Go Chasing Waterfalls!

We managed to get on the nightbus to Valencia and after a pretty smooth swap there we arrived in Ciudad Bolivar 24 hours after starting our trip from Mérida. Ciudad Bolivar is named after "El Libertador" Simón Bolivar, a Caracas born man and the founding father of Venezuela who gave Gran Colombia (Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela) it´s independence in the beginning of the 19th century. Apart from this city, you see his name everywhere in the Bolivarian Republic of Venzuela maybe most noticeably the currency of Bolivars and the main square of every town called Plaza Bolivar. We spent two days in Ciudad Bolivar the first day spent just walking around town looking at the markets and on the second day we took a trip to the mighty Angel Falls. The name of the world's highest waterfall doesn't have anything to do with messengers of God but refers to the American man who "found" it, Jimmie Angel who in 1933 flew over it for the first time and whilst looking for it again in 1937 crashlanded at the top. The fact that an American claims the name to Venezuelas top tourist attraction is not very popular with Señor Chavez who is doing his best to get it renamed to Kerepakupai merú, which means "waterfall of the deepest place", in the local Pemon language. We took off from Ciudad Bolivar in a tiny six-seater Cessna, four Swedes and our 200 kilogram pilot Marco. The (at points stomach-churning) flight over the beautiful dense jungle landscape and table mountains lasted for about an hour until we got to the 979 meter high waterfall which despite it being dry-season was truly sublime, words just don't do it justice (and as I haven't got a camera I guess you'll just have to go see it for yourselves.) After flying by it a few times we landed at the village airstrip in Canima where we could swim in the white sanded Canaima lagoon and get closer to some smaller waterfalls which were once again mindblowing and I just can't imagine what the wetseason is like. As this season doesn't really offer so much to do for a longer time we flew back to Ciudad Bolivar the same day and had a busticket booked to take us to the harbourtown Puerto La Cruz. However when we arrived at the busterminal we found out that our bus had been cancelled, not wanting to lose too much time, we opted to make the four hour drive by taxi instead. Puerto La Cruz doesn't really have a lot to offer except for it's proximity to the nearby beaches and the very popular Isla Margarita. We decided the best choice was to stick to mainland and travelled early in the morning to a secluded and quiet beachtown called Playa Colorada. I could only stay two nights until I had to bid my adieus to my travelpartners Joanna, Johan and Tobias who have been great company for the past fortnight. It took me almost 7 hours but as I write I am back in Caracas hoping that my early flight to Brazil tomorrow morning won't cause as much of a problem as the first flights of this decade seemed to...

Ande-Man

It's been a while since my last post but I'll start off with a Bang! which was the sound (well not really, but it's the only way I know in written form without having to pay royalty money to the creators of Batman) that woke me and the rest of the passengers on the Merida nightbus at 1 AM. This is one of the last noises I want to hear followed by the bus swerving out of control whilst driving amongst some of the worlds highest mountains. The bus came to a halt and luckily we hadn't reached the curvy mountain passages yet, but we were stuck on the side of the highway with an exploded front tyre. Nobody came to harm and as soon as the tyre was switched we were off again. Seven hours later (Eleven hours on the bus total) I was in the Andean town of Mérida. The actual city itself is pleasant allthough nothing special, but as you know it's all about location, location, location. Merida is beautifully nestled in the valley with Venezuelas highest mountains surrounding it on all sides, this leaves it with a very comfortable climate and temperature all year round. The city's main claim to faim is it's Teleferico (cable-car) which is the world's longest travelling and highest climbing. Unfortunately I found out (which my brand-new guidebook hadn't) that it has been closed due to maintenance for the past three years. At my posada in town (which has the highest backpacker and gringo population I've encountered on this trip so far) I met fellow Swedes: Joanna, Johan and Tobias. After a hard night's drinking with them we decided a trip to the immense plains, which take up nearly a third of the country, called Los Llanos was a good idea. The winding trip through the almost 4000 meter high moutains was apparantly not a good idea for me, as I was throwing up throughout. By the time we were on a two hour trek through the valleys I was so dehydrated I actually passed out. Finally after 1½ days travel we reached the savannah landscape along with some Swiss, Koreans, Germans and a Brit. We stayed in Los Llanos for two days, horseback-riding (which was surprisingly fun) going on night- and boat-safaris and just generally looking at the wildlife, mostly an abundance of different birds but also animals like; caymans, freshwater dolphins, capybarra and the most important of all Anacondas. On the fourth day we took the long and winding roads back to Merida and got some rest before next days activity "canyoning." Basically you pay a lot of money to go on a death-defying trek in the moutain's rainforest canyons, absailing through high waterfalls, jumping into narrow gaps of water and sliding down natural water-slides. By the time we were done I was freezing cold, pumped full of adrenaline and one camera poorer. Yeah that's right it took me 17 days to lose my camera on this trip as the currents of the river proved a more potent threat than the Caracas gun-man. Well, well, shit happens and now me and the Swedes are taking a nightbus to Valencia where, fingers crossed, we can quickly travel to Ciudad Bolivar as my schedule is getting rather tight.

