Laja Real Hotel Ciudad Bolivar

How much do you think it would cost to put 200 litres of petrol into a bus to get me from Margarita Island to Puerto Ordaz? As I'm sure many of you are aware petrol is super cheap in Venezuela, but I think it’s worth pointing out just how cheap it is. The answer to my question is BsF10… which is $2 on the black market, or using the less favourable fixed official rate of exchange, still only around $5 ...

YAY! We are in Venezuela! And its raining!!! Arrived in Caracas early in the morning and our Belgium mate helped organise our bus to Ciudad Bolívar. Lucky the next bus was departing in only one and a half hours. So we stood in the line for the bus tickets. The ticket office didnt open until 20 minutes before departure. By the time we got to the front of the line it was 5 mins till departure. Got our tickets and ran to the bus, the very small bus ...

... hotdogs, corn pancakes and dreich weather! We were well and truly in the clouds! It was raining and there were no views, just loads of school kids running around, but it was one of the few tourist attractions in town! By Friday we had a night bus booked to take us south east to Ciudad Bolivar, it was ok, and we got into the bus station at 7.30 am and by 8am we´d booked ourselves a tour and were sitting at the airport waiting for the flight to Canima to ...

... indrukken, nieuwe mensen, het continue concentreren op het Spaans en het continue mensen om je heen hebben, en voornamelijk niet echt tijd voor mezelf om tot rust te komen... best vermoeiend :) Dat gezegd hebbene, heb ik echt een fantastische week gehad; dinsdag middag zijn we met een bootje naar een soort prive strandje gevaren... beetje zwemmen, beetje bier drinken, het leven kan niet veel mooier :) ´s Avonds was het feest omdat het ...

... and we thought it had gone forever, but the next day we were swimming on the town beach (not the nicest one there and not the nearest to the hostel) and a man was also swimming in the sea with his dog near us. He went out and a few minutes later he came back with our camera and had recognised us from the photos. I couldn´t believe it, it was a chance in a million. We moved on down to Panama after that. The border crossing had the ricketiest, oldest bridge with giant ...

... We were able to see much of the flora and fauna as we wound our way through the endless labyrinth of waterways and channels. We then crossed the great Orinoco river and continued north into beautiful cloud forest, eventually reaching the small town of Caripe. It is a quiet agricultural region most famous for its splendid cave; the most impressive in Venezuela, named Cueva del Guacharo. We were able to watch a strange natural phenomenon at dusk as ...

Sitting in Havana, looking at my return flight to Cancun. Not loving it. How can I possibly go back to that place? I wandered down into town to talk it over with the airline, but had no joy changing the ticket for a more desirable destination (ie. anywhere else). Giving it some serious thought, I decided to wear it as a loss and buy another ticket straight to Quito - my next destination. It soon all became very hard - I would have to spend a night in Caracas ...

... get a topical treatment for cellulitis?' I know most of you want to know about women. So, it is very strange, during the day I see only fat, very fat women and only in the night in the clubs or the bars I 've seen pretty ones, but really many and very pretty ones. Where are they all day long? One thing I know for sure, feminism hasn't made it yet to Venezuela. I haven't seen soooo many women queuing in the toilets to refresh their make-up! And they ...

... no sooner had I laid out my towel the heavens opened and what started as gentle light refreshing rain, turned into a downpour and I got completely soaked. It was just like being back in Bournemouth. At this point Andy wants to say a big thanks to the Morgan Stanley guys for his multi tool, it had its first use making sandwiches. I swear that we must be the only chavs to have ever stayed in the Hilton and made lunch in the room drinking beer brought from the supermarket ...

... this girl Stephanie who I met at the hotel Saturday night. She is from San Jose California and goes to UCSB. We get along great and I think its going to be fun being her roommate. Between the two of us we are very well prepared for anything to happen we both brought so much ****. I have been hanging out with a lot of her friends from UCSB. There are a lot of people from California and 41 kids from the University of Boulder (mom and dad I know u would be ...