Week 50 - Venezuela

Heladeria Coromoto´s Ice Cream menu

Reeeeeee...

Laxxxxxx....

Ingggg......

Argentina, nope it´s Chichirviche!

Hola & Hasta Luego Amigos!

Well it`s our last day in South America; I´m excited to be going back to London to see everyone and experience normal-ness for a while, but I will really miss this place. Although, Africa is calling and a lot of new exciting adventures lay ahead!

Venezuela is without doubt the rough and tough country of South America. Being only 5 miles (8km) from the airport and in the home stretch I can say we had our close calls, but luckily have come through unscathed and very glad we have visited this wild and whacky place! Venezuela is certainly the least visited country on this leg of the trip; nonetheless we have met a few gringos, Europeans and even a solo travelling Russian girl, many with their battle wounds from Venezuela. If you´re looking for craziness and a gritty travel experience, this is your place!

Our route this past week: Merida > Chichirviche > Caracas

Saturday to Monday - Mountain town: We arrived in Merida on Saturday night with enough time to get out and hit the bars; absolutely what you need after more than 24 hours on buses. The other thing great about the bar was western music which after nearly six months in South America was "music to my ears"! :P
The next day we relaxed appreciated how nice it was to sleep in a bed which was the first time in a few nights. We walked into a shop to buy some food and were greeted by the owners and quickly given beers to celebrate Father´s day with them! Later we went to an Ice Cream shop called Heladeria Coromoto which is in the Guinness Book of World Records for most flavors. I choose a scoop of Coca Cola and one of Cerveza (beer), an interesting mix!

Tuesday to Friday: Tropical island paradise: For the last of our days in Venezuela, we decided to spend them in the National Marine Park of Morrocoy. Having seen pictures of Morrocoy all over bus stations and hotels, we knew this was not to be missed! We took a bus to Chichirviche which is essentially a small port town, excusively shuttling boats to its nearby tropical islands. Imagine (or look at our pictures) what a perfect tropical island looks like; white sand beaches, numerous palm trees, green carribean waters - this is Morrocoy and the nicest thing is during the week it was all ours! The first day we spent on Muerto Island (which translates to Murder island), thankfully we came back a live, but the SUN did try to kill us. The next two days were very similar; we chose the islands of Perasa and then Varadero. Perasa was incredible, it was the smallest and it was completely void of anyone! We relaxed with a few beers and were in total peace! Varadero was a very different place, but with only 10-20 people, how can you complain. By this time, we had learned the trick and brought an iced cooler with us. Nothing like a cold beer on a deserted island!
On Friday, we weren´t so lucky with the islands; I didn´t do my research on Venezuelan holidays and missed that it was their Independence day. Thousands of people descended on little Chichirviche turning the place into a madhouse. They seemed extremely happy to be rid of the Spanish invaders. Nonetheless, the place was still amazing, despite having to share, but we certainly had our fair share of the place that week.

Saturday - Times up: Our last full day in South America wasn´t that crazy, which is good! We had to go back to big scary Caracas into the heart at the bus terminal and get a taxi to our hotel near the airport. All went well (the bus only broke down once) and that night we enjoyed a nice meal reflecting on our past half year of superb experiences.

Today we are flying out in T-minus 8 hours! Wish us luck in getting back to London safely and I will keep you up to date with our new travels.

Friday, July 1st is our 2 year wedding anniversary, so we have a nice time planned in London. Yes, on a trip like this, London is our vacation, thus the perfect place for our anniversary! Whilst Marina is applying for a few necessary visas, I will be shooting over to mainland Europe seeing Norway, Germany, and Luxembourg. On July 21st we fly to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to start to our African adventure!

Until next time,

Dan and Marina

Week 49 - Venezuela

Fasten your seatbelts ladies and gentleman, it´s going to be a bumpy ride!

What a beach!

Cruisin!

Salto Angel and its 983 meters of glory!

The crooked table mountain opposite Angel Falls

Como Estas Amigos!

Welcome back to our real and uncensored blog.

We have been bumming the Venezuelan country making some serious ground.

Everyone is always talking about Chavez and maybe even someone you know could be delusional and think that Chavez is doing a good thing here. I won´t turn this into a political debate, but rather I´ll give an example of good and bad.

