We are getting excited to go home. On Tuesday, August 5 we woke up earlier in order to get a cab to the bus terminal bound for Caracas at 7:00 am. The bus was very luxurious; a double decker with recliner seats fully air-conditioned. We, along with Oscar and Graziella left Puerto La Cruz at 8:00 am to arrive Caracas at 1:00 pm in time to do some sight seeing. It all started very nicely with movies on the screens while we sat back and relaxed. That is until the bus suddenly stopped. We got suspicious when I saw all kinds of police speeding past us. We also noticed at the same time that people carrying luggage were walking past us in the opposite direction back the way we had come. It was a demonstration closing the road. – Demonstrations can continue up to 3 days. There was no announcement from the bus driver on what was going on. After 4 hours, the bus finally moved forward. This was coincidental with a thunder storm that suddenly came over the area.
Anyway, away we go. Now we are running late and probably won’t arrive in Caracas until late afternoon. Around 3:00 we stopped at a bus mall with food vendors and toilets (toilet paper not supplied). Again no announcement from the bus driver how long the stop was. Another passenger said that it is usually 20 to 30 minutes. We ordered lunch and did some people watching when Oscar suddenly noticed our bus leaving. We grabbed our stuff and sprinted just in time to get on before they took off.
At 6:30 p.m. we got in to Caracas bus terminal where the cab Oscar had ordered for around 1:00 pm was still waiting for us. This was good and bad. Good because at least he was there for us – bad because he wanted to charge us cab fare starting at 1:00 until we got to the hotel, which was 9:00 pm. The cab took over 2 hours to go a short distance because of the terrible traffic – far worse than Toronto. At one 5 street intersection drivers would stop to direct traffic themselves until they had created a hole big enough for them to pass and zip off until the next driver stepped in. This was interactive traffic duty. Total chaos!
We arrive at the hotel, tired and in need of dinner. We gave our confirmation of hotel bookings to the manager and gave a quick peek into the restaurant – looks pretty good.
OH OH – the manager is scrutinizing the pre-paid booking and shaking his head – he had the look of a constipated camel. Things don’t look good he says – we have no record of your pre-paid booking and I have never heard of the agent “Venezuela Travel”. Eyes narrowed Oscar focuses hard on the manager “what do you mean no bookings and you don’t know Jamie?!!! Oh well, I don’t know him, but, my wife does all the bookings – she probably knows. Well, just you go ahead and call her to see what happened says Oscar. Bad news, no rooms, but, would we like to see one of the rooms we can’t have? The manager said that if we paid an additional 260.00 BS (about $80 US) he would arrange for rooms at another hotel. We were now paying double with no other options.
We decided to eat here after hearing that the other hotel didn’t have a restaurant and it is now very late. After a short wait we are seated in the restaurant 45 minutes before closing. We have however now pissed off the food manager who clearly didn’t want other customers before closing. When we questioned the difference amongst three different chicken recipes we were told they were all the same – ya right; and Oscar ordered the steak – daring man.
After 45 minutes the gourmet feast arrived. The chicken had clearly been boiled in water using the microwave – it was paler than English skin in spring – yum. Accompanied by 6 french fried potatoes each – obviously left over from lunch and re-fried and a green salad which included green tomatoes and no salad dressing other than vegetable oil. The chicken was cold and rubbery but still better than Oscar’s steak with looked like thin brown felt which did not give in to a knife. This was the last straw for Oscar who took his plate with the steak hanging stiff from his fork, to the food manager. The commotion caused the manager to come running. After some discussions we were told we didn’t have to pay but would we like to go away now - we were hustled off to a waiting cab taking us to the new hotel.
The cabbie said that this “over booking” was customary for this hotel. We will be talking to Jamie when we get back to get our money back.
The new hotel was clean and spartan with only cold water in the bath but a good little restaurant which was still open – Oscar had a new dinner and then off to bed for a wake-up call for 4:00 am leaving 5:00 am.
We arrived at the airport at 5:30 and lined up at the Continental desk in anticipation of boarding and having a good nap. The agent shakes her head and says that Roy had a seat but I didn’t. Would we like to get a coffee and come back in a couple of hours when unclaimed seats would be released. Not happy! We get back at 7:30 and were asked “who told you to come back at 7:30 that’s not right, you have to come back just before 9:00 (the time the plane leaves) when all the other passengers are in. Well we got on minutes before departure – what a last minute rush.
We landed in Houston and found that our connecting flight number and departure had changed to 4 hours later so the kids had to be notified to pick us up at 11:30 pm instead of 7:30. It’s been a long two days but we are finally in Toronto.
The visit to Toronto was great. Visited all our friends and had a great reunion with the family. Laden down with double the number of bags we started with, we’re off again, back to Venezuela after 7 glorious weeks in Canada.
We’re back but still in the mood to travel – so we, Rene & Cheryl and Chris (s/v Spyglass) arranged for a trip to Angel Falls. We left early Tuesday morning driving with Matthias to Bolivar where we stayed in “Posada Juan Carlos” for one glorious evening enjoying a good dinner in an original Spanish style courtyard. Next morning we left Bolivar to fly in a small six-seater to Canaima National Park the starting point for the river tour. What spectacular scenery – along with the river, falls and table-top mountains was luscious greenery. We had a chance to ramble around the campground and play along the waterfalls close to the camp. We walked behind both falls and saw the beautiful small red flowers and ferns growing behind the falls in the warm mist. The food at the camp was – uninspired – both meals came with a mound of rice, coleslaw and the indescribable, indestructable steak for lunch and for dinner the same again, but this time it was fish still containing most of its bones.
We left early Thursday morning in a large motorized canoe carrying our group of 5, another 5 guests, 2 tour guides and 2 canoe pilots, total 14. The ride lasted five hours against a strong current and innumerable rapids bordered by jungle. We stopped for lunch and a dip in a bay – the water was incredibly cold. This was followed by an almost 2 hour hike up hill through the jungle across intertwined roots like balls of knitting until we hit huge areas of boulders leading to the falls.
The weather had been spectacular and we were rewarded with a clear, unobstructed view of the falls. This is apparently unusual since the falls are often obstructed by mist, clouds and rain – but not today. We also had an incredible opportunity to bathe in the water at the bottom of the falls – wow was that water cold!
At the end of this perfect day, we paddled to our camp site for the night. We had been advised that the camp was primitive but I wasn’t quite prepared for the actuality. The food was really good, B.B.Q. chicken – yummy.
Suspended from two long poles were the 14 hammocks covered in mosquito netting for each of us. If one of us turned over or shifted our position in our hammock all the hammocks bounced around like laundry on a line. This was further enhanced by the only one of us who got any sleep that night – mentioning no names – the guy with the seismic snoring – I swear he created ripples in the water.
But the bathroom – well that was beyond any previous experiences. The facilities were coed and contained two toilets separated by a small 4 foot by 2 foot wall and no doors. No doubt the designer thought any two occupants would be in the mood for a chat while seated. Flushing was by gravity using two pails of water obtainable from the barrel right outside – but no running water for any other ablutions – oh, and toilet paper was also optional.
The next morning we left after breakfast to travel back down the river this time with the current making the earlier 5 hour trip in 3 hours. We hurtled down through the rapids and past the magnificent jungles back to the little airport. We arrived back in Bahia Redonda really late with great memories.
Till next time –
Roy and Maggie
s/v Drum
www.royandmaggie.com