Hotel Paseo Las Mercedes Caracas

... was so physically and emotionally overpowering that's the only analogy that seems to fit. Over-awed, is about the only way to explain how I felt. It was easy to see why the Pemón thought that the Cueva was inhabited by God and the spirits of the tepuí. The trip back was unusually quiet as we were wrapped in our own thoughts. But shortly after taking off we were brought back to the realities of human-altered Venezuela when we flew over a landscape of horrific destruction. Far ...

... in Caracas, and spent it in a small hotel near the airport. Just to head into the centre of town costs about £35 each way!! So we decided to just explore the area near to us and stay in the safety of the hotel. Caracas is apparently one of the dodgiest cities on the planet...and as there was not much that we wanted to do in the centre, we opted to just chill out on the verandah of the hotel and have a few drinks, in preparation of our trip to Los Roques.

... all, but in terms of air routes, Bogota is a bit of a cul-de-sac, and so Caracas it had to be. Venezuela is an incredibly diverse country, and there`s too much choice of things to do and see in the limited time I`ve got, but I eventually plumped for the Canaima region down in the South East, and a visit to Angel Falls. Whenever I tried to book anything from the UK though, things quickly became incredibly difficult and I got nowhere. The whole system seems geared up for ...

... water straight up to a height of 2km´s. In the distant background I could see mountains peircing above the clouds of atleast double that height. I was so excited to have reached this part of my trip, the continent I have been dreaming about for so many years!! Caracas is flanked by huge mountains towering over the city towards its north and located on the coast. My excitement unfortunately was soon replaced with fear. The local sitting ...

... the way, during the wee hours of the night. The Armada - Guardia Nacional checkpoints were approximately at Midnight, 2am, 4am, and 5:00am. Rules are, deboard the bus with all your luggage, and unpack all bags - everything comes out from your luggage and taken apart, including tents, sleeping bags, toiletries, small kleenex packs, EVERYTHING - and you place all items on tables in outdoors huts. Then after all that ...

... a computer that is not super slow, like this satellite link I am using, or super paranoid, like all the ones in the guyanas, where USB connections are not allowed I will get round to pouting up some photos, and hopefully redoing the whole log in terms of what where when and why of it all... But until then will just have to make do with text, have decided not to do the Angel Falls, as ...

... best party: carnival brazil best looking ladies: Argintina, Colombia best beer: polar ice venezuala So there u have it. South America covered from the highs of the Andes to the lows of the amazon in a little under 5 months. We all agree that we could have stayed longer, but we also know that it would have resulted in alot less brain cells and a much (if possible) smaller bank balance. One thing is for certain....WE WILL BE BACK!!!!! Mk signing out of south america!!

... where we went to a caiman farm all pilled in the back of a truck (check out the pics) and then on a local boat trip where we saw a few in the wild! Evening spent putting the world to rights over beers while gazing up at the stars. Then it was off to Ciudad Bolivar which was a campsite with good facilities including nice showers and facility for laundry (believe me these small thinks become very important when you have so few clothes!) they also had a pool table and ...

... jewelry, food and cd's. After the markets, Nicole and I went shopping in the little port terminal. They had the little souvineers type things. I got some postcards and a few other items. After our shoping adventure, we spend the rest of the afternoon on the ship by the pool for a few hours.