Off The Beach

Of course as soon as I had decided to get away from the beachtown the clouds dispersed and left me with two very warm busrides totalling 5 hours and taking me to the Unesco World Heritage Site and Venezuelas first capital city; Coro. Once again every accomodation in town was full and by the time I had walked around and found a posada I had basically seen everything this small colonial town had to offer. However I walked around, saw the contemporary local art museum and managed to catch a very short part of the sunday morning mass in Venezuela's oldest cathederal (built between 1583 and 1634) Also I saw the unrealisic amount of shoe-shops in such a small town, I'm not sure of the exact number but roughly... a shitload! So after less than 24 hours in this very pretty, cobblestoned and tranquil town I felt I had seen most of it plus I didn't need new shoes, so I moved on to my next point, Maracaibo. Maracaibo is a city almost by the Columbian border in the part of the country which gave Venezuela it's name. When Italian explorer Amerigo Vespuci came here in 1502 and saw the Arawak houses built on wooden stilts in the water it reminded him of a little Venice or.. Venezuela. At first glimpse Venezuelas second largest city situated between the banks of the Venezuelan gulf and Lago De Maracaibo (where the majority of the countries oil is found) looks like quite a grey, dismal, concrete nightmare but looking closer I found it was in fact a grey, dismal, concrete nightmare with some very charming and beautiful hidden colonial gems. I say hidden when in fact they are quite the opposite as grand European style tree-lined avenues with magnificent marble and gold fountains at the center aren't exacctly good camoufalge in a concrete jungle. Here I managed to catch the end of the sunday evening mass (two sunday masses in one day, that should get me through the pearly gates) at the Basilica and got caught up in a cult-like wave of touching eachother and giving cheek kisses. So I snuck out and went back to the hotel where I met Trenton, a Buyer/Seller from Guyana. Today I have spent all day following him around learning the art of trading goods it doesn't seem like a half bad proffesion and who knows this may be my call in life, but that will have to wait a while. My current life plan is to catch an overnight bus which should get me up into the Andes and the town of Merida by tomorrow morning some time.

Vamos A La Playa

The trip from Caracas to Choroni took three stages: first a short metro ride, followed by 90 minutes on bus to Maracay and then completed with a thrilling two and a half hour roller coaster of a drive though the beautiful scenery and high jungle mountains of "Parque Nacional Henri Pittier" which seperate Caracas from the Caribbean Sea. The last part of the trip was done at high speed in an old pimped up American schoolbus with latin rhythms booming out of the sound system. When I reached Choroni and the fishermen's part of town "Puerto Colombia" I quickly learned the meaning of "Todo Ocupado" as every hostel or posada (guesthouse) had this sign up due to it still being Christmas holidays here. Wandering around the picturesque and colourful town I saw the two first blonde guys I'd seen since leaving Sweden, I went up to them on a hunch and of course they were Swedish. They were brothers Eric and Gustaf, here on holiday with their parents and Eric's girlfriend Jeanette, who like Eric studies at Caracas University. I spoke to the friendly owner at their posada called Monita, and managed to get a bed in her childhood room/storage unit. I spent two nights and one day with the family from the south of Sweden visiting a nearby beach and the tiny idyllic town of Chuao which produces some of the world's finest cocoa. During the evenings we had great food and drinks. It was nice to meet people and be able to have my first real conversations of... this decade basically. I spent one day alone in Choroni and decided to check the crowded but pretty Playa Grande out before taking the crazy ride across the mountains again, via Maracay and Valencia to reach Chichiriviche after 8 hours. Chichiriviche is another coastal-town, this one located in the Parque Nacional de Morrocoy, which is famous for its tropical paradise cayos (keys) I visited Cayo Varadero, which was also crowded, but if you just walked a few minutes in either direction you had miles of white sand beach, palmtrees and crystal clear turquoise water all to yourself. Unfortunately recycling doesn't seem to be very high up on Señor Chavez's agenda, as most beaches I've seen so far have been cluttered with litter. As my second day in Chichiriviche was cloudy I decided not to visit any more cayos but instead move on towards new destinations, where that will be only time can tell... ok it's going to be a town called Coro.

