Travelling Venezuela

---

Venezuela is such a naturally beautiful rich country - it's a huge shame there aren't more tourism opportunities there.

Tomas and I had already booked our flight to visit Venezuela before the political unrest begun at the beginning of 2014, otherwise we probably wouldn't have gone. The country is virtually on its knees, the people are struggling to live day to day and there we are traveling around without a care in the world.

Due to the current political situation it's very difficult to

travel around the country, long distance buses have no fixed timetables; all you can do is show up at the bus terminal and hope there is a bus to take you to your next destination that day. Of course, this could mean waiting around for hours, possibly even days. We spoke to bus companies and they said the bus service was so irregular that we were better of flying. Safety is also of huge concern. A couple of weeks before we arrived former winner of Miss Venezuela and actress, Monica Spear, and her British partner were murdered on a major road between Valencia and Puerto Cabello. As I write, 3 men have been convicted of their murders. The convicted men, who pleaded guilty, are said to be part of a large organised gang that operates on roads and highways, targeting drivers, throwing objects in front of vehicles to damage the tyres and then robbing their victims. In this particular incident the couple and their 5 years old daughter hid inside their car when the robbers shot at them. Thankfully, their daughter survived but sadly she is now orphaned. Their brutal murders rocked the nation and the people of Venezuela took to the streets protesting that the goverment needs to do more to reduce crime. It is reported that Venezuela is second highest peacetime murder rate in the world. When you throw in an-out-of-control inflation and a thriving black market currency it makes the challenge of travelling all that more difficult.

While we were there the official rate of exchange to the dollar was 6 Bolivars to the USD. But the unofficial black market rate was 76 Bolivars to the USD. Meaning if you were a tourist you were inevitably carrying dollars which are extremely valuable (since they know you will not use your credit/debit card). Now, imagine sitting in a bus station waiting for a bus that may never come praying it arrives before nighttime does. That is sadly the reality of being a tourist there - well at least that's how it was in March 2014. Although we didn't witness or hear of any crime during our time in Venezuela, we were told that even upstanding citizens were being pushed to breaking point and desperation & starvation could turn any of us into petty criminals.

Carrying everyday necessities such as toilet paper is now illegal. Some areas of the country are so deprived of what the rest of the world takes for granted (flour, eggs, milk, toilet paper) that if you are caught carrying these items you are breaking the law - the government sees it that you are taking them across the country to resell at a much higher price - which is possibly the case in certain circumstances. While on long distance buses in the south we were stopped multiple times by the military and everybody's belongings were searched. At first we thought they were searching for drugs or perhaps petrol (petrol is so cheap that a litre of water is more expensive than a litre of fuel) but we later learnt that the authorities were searching us for these everyday household items.

Media coverage is heavily monitored and controlled in Venezuela. Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites were blocked while we were there in March 2014 so it can be difficult reading and understanding what the people of this incredibly beautiful country are going through.

The country itself is realllllly amazing. The northern coast has unspoilt white sandy beaches with crystal clear water and national parks, there are islands to visit (Los Roques and Isla Margarita), there is jungle, river dealtas, the spectacular table top moutains and their number one tourist attraction, which is the reason we went, Angel Falls. Angel Falls is the tallest waterfall in the world - a staggering 970 metres high - 17 times higher than Niagara Falls. The only way to access the falls is with a trip to the national park Canaima and Canaima can only be reached by air.

Before going to Angel Falls we spent a week on Isla Margarita - which is a beautiful island in the Caribbean sea, albeit slightly built up and commercial. On this island is where we stayed in the nicest accommodation of our entire trip!

The hotel was called Rancho Delfin. The room was very new and was decorated incredibly basic but very tasteful. All the walls were bare concrete which had been sanded to a smooth glossy finish - the bathroom including sink and shower where crafted out of the concrete as well. They had carefully choosen cute candles, mirrors, plants, incense sticks etc to decorate the room with. There was a minibar, huge comfortable bed, desk, TV, air con and each room had a private seating area outside which over looked the pool. In the evenings the owners would arrange beautiful vintage style candles, large cushions and a small table outside each room on the decking for guests to go out and enjoy the evening sunset with some wine. We were the only people staying at the hotel so every evening we had the entire pool area and decking to ourselves. We lounged around sipping wine and playing cards - it was paradise. The breakfast every morning was out of this world. They served us the best coffee I've every tried which was freshly roasted in town along with eggs, bread, fruit and freshly made juices. It was heavenly.

After a few nights there we popped across to Isla Coche, which is the smaller sister island of Isla Margarita. We checked into one of the two hotels on the island (both being all inclusive resorts) for two nights. Margarita and Coche are world renowned for their wind surfing and kite surfing conditions and the beach was full of people of all levels and ages wind or kite surfing. It was great to watch while we drank our cocktails. We did consider giving it a go and doing some lessons but the school was owned by Europeans who were charging European prices. Not on our backpacker budget I'm afraid! After

spending a few days on Isla Coche we returned to Rancho Delfin for a few more nights.

