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12/13/2008 Arrived in Caracas and slept in airport from 1-5 AM. After navigating to the domestic terminal, we bought tickets to Los Roques. Managed to snag the last seats on a 6:30 AM, 10- seater, had to run to make it. Finally we landed: clear blue skies, low 80s, fine white sand everywhere. Found a cheapish pad, La Posada Gremary. Managed to take a non-optional nap from 8 AM until 2 PM. Explored a little, had a fresh fish dinner, and closed out the first day with a few tropical drinks and cards on the beach. Every morning we would hear a knock on the door and "El Desayuno", and each night "La Ceeeennnaaa". It was perfect.
12/14/2008 Went to Fransisqui, a nearby island, for the day. The locals will drop you off wherever you want with chairs and an umbrella for a few bolivars. The guy working at the only kiteboarding shop rented me his personal equipment, (only building/shack on the island), but the wind was too light, I was too heavy, and the kite was too small. For the rest of the afternoon we kayaked, swam and read. Very relaxing. I managed to not put sunscreen on the top of my legs. Game over. At dinner we met a couple from Denver, Marco and Lynette. Marco was from Venezuela and they both gave us a lot of tips on what to do the rest of our trip.
12/15/2008 Took an all day boat excursion to Cayo del Agua, which is an island 45 minutes to the south of where we were staying. Amazing beach and snorkeling. Then we went to a turtle breeding sanctuary. Finally we stopped at another island where we enjoyed a swim in the rain, before it cleared up with a huge rainbow. Water was nice and warm and a perfect white-bluish.
12/16/2008 Chilled in the morning, then Nicole and I went on a hike up to the old lighthouse where you could see all of the surrounding islands. Later has some awesome arepas con carne from a shack by the lagoon. That night Marco helped get Reuben to get the boat captain to come exchange $400 dollars to bolivars at a rate of 4.2. On the black market you can get an exchange rate of 3.5-5. The banks only give ~2.1.
12/17/2008 Woke up and caught a plane back to Caracas, then we bought what we thought were tickets to Merida. 1 hour before the flight we noticed that the destination on the ticket was El Vigia, not Merida. We figured out that the Merida airport had been closed for awhile, and was a 45 minute taxi ride away from El Vigia. Upon arrival, we met a guy who spoke English and worked for Gravity Tours, he gave us some pointers and told us to check out his agency. Then we had an insane (crazy fast) taxi ride into Merida. Found the Posada de la Montana for the next 2 nights.
12/18/2008 After some exploring of the beautiful city, we hooked up with Gravity Tours. Gustavo helped us plan out some cool guided trips to Catatumbo, Los Llanos, and Canaima.
12/19/2008 Got some Jugo Natural de Parchita (real Passion fruit juice) for breakfast. So good. Met up with Juan Carlos and hopped in his Land Cruiser to head off to Catatumbo, the site of crazy unexplained lightning without thunder. After cool 6 hour drive through cloud forests, cool little mountain towns, and lots of cool ecosystems, we rolled up to the boat. Lots of beautiful birds and wildlife. We stayed the night in a house up on stilts in the middle of the lake. Had some fresh fish grilled in palm fronds for dinner, along with a good salad and aguacate with salt. Best meal yet! Went on night boat ride and saw tons of birds, caimans, snakes, etc all up close. Alas the lighting didn't show up for us. Wind wasn't right or something. Slept in hammocks.
12/20/2008 Saw pink dolphins in the morning and a rare Northern Screamer. Met a cool blue crab fisherman as well. On way back we stopped at a random family run sugarcane farm. They were really nice and invited us into their house and even gave us some bananas! De Pinga. Had the best lunch ever of pollo a la brasa. We each got our own cutting boards and knives and forks. Then they gave us a huge cutting board for the table filled with awesome roast chicken, yucca, and roast potatoes. Topping it all off was hot sauce and aguacaca. And a glass bottle of pepsi made with real sugar, not corn syrup. Got back to Merida, got a room in a posada where a girl of 7 checked us in. Managed to sleep despite the hundreds of M80s exploding all night long.