Starting with the good - Gasoline: How much is a liter of gas in Europe again, something like $2 (meaning almost $8/gallon). It’s about $4/gallon in the US, well try and guess what it is in Venezuela. I can´t tell you the exact price because it’s never posted. I mean, do they post the price of breathing air in England or the US? No, do they post the price of crossing the street, no, why, because its free. Well you might be catching on. Whilst it’s not exactly free to fill up our bus (think a big passenger bus) costs less than a dollar, roughly about 1 cent US/liter or 4 cents/gallon! I´m not joking!

Now let me tell you about Chavez´s policy to help encourage foreign investment and help boost the country´s economy. His regime has an interesting policy we have been learning about, if a business is successful and making a lot of money, its nationalized! This has happened in a lot of instances in Venezuela.

What have we been up to: Caracas > Ciudad Bolivar > Canaima > Merida

Monday - Passing Chavez´s palace: We arrived several hours before sunlight at Caracas airport, not due to poor planning, but due to an airline scam (let’s not get started on this topic). When you get to Caracas airport at this time of the night - safety is a concern and considering we were to leave on the first bus out of town, we decided to just chill for 3-4 hours and then we took a taxi at first light to the bus station. In our taxi we passed Chavez´s "presidential" palace and then we boarded our 10 hour bus south to the Ciudad Bolivar (which translates to Bolivar City, named after the hero Simon Bolivar who liberated Venezuela from the Spanish). There we were happy to enjoy a rest after a long time of travelling and a lot of stress.

Tuesday - Beer Garden on the Orinoco River: Today was time for us to get back into a human form and to chill. We successfully planned our trip to Angel Falls this day and enjoyed being on the banks of the Orinoco River. Being both from river towns, me on the Mississippi river in Missouri and Marina the Volga River in Samara, this was a sublime place to enjoy a beer. You might even be able to call the place a beer garden if you had never heard of Germany or their beer gardens.

Wednesday to Friday - Angel Falls: We boarded our small aircraft and were on our way to Canaima, which is a tiny town in the jungle which doesn´t have any roads connecting it to the outside world. That day we didn´t head up the river to Angel Falls instead we visited El Sapo Falls which is kind of like a mini Iguazu Falls with many separate waterfalls. We were able to sit in the small falls enjoying a water massage on our backs and later we hiked under the biggest falls viewing the blanket of water which masked the sky. This was not a dry activity and we were utterly soaked! The entire area is almost out of a story book and easily could be the attraction rather than Angel Falls. I told our guide Angel Falls or not, this place was worth the trip. We later sat on the beach of the lagoon. Picture this, red water from the tannins of the trees, palm trees coming from the water in front, and huge cascading water falls to the right! All around a lush tropical area! Forget my description - enjoy the picture!
The next day we headed for the falls. We had a 4 hour boat trip upstream, but this was not uncomfortable in our little canoe with an engine in the back, this again was worth the entire trip. All around are Table Mountains decorating the landscape! If you’re unfamiliar with what one is, it’s a mountain that looks like a table, thus a table mountain! :D We took pictures the whole way enjoying the views whilst the time flew by. In fact, not too far away, is Roraima, the world´s largest table mountain. If we were to come back to Venezuela, this would be the reason, but certainly not in the rainy season. The rainy season is prime time for Angel Falls, but not for Roraima. As we approached the falls in our boat we could see what locals call Salto Angel in the distance with all its grandeur! We had an hour hike from there to see it up close. At this vantage point, I could have easily sat there for hours just watching it, which is really the first time I´ve thought that about a waterfall. Until, our guide Jorge told us we could swim at the bottom of Angel Falls! The water was cold, but it felt good and it was certainly one of the best places I´ve ever swam in my life! What a view. Angel falls is tall, but to clarify, its the tallest in the world and is 983 meters or in my hometown terms, you would need to stack 5 St. Louis Arches to reach the top! This thing is massive! We camped nearby in hammocks for the night and were able to go to a viewing point for the late evening in the dark and for the sunrise. This trip was one of the best we have taken in our entire trip and seeing Angel Falls is certainly a top three for our South America trip! On Friday we caught a flight back to Ciudad Bolivar, cleaned up, and took the night bus for Merida.

