Cuidad Bolivar and some reflections on Venezuela

  Cuidad Bolivar, Guayana Highlands, Venezuela
Saturday, May 23, 2009

Our last two days in Venezuela... Picked a posada from the Lonely Planet and grabbed a cab from the airport. Our washing was able to walk there on it's own. 2 weeks and not a crumb of OMO in sight and our clothes honk to high heaven.

BUDGET supper - hot dogs in the room

We spent the evening lurking around in our last items of clothing and having budget backpacker dinners as we ran out of US dollars and have nothing to exchange on the black market for local currency. Reluctantly had to use our cards at 3 times the actual exchange rate to get laundry, food and our bus tickets out of here.

with flat pack plates back in Ciudad Bolivar

Tonight we head to Manaus in Brazil (2 consecutive nights on the bus) so it will be a while (about 5 days or so, so please don't panic Duck Slement :-)) until we have internet access and stories to share.

A moment to reflect on a great start to our trip and a fantastic country with highs and lows literally each day. There are many secrets and wonderful things in this country and although it can be hard going it's a great place to go. Graffiti is everywhere but all seems to be political slogans supporting the current president Chavez.

Amazingly the petrol price here is the cheapest we have ever seen! A litre of petrol costs about 0.1 bolivar which makes a 45 litre tank work out to about US 75 cents!

The people here are generally friendly and willing to help and chat. Even though they have very little it seems they take pride in what they have and are happy. Kids take pride in their school uniforms and always look neat. We have really loved it here and will have only great memories.


Highlight: Angel Falls & Anaconda catching

Lowlight: THAT night in Maracay.

Funniest moment: Crashing through rapids on way to Angel Falls.

'What the hell are we doing here' moment: Aricagua Bus Terminal. 9:47pm. 17 May 2009. Stomachs, Spanish, Heat, Delirium.

Most useful item: All purpose wet/dry sandals.

Most useless item: All warm clothes.

Most useful Spanish phrase: "Donde esta BAŅO POR FAVOR, SEŅOR????????" (Where is the Toilet please sir. Especially useful on THAT night, yelled with terror in your voice and beads of sweat on your forehead)

Tan Status (0-10): -2 seeing as we started at -10 this is great progress. We have progressed from translucent to pale.

Until Brazil....

A&I.