Another Susan!

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A bit of a backdated issue this time as I´m really in Manaus...yes, on the real Amazon...(in fact its not on the Amazon but thats another story!)but more of that later!
Where to begin?...and this will be abbreviated as its exy here and uncomfortable...but for you, hey, gotta do it.
Got the bikes 20,000 km service in Caracas...Andrès, our man in BMW organised everything fantastically, new tyres courtesy of Herr Florian at Continental, Germany...the BMW guys did the fuel filters as well so hopefully that sorted my probs.....some cockup communications notwithstanding we were led out of Caracas by the beautiful and so charming Zulya, ex-diplomat wife, girlfriend of the BMW mechanic who was formerly a cop!..it can´t get any better than this...down the autopista, stop for gas, abso torrential downpour, makes Darwin tropical storms look like a light summer shower, get washed off the roads...then on towards Puerto la Cruz..and...ahh Susan...
My life has been peppered with several Susans...some interesting relationships and one nearly fatal reunion, well it was her sister who tried to stab me with a plastic fork in a Darwin wine bar...say no more!...this new Susan...Grant picked her up in an internet chat room...well, not strictly true, he picked up on her blog on horizonsunlimited.com (you Michaels should be onto this one)..she had ridden her 650 BMW down from Alaska to Venezuela and we had been in e-touch on some info...also, Susan had gotten me the homestay thing on Isla de Magarita...anyway, she was having a dinner party in her appartment block on the Sat night and we were trying to get there....as we got away late I wrote off cocktails but still thought maybe dinner!
It was getting darker and despite a nearly-full moon, the traffic was crazy (mostly pissed). and the big busses get along at something over 130 kph!!....scary stuff....and the potholes, lack of signs etc...there goes dinner, maybe dessert!....
In between the traffic some calmer spells...almost daylight with the beautiful big moon....cruising in the warm night air....and off ahead a huge thunderhead with internal bolts of lightening illuminating the shape...uh oh, its sort of where we´re heading...hmmm
Finally we acknowledge defeat...it will have to be breakfast or lunch with Susan!...we pull over at small dingy, shitbox town of sorts...out of sorts...theres a gas station, few rundown shops and a 3 storey hotel...also a string of roadside food stalls with their plastic tables and chairs...right by the side of the road...enjoy your meal with huge trucks with loads of scrap metal lumbering past a few feet away, belching acrid black smoke over us diners..stray dogs hanging around, kids playing, sort of ok, sort of creepy...all those stories, you know, don´t EVER stop along the way!!...the hotel is expensive, every hour another 30 bucks..oh, its THAT sort of hotel.....we´re told the matrimonial ´suite´will be available after midnight!...yeah, and the bed will still be warm!..we take a room with 2 single beds and a double, with almost no extra room to move around!!..who cares, we´re buggered and we´re back on the road..whoo hoo.
Next day, get to Lecheria (just shy of Puerto la Cruz) and meet Susan, a wonderful person and très hospitable..we swim in the pool of her amazing appartment block, have some lunch and she joins us for the run to Tigrè, half way to Ciudad Bolivar.....really sorry to only get to talk to her for such a short time but I´m thinking I may be back in venezuela if I do the whole round-south-america-trip. (yes well, I´ll try and explain that one another time!)
Luckily Susan has rung ahead and we get onto a 3 day trip to Canaima to do the Angel Falls thing..the highest waterfall in the world!...but we need to pay in cash, luckily our tour guy, Johann knows a ´jackpot´ATM that coughs up bulk bolivars (all the other ATMs in Vene only give you about 100 bucks!)