From Isla Margarita we took a flight back to Caracas and then on to Cuidad Bolivar from where we did the Angel Falls trip.

We stayed at Pousada La Casita de Peter on the outskirts of Cuidad Bolivar which I wouldn't recommend. It's in the middle of nowhere with no shops or communal kitchen so you are forced to by their food. The staff are less than average and the owner is awful. Because we were in the middle of nowhere, with no internet, we were unable to speak to agents regarding tours to Angel Falls - instead we booked through the hostel's own agency. At the beginning of the conversation they wanted to charge us a considerably higher rate than what we had heard was the current going rate. While we were there it was the dry season and until you arrived in Canaima there was no way of knowing whether you could take the classic 2 night boat trip to the Angel Falls or whether the river was too dry and instead you did a fly over at an additional rate. Again, we knew all of this already but the hostel and tour employees were trying to pull the wool over our eyes by saying they were the only agent sending boats to the falls and because of that they were charging us the high season rate even though we were in the low season. After a lengthy discussion they realised we were wiser than they'd first thought so they confessed that they hadn't sent a boat to the falls in weeks and a fly over was our only option. We eventually secured a much better rate which also included the fly over. Before leaving for the trip we made an arrangement with them that we would leave our main bags at the hostel while we were in Canaima and on our return they would collect us from the airport so we would go back to the hostel for lunch and a shower before we took our overnight to our next destination Santa Elena. While we were away doing the tour the owner changed his mind on this arrangement and when we got back to the Cuidad Bolivar airport the hostel employee was waiting there for us with our belongings. He took us straight to the bus station with very little explanation and told us we would have to spend the day there. When we asked if it was safe he replied "not really" and on top of that it was Sunday and all of the restaurants were closed. So we were not only dumped at an unsafe location we were foodless for the next 20hrs. Great service huh!? But that's not all....the hostel also bought our bus tickets for us and chucked on a lumpy "admin fee". What a bunch of crooks.

Anyway, the tour itself was well worth it. The flight to Canaima was in a tiny micro plane which for me was terrifying but Tomas loved it. We flew by table top mountains, over valleys and rivers. It was a really spectacular flight. Our pilot was a youngish, moody Colombian which gave Tomas faith. His theory was moody meant in-the-zone so if anything went wrong he could fix it. I noticed that the pilot had a strange tick which worried me and I begun wondering whether the education system in Argentina included flying lessons! When we arrived to Canaima we met our guide, were shown our accommodation and then went for a walk with the guide to a nearby waterfall. Because it was the dry season the waterfall was apparently smaller but to us it tooked amazing. After lunch with some other tourists who were there we did our first excursion to some other local waterfalls. We were in a boat carved out of a tree trunk heading up the towns river. The waterfalls we visited were magnificent. In total we saw 4 and we even had the chance to shower under one as the water thundered over us. After our shower we went for a walk to a mirador (lookout) which over looked the national park and some table top mountains. The view was breathtaking. Our guide told us that the Jurassic Park film makers used that very view in the movie. That I could total believe. The following day we had our fly over booked. I was very nervous before the flight which only got worse during it. It was very bumpy and windy and i could barely open my eyes for most of it. We had the same moody pilot which gave Tomas confidence and he was happy snapping away at the view and is cowardly wife. But when we arrived at the falls I did open my eyes and enjoy the view (for a couple of seconds!). It was STUNNING and well worth the bumpy flight. We did a corkscrew spin in front of it so everybody on the plane could get a good view. Despite feeling sick with fear, I am extremely pleased we did it. It's an image that will stay with me forever.

After Canaima and Ciudad Bolivar we took an overnight bus to Santa Elena which is the stepping stone to the Gran Sabana. We hadn't read much about this area but new it couldn't be missed. The Gran Sabana is home to the largest table mountain of them all - Roraima. We aren't big trekkers and so didn't arrange to climb this beautiful mountain but we did organise a day tour around the Gran Sabana. Our tour guide was great - really knowledgeable, friendly and professional. She took us to see local villages, a waterfall that was sculpted from lava millions of years ago and a lagoon for us to swim in. The lagoon, although gorgeous, wasn't without its hazards. A huge spider the size of a hand was hanging around one of the rocks. Even when the water splashed it, it didn't run away. Perhaps it could walk on water? I didn't want to hang around to find out so instead we found a nice clean rock to sunbath on and left the spider to his peaceful lagoon.

After a day in the Gran Sabana we checked into a pretty dull hotel and crashed out. The past few days had been nonstop and we were scheduled to cross the border to Brazil the following morning and to continue our journey onto Manaus for the Amazon River leg of our journey around South America.



Thanks for reading.

Nikki

---

Comments

[B]

Keep'em coming
Loving your blog. I'm planning on travelling around South American next year so seriously enjoying following you and taking notes!