Saturday - Bariosca Carioca Bar: If you thought we had a long day travelling well it didn´t finish early as we hoped. We had a change at Barinas which is just by Hugo Chavez´s home town. There we learned the road was closed so we had a long long wait and change of buses to get around it. At one point we all had to carry our luggage climbing dirt hills to switch buses. This wasn´t bad for Marina and I who are used to trekking around, but the Venezuelans, many with kids, didn´t seemed so thrilled. By 9pm (over 24 hours of travel) we made it to our destination; the mountain, University, and adventure town of Merida. That night we celebrated our arrival by finding a fun bar, which had a lot of students and we enjoyed far too many cheap $0.60 beers!

So what’s next for our LAST week in South America, we are planning to do something adventurous in Merida, but we are not sure yet. Afterwards we head up to the coast for either Morrocoy or Henri Pittier National Park for some tropical beach time.

Until next time,

Ciao amigos!

Dan and Marina

Week 48 - Mystery Island

Hola Chicos (hint hint)

Sadly, but wisely I have been advised by my Russian cohort not to comment on this past week. All is fantastic, but politics, etc...

We are now back in Venezuela and the blog will commence next week as planned.

Hopefully with a great story and pictures from our trip to Angel Falls!!!

Hasta Luego!

Dan and Marina

PS Drop us an email if you have any questions.

Week 47 - Aruba

The Fam!

Marina and Lauren over the Natural Bridge

Grillin it up!

Why do they call it Baby Beach?

Mia is just hanging around..

Hello Mr Iguana...

Bondia!

Welcome to "One happy island" as the Arubans call it. We´ve now been on the road for about 11 months and let me say, we needed this trip. It couldn´t have been a better time seeing my family and my new niece and sharing the amazing tropical island of Aruba!

For those who haven´t followed up on UB40´s song Kokomo to see where Aruba is, I´ll clarify, its only 16 miles (25km) off the western coast of Venezuela. Sadly, no we couldn´t take a boat there, but it’s hard to get jet lag when you are only in the air for 30 minutes ;D The island was part of the Nederland Antilles and has now sprung free from Dutch and their French fries with mayonnaise, but the windmills remain. The island is about 20 miles long (32km) and averages about 4 miles (7km) wide; certainly a little tiny island paradise.

Sometimes it’s hard not knowing you’re in the US. Most transactions are in US Dollars, however they do have their currency the Guilder - remember that one Europeans... You have many of the luxuries of American life - fast food. Yes, you will see the main ones, plus my personal favorite, Taco Bell, which is really the only one I eat. As far as languages go, yes, they speak Dutch, but not as a first language. English is seemingly spoken by EVERYONE, although the main language is Papiamento an indigenous language which from what I could tell contains, spanish, dutch, english and local words.

One of the best things about Aruba is that it´s not in the Hurricane zone and its temperatures are the same year round at 28C or 82F. They also have a limited amount of rain, most of which is in the autumn so really a tropical paradise!

We hired a villa near the north of the islands which was just down the street from the big hotels, allowing us the comforts of good restaurants and bars nearby. Only a 5 minute drive away was one of Aruba´s best two beaches, Arashi beach. I have to give Craig my brother-in-law big credit for finding this gem. When you have 8.5 people, I much prefer to have everyone together in one accommodation and since we aren´t from Arkansas, we couldn´t share one hotel room. The villa was the perfect overload of luxury to help balance out our time roughing it and in the jungle.

Saturday - Family Reunion: Marina had a lot of stress before we left as she was exempt from a visa for Aruba due to her UK residence permit, however it took time in the Dutch embassy in Buenos Aires to even confirm this, causing a doubt she would even be allowed on. Thankfully to the Venezuelan scamsters checking in people and demanding a $50pp fake tax, they were too preoccupied to check visas and simply let her on the plane. Once we landed in Aruba, they knew the drill and it was no drama. Except for Jennifer Hudson jumping the line in front of us - you think these celebrities would be a bit more considerate, not that I would.. ;D Once we passed though the baggage claim area I was like a kid on Christmas day - so happy to see my family. At one year since I had seen them last and Jared and Lauren my nephew and niece have certainly grown as you expect, but are never ready for. Seeing my precious new niece Mia (4 months old) was amazing), but difficult to keep Marina away from her - we still have lots of places to see first! That night, we all went for a dinner in the Marriott and back to the pool for beers and relaxing.