Welcome to The Jungle

So the inevitable has happened, admittedly a little bit quicker than I had expected, but still it happened. Shortly after writing my last post I walked up what was apparantly a bad street. A man approached me, shook my hand, dragged me closer to him and then tought me my new spanish word of the day: "Pistola," whilst lifting his t-shirt up revealing the but of a hand-gud poking out from the top of his boxer-shorts. He tried to grab my bag, but when I showed him the contents (Two books and a bottle of water) he changed his mind. his attention now shifted to a mobile-phone and I told him I didn´t have one but decided to show him my wallet before he would start searching me and find my secret cash-stash or worse my camera. He grabbed the wad of money (mostly small bills making it feel like more than it was) gave me the evil eye and walked off. This was at half past three, broad daylight, less than 20 hours into my trip (12 hours were spent sleeping) perhaps proving to me that the facts, statistics and stories I've been told about Venezuela aren't that exaggerated. Otherwise the little I saw of Caracas seemed allright, it must be one of the most integrated communities I have ever seen, blacks, whites and natives mixing without any problems as far as I can see, just agreeing on one thing to dislike the "gringo." I´ve seen enough Western films to recognise the "We-don't-take-kindly-to-your-type" look I get from many people often accompanied by jeers of "¡Ey Gringo!" They are definitely not all like this though as I have also met many extremly friendly and helpful people here. One thing that strikes you when you come to Caracas is their love for baseball and from what I've understood there are two main teams "The Leones" and "Magallanes" every man seems to wear at least one piece of clothing showing off the love for one of these teams. Another thing that can't escape the eye is the size of women's breasts and how they like to flaunt them, either plastic surgery is very cheap here or this is one blessed population. Anywhoo I've left Caracas now and reached the small coastal town of Coroni, but that will have to wait until the next chapter of this magical tale.

Crackass

So after killing 12 hours at Madrid's wonderful airport and then a further 10 hours on the aeroplane I have now arrived in the capital of Hugo Chavez's Venezuelan empire, Caracas. Getting into the country went all too well seeing as I was prepared for hell having been told by several books, people and embassies that the way into Venezuela could be a treterous one... it was not. The passport control here was one of the most lax I've ever seen, it's harder to get onto the Stockholm subway without a ticket than into this country without proper documents. So anyway at the airport the struggle starts, taxi-touts pulling you one way police officers the other, everybody wanting your green Benjamin Franklin dollars. They have great value to the population here as their own currency fluctuates so much and therefor has no real value. The rate offered by the banks is 2 Bolivar Fuertes for 1 US$, but after I haggled a bit with one of the touts I managed to get 5 Bolivars per US dollar. Then I opted not to take the expensive taxi into town but found two wonderful women who took me under their wings to guide me safely through the bustrip into the capital. As soon as I found a cheap hostel room I took it, jumped in the shower and then crashed straight into bed, getting some much needed sleep after the past few days schedule. This morning I awoke early to see what my neighbourhood of Sabana Grande had to offer, turns out not very much seeing as it was Sunday morning, but I walked around for a bit grabbing some quick bites where I could find them and now found an open Internet café. The plan for the upcoming weeks is not quite decided, I want to get into beach-mode pretty soon and also want to see the worlds highest waterfall which is located in this country, but more about that when it actually happens.

Epic start to the new decade!

Wow where to start? Well the decaded really started with a bang. Flying out on newyears-day may have been one step more stupid than last years decision to fly on the eve of the new year. So to cut a long story short... after a boozy last night, I managed to oversleep and miss my flight! However I decided to make my way to the airport and somehow get to Madrid where my connecting flight leaves for Caracas on the 2nd. I just managed to get on a plane to Prague and after an hour there catch a flight to Madrid, arriving at midnight. However as I missed my original flight I was classed as a "No-Show" and they cancelled my connection. However the gamble payed off, as I, after some sweet talk managed to get back on board. So that´s where I am no, hoping to be able to stay awake for this flight which leaves at 12 o clock. The lengths I go to to make this blog interesting! Haven´t even left Europe yet the adventure has begun!!!