic. Whilst a lot of the Coral on the west coast has been ...

... where I was staying appeared to be in the middle of a market and I was not able to find anything regal about it, there was an establishment offering Sauna and Massage next door but I didn´t think it was a health Spa! I decided to explore within one block of the hotel. I had some lunch in a bar nearby and whilst eating my lunch I found what appeared to be a pink worm in it, I was releaved to find in was an octopus leg (not what I ordered though) Later that day I ...