The next day was a long travel day by bus from Caracas but by dusk we were in the town of Coro.
It is a university town on the northwest coast and is famous for its colonial architecture and its small sand desert not far out of town. Perhaps because petrol is so cheap in Venezuela (even with the official rate, a ridiculous 3 US cents a litre) walking more than 500 metres is unheard of. After sitting on a bus all day we were happy to walk the two or three kilometres into the centre of town. We asked a nice girl who was a university student and she said it was safe to walk but very far. ´Take a taxi, it is faster" everyone says. The idea that we might take local bus is also unheard of. I hate that people assume that because you are white you must have lots of money. I guess we do, compared to lots of people here, but that does not mean we want to blow it all on taxis.
That night we wandered around the town to see the colonial centre, and were interested to see weddings taking place in the churches at night. Not a bad idea in such a hot place perhaps. The sand dunes are in the national park called Médanos de Coro. We walked to it the next morning. On the way out we saw a drive-in bank, a shop proudly exclaiming that it had "plastic gifts" in Spanish, not something you would advertise in our culture, and little chickens that had been dyed bright colours. God knows why. We tried to ask but got no answer. When we got to the desert, it was as awesome to see. It is described in guidebooks as a mini Sahara. It isn't that large but is a good distance from the coast, with the odd clump of shrubs within the tan-coloured sand. Its tallest dunes are said to be 30 metres. It is weird to look back on the town of Coro from the dunes, a surreal sight.
We saw tracks of a snake, loads of beautiful bright greeney blue lizards and even some goats. Coming back we met a family desperate to find some US dollars to buy as the son was flying to Panama the next week. The mum ran her own clothing company and was terrified about what the outcome of the referendum could mean. She thought the vote would go Chavez's way by hook or by crook and then she would have her assets confiscated. She had friends whose farms had been taken. 'This country is crazy right now', she kept saying. It was heartbreaking. More thumbnails ...
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