Venezuela

Our trip to Venezuela was long and a bit of an adventure! as we didn´t make it on the direct bus and we really wanted to leave Manaus, we just got on the nightbus to Boavista. From there we took a local bus to Santa Elena, which is the border town. The bus broke down in the middle of nowhere, but luckily we had a mechanic on board! You then have to do the border crossing by foot or by cab as there are no public buses... The Venezuelans didn´t charge us money for the stamp (we heard some stories about that), but we only got a 30 day visa. Finally, another night bus from Santa Elena to Puerto la Cruz. From there we took a por puesto (a minibus, who only leaves when there is enough demand) to Santa Fe. The driver treid to kill us judging the way he was driving through the mountains! In general, the people here are nuts and very noisy, but likeable at the same time.

In Venezuela, there is a lot of military around and they love to see your passport and check your bags - so always keep your passport ready! You are also greeted by Chavez´face everywhere you go as Venezueal is full of paintings, tshirts and posters of him. It is good to know that the going dollar rate on the black market is more than double than the official exchange rate....The Venezuelans are crazy about dollars as the inflation of the Bolivar is huge. We didn´t know that and picked up some money from the bank, which made Venezuela very expensive. However, we also changed a bit on the black market for a very good rate.

Sanat Fe itself is beautiful - just have a look at the pictures! The best are the wild dolphins and it is awesome to see a group of 30 jumping around you....

We also loaded the missing pics of our Amazonas tour - check it out!

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