Sunday - Arashi Beach: Craig and I went for a run in the morning, whilst Marina and I are in pretty good shape, we haven´t been running for quite some time before our trip. Thankfully Craig took it easy on me as we had several distractions such as getting a car. The villa was slightly too far for walking so we rented one of those big vans you see in gangster movies during drive by shootings, except a bit nicer and more windows. My mom really loved the beach and turquoise water at Arashi, I think she certainly has her sea legs! Julie (my sister) did a great job keeping Mia out of the sun and that baby just doesn´t fuss much. Heat, sun, salt water, they all seemed to make her happy, especially as she drank the seawater off her hands and other peoples. That night, Julie, Craig, Marina and I went for drinks doing a mini pub crawl to about 6 places. I think it was more of an attempt to find normal beer, no I don´t mean American beer, I mean beer which is at least 330ml (12oz)! They love their small beers in Aruba and during the night, it’s not that hot that you need them. I guess I could say these tiny beers make my hands look bigger, but they don´t treat my liver well... I think they have dumped big beers and kept charging the same for these tiny ones.. Occasionally we found a few places with normal size Coronas. I didn´t see any local beer - Balashis which was up to a normal size.

Monday - Natural Bridge: Today we did a tour of the island from top to bottom. Our first main stop was Baby Beach which is in my opinion, the nicest on the island. Firstly it was entirely secluded with no other people or any sign of commercialism. The waves are much nicer on Baby Beach compared to Arashi which is very calm. Jared and Lauren enjoyed jumping the waves and I even think Mia enjoyed the occasional splash in the face as we would see her lapping up the salt water off her lips. Later we drove to the Natural Bridge, not to be compared to the one in St.Louis or with our van the police certainly would have stopped us. The Natural Bridge is a stone bridge with a great array of colors in the water and nearby the waves crash in hard spraying water up to 10 meters (33ft) in the air! That night, we had a gluttonous BBQ, that’s what happens when several people go shopping, cooking up ribs, burgers, and chicken. We then swam off the calories in the pool discussing lizards spottings and how dangerous they "could possibly" eat the young ones..

Tuesday - Amazonia: Robin (Craig´s mom) and my mom, led the hunt for souvenirs this morning before we went to Iguana Joes for lunch. Note the name Iguana and Jared´s phobia of lizards, well planned I would say.. We later took the cooler up to Arashi beach and had a few beers enjoying the water and dunking Lauren and Jared; mostly Jared though as he is kind of an instigator to put it mildly. Seeing Amazonia you might have expected something from Brazil or Colombia, but it’s a fantastic Brazilian Churrascaria where they bring the sticks of meat and fill your belly until you´re ready to explode! Not that a fully belly would stop us having a good crazy night. Once we had everyone back in the car and one their way home went out for some gambling and drinks. Craig and Julie did well, but I´ll have to put the blame for our small losses on my better half ;D The wheels came off in the sports bar when we played pool and Golden Tee for shots, ouch.

Wednesday - Beach hopping: I didn´t expect we would find a better beach than Baby or Arashi, but it’s always worth exploring. We checked out Eagle beach by the Marriott and it was calm and perfect for the little one, but not our favorite. We stopped home getting a beer cooler and made our way up to Arashi. That night we went for all-you-can-eat fajitas. Delicious, but two nights in a row for all-you-can-eat is a killer on the waistline, but yummy! :D

Thursday - Goodbyes: Our last day on the island. Marina and I really wished we had a few more days there, but back to the crazy unexpected adventures of backpacking. It was very much a relaxing time, not only because we spent time with the people we love, but because we could truly relax from travels. No new faces, no worries watching our bags and hiding our stuff in the room, but just easy enjoyable conversation and stories with each other. They checked in around 1:30 and we went to wait for our flight back to Caracas. Unfortunately which was delayed by a few hours in Curacao, where we changed planes. Getting to Caracas after 10pm is never a great idea, but it went ok and I´m writing you from the lobby of our hotel.

So what is next; today we fly out to let’s call it a Big island famous for a tasty drink and certain largely rolled cigarettes - and no I don´t mean Jamaica. For political and legal reasons we will just call it Che Island.