Villa Tropical Curaçao

... brute,
traffic all over hard to compute.

Fresh fruits wonderful cheeses,
warm air little breezes,
queueing for an eternity,
narrow minded in mentallity

Colourful slums named barrio,
seeing the people working around the law,
beach parties sun and women,
coconut kisses sold on the ...

Yo tome un helicóptero y visitar Salto Ángel. Yo jugué en la laguna y la playa de Canaima. Saque muchas fotos de Golodrina Salto, Hacha Salto, y el agua de rojo. Come en La Churuata Restaurante. La comida es bien, pero poco caliente. Llegue a Tapuya Hotel a dormir.

Maracaibo was a hot, bustling and gigantic city located next to the country's largest lake. We only stayed here for one night so we could leave for Colombia early in the morning, and allow us to get to our destination during daylight. So goodbye, Venezuela. The last signs we saw as we left the country stated ¨Socialism, Patriotism or Death.¨ Oh, Venezuela. Just in case we had any doubts that Chavez is just a wee bit crazy.

... was baltic but it was what we needed. By that time we were dog tired and in need of getting our bearings, so we paid and headed to the bar for a sandwich and then to bed. It cost the equivalent of 80 US for both of us for the night. We were up early the next day at 6.40am and headed for the bus terminal shortly after, arriving at about 7.30am courtesy of a taxi driver who doubled as a black market money man, who gave us 4 US to the Bolivar. We ...

... wildlife in the Amazon Basin are a little more shy. Still, we saw some cool things like caiman, some birds, a few monkeys and lots of insects and frogs etc. The scenery was amazing too. Venturing along near still blackwater rivers surrounded by thick vegetation was a cool experience. I also really enjoyed hanging around the lodge, lying in the hammocks drinking hot chocolate, and falling ...

... but tasty none the less. Before even leaving, we started to get a taste of the colombian 'locura', with a woman in front screaming about how the Bruce Willis movie was bad for her kids, etc. Bus driver waved her off and carried on watching, til she found something else to moan about, and so she continued for the entire journey. Left at around 8, stopped after less than 15mins for some reason, while hundreds of street vendors hammered on the windows and ...

Maracaibo was a pass through place, we actually arived ahead of schedule for once - this wasnt all good as we were wondering around the bus staion at 5.30 am looking for a shared taxi to Colombia. We were the 1st 2 there and we needed a further 3 people. After a while a big Afro Carribean woman joined us and then we were shortly joined by a shifty couple with a whole load of stuff, TV´s, DVD´s CD´s etc etc... Anyway, we set off to ...

This was my first visit to Venezuela in ten years. My aunt Carol was getting married so my parents allowed me to go. Venezuela isn't exactly that safe anymore, especially for "tourists." I got to spend time with my family which was absolutely awesome.

My aunts wedding was absolutely amazing. Words cannot describe how gorgeous everything was. As soon as I can, I will upload pictures because that's the only way to get the full effect.

Some of you will remember me before leaving gleefully spouting about how I had finally got my Irish passport, which would make my travels far (insert your own complimentary adjective here), far more (insert your own complimentary adjective here) and especially far far (insert your own complimentary adjective here): in sum, the proverbial sun was going to shine out of said passport's proverbial rear end, possibly even to the extent that it caused me problems ...

The time had come to use the bus ticket I purchased a few weeks ago when I extended my tourist visa, to make a run for the border. I don´t mean Taco Bell, I´m talking about Venezuela. I needed another stamp in my passport to allow me more time in Colombia and by going to the border of another country, I can get a longer extension than I can in the local immigration office. This past weekend´s trip went quite well actually, and despite some ...