Next day a little plane to Canaima, then up the river in a 10 metre hollowed log canoe thingy... with wood added to the sides to make it a bit deeper?...holds 13 people (omen?) a driver and our guide..48 HP Yamaha outboard, powering up the rapids, water splashing and sloshing over (some) of us..bottom scraping on the rocks, driver has to lift the motor out of the water as he hits the rapids, quickly dropping it back before we´re washed back to our inevitable doom!...fcuking freaky ride...4 hours on v hard wooden seats..everyone glad and bum-sore when we hit camp...and there are the falls right across the river....quite away away but fantastic..a small source pouring off the top of the tepuis (later) the water falls 979 metres and vapourises by the time it gets to the base...just look at the photos...where are they?...theres got to be 50 million between Ted and Grant..I think I´ve got 1 or 2...I was a bit reluctant to get the camera out as the whole group are like a mob of bloody Japanese tourists...the deafening cacophony of shutters clicking, motordrives roaring, digital faux-clicks..faark.....Tucker time...eat chooks grilled on sticks by a fire...I had swapped my camelback bladder and put a bottle of rum in the bag!....brought it out and passed it around....good to get to know our fellow travellers......4 Irish dietician chicas, 2 german guys, one Pom, 2 Pommie chicas and us.....
We sleep in hamacas...cheek by jowl under a fibreglass roof..next morning I´m sitting quietly contemplating the falls (and my bloated navel) and this Dutch chica from another group comes and stands right in friont of me and starts spasmodic twitching...she thinks its exercise-on-the-spot..I´m thinking St Vitus´dance!...
Its probably 20 degres but some of these people are rugged up like its freezing!..what´s going on?
So, back in the canooes, then a long hike thru the jungle to the viewing area..more speccy shots of the falls....only a few hundred metres from the base...the top in and out of the clouds..quite speccy...we are on the river that is sourced by the falls..surprising flow of water from what looks like just sheets of mist reaching the ground...we go a bit further upstream and swim by a small cataract in this river...coldish and an un-nerving sensation as you are drawn towards the centre of the river and the outflow over another set of falls...arrgghh...
Back to camp, an even more hair-raising trip back down the river, hysterical screams and laughter as again (some) of us get abso drenched by the spray..truly fun!
Big piss-up at the camp that night, sleep in beds, next day short boat ride and walk to Salto Sapo, a 20 m water fall but wide..and we walk behind the waterfall...cool as...the water thundering down right beside the dangerously slippery pathway, mist swirling around, the deafening roar, if you put your hand out you can feel the force of the water...its about a 30 metre walk behind the wall of water...maybe even more speccy than Angel falls...
Then hang around for hours and hours until our little plane takes us back to Ciudad Bolivar, our homestay place with 16 tortoises, 5 dogs and a cat...and the couple that live there.
Next day....Thursday....early start..coz we´re off towards the Gran Sabana and the border to Brazil....and we´ve got to get the bikes out of the country by Friday night!!
Several hours of ordinary riding..in fact I can´t remember much about it at all...just good to be back moving again..after a few hours we get to the mountains..this is a unique geographical area of tepuis, these strange flat-topped, vertical sided mountains...rising up to 2800 metres..bizarre...hence the numerous falls where the water runs off the tops!...stop at a roadside meat house..yes, we´re back in big meat country...and big salt and big sugar!.....the meat on the barby looks pretty good...I order a quarter serve!!..and get half a flaming cow!!....
Some nice curvery going up onto the Gran Sabana, a very big tepuis, the road rolls along...all pretty quiet as its a national park..a few Indian houses from time to time...signs to turn offs to various falls every few kilometres..
We stop at a sort of motel place..deserted...everyone´s asleep...wait 20 minutes they say...should be no worries getting a room we think!...thgen 2 busses and half a dozen cars roll up..people everywhere..getting keys to rooms etc..hey, whats going on?
But plenty of rooms and we get a couple.....eat at the restaurant..look at the falls (yawn) behind the buildings..and get ready for the assault on the border...its been quite a while since we crossed a frontier...now where are all the papers?.....
Can´t do the photo thing but I´m sure Grant and Ted will have some...I´ll put some up tomorrow if I can!
Thanks for the messages...keep ém coming..
Love to you all.......

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