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Published: April 9th 2007
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09/04/2007.
I'm bored of having a plan, plus I'm way behind schedule now anyway, so let's play a game.
I am in Boa Vista, northern Brazil and want to be in Cuzco, Peru in 10 days or so.
There are several routes I could take, most of which would be more or less the same in terms of time and money.
I could head north towards Angel Falls, or south towards the Amazon river. From these, more options open up. I have no real preference. I was going to roll a dice or toss to decide, but I thought it would be more fun to open it out to the readers to decide. I'll give choices as I go along and first to reply on my blog comment page choses my next destination.
OK, to get me started, should I head north to the waterfalls or south to the river?
(You may need the map)
My bus leaves tomorrow morning either way, so I'll log on then to see where I am going.
This idea may well flop due to lack of interest, lack of availability of transport or lack of access to the internet, but let's
see.
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10/04/2007
The ayes to the North have it.
Will go grab my ticket back to Venezuela now. Think it will be a better route, as I'd only have sat on a river boat for 5 days the other way.
After the waterfall, I can either take 2 days trekking and sleeping in the savannah and climbing the tepius (tabletop mountains) or go relax for 2 days on the Island of Margaritta.
Get thinking people.
I'm now in Santa Elena in southern Venezuela, one of the launch points for Angel Falls - the name Angel Falls has nowt to do with winged messangers, but is named after an American pilot, Jimmie Angel, who crash landed on the top of the tepui whilst looking for gold.
It is the end of the dry season here and word on the street is that a visit to the falls is not worth the time, effort or money, even if it was free. Which it's not. Angel Falls may be high (970m), but it is a mere trickle at the moment, so I'd mainly be looking at a 970m high rock face. It sounds like there is no
ideal time to visit, because in the wet season the top is obscured by cloud. But I'll be seeing plenty more waterfalls this trip, so I'm over it already.
Instead, by popular demand, I'm going trekking to some of the other tepuis in the region and there will be a lot of other falls en route.
Venezuela's Gran Sabana has dozens of these granite table mountains. They are not formed by your bog-standard plate tectonics, but by the erosion of the limestone rock around the granite core, leaving these giant smooth plateaus with sheer faces. This is why the region has so many high waterfalls.
The largest tepui, Roraima, towers over the savannah. But it is a 6 day hike to the top of it, so I'm just going to do a 2 day tour of some of the lesser tepuis for now.
In a couple of days time I'll need to start heading Peruwards:
Press the Red button if I should make my way overland through Colombia, picking up the end of Amazon river into Peru (4-5 day trip)
Press the Chocolate button if I should fly to Lima and spend the spare days visiting the city and
surrounding sights, like the Nazca lines
It's over to you.
By the way, the rules have changed. Instead of going with the first reply, which favours (or favors?) the American, I'll go with the democratic choice.
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14/04/2007
I should have remembered my own advise and brought hard cash US dollars with me to Venezuela. I should also have heeded the profound words of TLC, whose wisdom and foresight suggested;
"Dont go chasing waterfalls,
Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to.
I know that youre gonna have it your way
Or nothing at all
But I think you re moving too fast...."
Too true, girls.
I also forgot Venezuela has an extortionate departure tax, airport tax, and the people are the least friendly I've encountered. All that said, the Gran Sabana was a good trip.
This was followed by 2 solid days of bus travel, which is not fun for anyone, most especially the poor soul who had to sit next to me for the last few unwashed hours. Travelling alone does afford you a lot of free time for deep thought and philosophical contemplation. Having already nailed religion and politics, my mind turned to how does Steve Martin still have a film career? He's done nothing even half decent since Roxanne or Father of the Bride (whichever is most recent) and I've just had to sit through The Pink Panther remake which is possibly the worst of a very unfunny bunch.
My bus was late arriving in Caracas by 4 hours, which meant I was stressed and pretty much guaranteed to miss my flight to Lima - which I duly did. I complained to the bus company who had told me blatant lies about how long the journey was, and the guy behind the counter kindly offered me a lift to the airport. I was pissed off and tired, so I naively accepted. On arrival he demanded I pay him $50 - He had my backpack in his boot, so I was not in a strong bargaining position. I paid, stormed off to check in, bought a new ticket for the next Lima flight 24 hour later, and fell asleep under a table in the airport food court. The re-arranged flight to Lima was delayed by 8 hours, and by the time I finally left I was feeling like Tom Hanks in the Terminal. Maybe this whole Friday the 13th thing does has something in it.
Landing in Lima is a fresh new dawn. It also opened up the last 2 options of my unplanned route to Cuzco. I could take the direct route over the mountains and descend the other side. This would be a bumpy, lumpy, rough ride. Let's call this option Jade.
The other option is the coastal route via the (surfable) sand-dunes and the Nazca lines. The would be a smooth, more cultured, well-travelled and attractie ride. We'll call this option Shilpa.
To evict JADE, press 1 on your keypads.
To evict SHILPA, press 2.
The choice is yours. Lines closed at midnight on Monday. Local network rates apply.
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Becky Taylor
non-member comment
Angel falls
As no one else seems to have replied, I decided I would (all enjoying the gorgeous weather probably!). I think you should go to angel falls. You've done most of the tallest buildings, why don't you make thw world's best waterfalls your next challenge? I'll email you soon, Bx