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Published: June 17th 2009
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Tim Version:
* Tried to leave Ciudad Bolivar quickly, looks like a bit of a hole, but plan didn't work. Stayed the night and found it actually has a very small nice section!
* Got to see the Orinoco river, not so beautiful here but still I've seen it, then had a mission of a time getting a bus to Merida.
The "ahhh so thats the Orinoco River! OK seen that..." version:
Well I had a lot more time than I thought, and I planned on hiking and walking lots in Merida which was to be my next destination, but really I just needed to stop and relax... but Ciudad Bolivar is a bit of a hole so I went to the bus station. Doh, missed the direct Merida bus by 10 minutes and there was only one per day. Tomorrow then...
I found some hostels in Lonely Planet and went and checked them out, which is a txxi ride away, and found that there is actually one section of Ciudad Bolivar of about 4 blocks by 4 blocks that is nice heh. The part with the church and the government building! All freshly painted and
full of police and security guards. I also found a really nice German run hostel which was surprisingly decked out and still quite cheap. I also found that nearly everyone from the tour had checked into one of the two hostels I looked at. Chilling there for the night I got my rest, got to see the rubbish filled Orinoco River with its broken glass covered small beach, and felt much better that I'd both seen more of Ciudad Bolivar to give it a chance (and I still think its a hole of a place) and that I got to at least see the river. The place almost totally closes up though after about 7pm, something a local told me was for safety, but I only found this out when I went out for dinner at about 8pm and found that no restuarants were open and all I could get was some pastries from one of the few places still open! After that I didn't feel guilty at all staying in the hostel until my bus the next day.
Getting the bus the next day, argh, didn't have any luck... waited around for the bus, still not here, tapping
my feet, where the hell is it... 30 minutes after it should have arrived I asked in the office - "oh the driver was sick this morning so no bus". Thanks for telling me! Through a bit of a mission of half a dozen different people and some trading, helped greatly thankfully by a girl of around 10 years old who was the daughter of the guy selling the Merida Expresso tickets who didnt really give a s%$t about helping me himself, I got myself on a bus about 5 hours later that would take me close to Merida at which point I could switch to a local bus to get to Merida. It actually turns out to be much faster and cheaper than the "direct" bus ironically, and is the way I would advise people to do it. One bus to Barrinas, then another to Merida. My bad luck still continued though as even that bus rocked up 1 hour late, then didn't have any room for anyone's baggage, AND had oversold its seats. Thankfully I managed to get my bag in the hold instead of inside the bus itself where people were walking over the bags, AND I
managed to score one of the seats thought of course not the one I had bought, and after maybe 1 more hour of arguments inside the bus between passengers, the driver, others from the company and other sales reps, we left the station in an angry huff and headed off for the overnight haul to Barrinas. Who'd have thought it'd be such a f'in mission! They may have the same quality buses as Brazil, but the quality of the companies, definitely not up there... however, you do pay much much less for your ticket due to the almost free petrol and lower wages, so it all balances out =) Happy to just be on the move again I didn't get much sleep as many continued to complain amongst themselves loudly all night on the bus. Venezuela has a booming market exporting TV soap operas, and you can easily see why traveling here - its not that they even need actors or scenes set up to make them! You just need to take a handicam and follow one of them for a few hours, take the video home, cut out the boring bits and there you have it, sometimes even including
the *turn from the person your arguing with, walk 3 steps away, wait, other person walks over to you while you stare into space with arms folded* kinda scenes! Kinda hard not to laugh it sometimes but its just how they are... very emotional.
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