12/21/2008 Left for Los Llanos in the morning in 2 land cruisers. We were with 9 other German speaking peeps from Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. Arrived at 7:30 PM after some insane driving - curvy cliff roads going thrice the speed limit. Yikes. Long day. Sweltering hot upon arrival and more bugs than I could imagine. More hammocks.
12/22/2008 Went on boat tour of nearby river. Got there by riding on top of land cruiser. Saw tons of caimans, TONS of huge birds. More pink river dolphins! Later in the day saw lots of capybaras and caimans. Shared some good Venezuelan rum with a cool German couple Maragret and Juergen. Had some good piranha for dinner!
12/23/2008 Went horseback riding in the morning, even got up on a gallop. My horse was named el Diablo. Then took off on a hot 5 hour drive to the river rafting camp in Barinas. Went for a swim once we got there and man did it feel goooooooood.
12/24/2008 Went whitewater intertubing for ~3 hours in a river similar to the Washougal. So much fun! I got flipped twice in some decent sized rapids. Got back to Merida around 5:30 PM. Had a dinner from a street cart of this awesome hamburger that had 5 mystery sauces, cabbage, carrots, other crunchy stuff, and an egg. Words can't describe how tasty it was.
12/25/2008 - 12/26-2008 We had 5 bolivars left, approximately $1. Finally found an ATM that worked. Took an 8 hour bus ride to Valencia, where we chilled from 3:30 - 6:30 AM in the sketchiest bus station in the world. Mice and rats were so loud. Oh, and we walked around outside in the deserted streets with all of our baggage at 5 AM trying to find a private bus co. called Rodavilla. We were literally begging to be mugged. Finally found a bus to Ciudad Bolivar. Arrived at 7 PM. Got a posada for the night with a shower!
12/27/2008 Took a Cessna 207 (6 seats) to Canaima. Nicole got to be co-pilot! Then we threw all of our stuff in garbage bags and headed of in a skinny long boat cut out of a single log with a 40 hp outboard. Boat ride was really cool, stopped to swim in a waterfall for lunch, navigated some sick rapids going upriver against 5 knots of current (big waves over the boat), huge Tepuis buried in clouds all around, even saw the rare sight of a Tapir swimming during the day! Finally made it to the camp with Angel Falls, the tallest waterfall in the world, peeking out from behind. Met a really nice German couple Nick and Susan who spoke fluent English. We played hearts with them by candlelight in the middle of the jungle before going to sleep in hammocks to the sound of the river.
12/28/2008 Woke up at 5:30 AM for a rainforest hike in the pouring down rain. Nicole managed to get a minor concussion by slamming her head into a tree and we went back early. On way back to Canaima, river was ripping. The driver is so good, dodging submerged rocks all over. They know this river. After a siesta, we went to this thundering brown wide waterfall 110 meters across. We walked under the whole thing. Insane. Soaked head to toe. So much water blowing back at times we couldn't even see. So powerful. Later we climbed to the top. We got bunk beds that night in a room with Nick and Susan. After dinner we all hung out with these 3 kids and had some hysterical conversations. Some highlights were: -kids teaching us card game "Kees me". -Doing my best card trick for them, and the process of explaining the trick and the suits. Then when it worked, they were blown away! -Me explaining to the 10 year old with a Nintendo DS and the game Call of Duty what his "objectives" are in Spanish since the game is in English. -Telling 15 year old girl from Valencia about our stay in the sketchy bus station in Valencia, and when she found out what part of town it was in her jaw dropped and eyes widened in wonder that we survived. So funny.
12/29/2008 Had pancakes for breakfast! We chilled in the morning and played some more hearts with Nick and Susan, then caught Flight #1 back to Ciudad Bolivar. Chilled in the city for awhile, even went down to a local bar where some cool local bought us a round, and then our first round of Regional Lights as well! Then took taxi to Puerto Ordaz for Flight #2 to Caracas.
12/30/2008 Caught flight #3 to Toronto where we had an 11 hour layover. Legs finally starting to peel. Then flight #4 back to Seattle. Apparently it snowed a ton while we were gone. J |