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Published: August 9th 2007
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cause and effect
the stress of the journey caused me to mysteriously grow a beard overnight The journey was bad enough to begin with. I had to get back to Ecuador, so the Dragoman tour continued towards Brazil without me, setting off at 8am. I had a nightbus back to Caracas that night at 10pm, which meant waiting around by myself for FOURTEEN HOURS. And the nightbus itself was a ten hour journey. Plus, when I arrived at Caracas airport, I would have a further eight hours to wait for my flight back to Quito. Oh, the joys of travel!
I was not looking forward to Caracas airport in particular. I took an "official" cab from the bus station to the airport, because normal cabs have been known to drive people down back streets and rob them blind. An official cab has an official sticker on the side with an official cab number on it. Official! However, a recent government warning was that criminals had started COPYING the stickers, and therefore an official cab could still be a fake one! **sigh** you just can´t win.
Just to be sure, I got into the cab and pretended to call someone, telling them the cab sticker number and the licence plate number. So if it was a
goodbye cameron
It was farewell to Cameron, our beloved tour truck, and to the other Dragoman passengers. I was giving her a goodbye kiss here fake cab, they would think twice about robbing me. I hoped! I made it to the airport safely. Now came the next stage. There are scams at Caracas airport where people masquerade as security guards, and ask you to follow them to their office, so they can check your ID. Follow them and you will either be robbed, or set up for paying some kind of bribe! So I was on my guard. But I didn´t encounter any robbers, ruffians, thieves, vagabonds or scoundrels. I checked in for my flight in plenty of time. I went through passport control. I spent the last of my money in duty-free on presents for my host family in Quito. I then sauntered along to the gate. Unbeknownst to be (what a great word "unbeknowst" is. It is my ambition to get a triple-word score in scrabble with this) they had announced a change of gate over the tannoy in Spanish. Not yet being fully attuned to the Spanish tongue, this passed me by. And they had neglected to change the sign by the gate. So by the time I had reached the gate, all my fellow passengers had successfully relocated. A lack of
dave the hat
and myself, wearing one of his hats and looking like a fat little gangster people at the gate would have alerted me to my strife, but there were other gates nearby the seats and therefore plenty of people milling about. To cut a long story short, I missed my flight. My baggage however, didn´t, and was enjoying the in-flight entertainment in the hold of the plane. I asked when the next flight to Quito was - FOUR DAYS TIME! Bugger. (the actual words I said are not fit for publication here). There was, however, a flight the next night to another city in the south of Ecuador. From here I could catch an overnight bus to Quito which would take another eight hours. It was my only realistic chance, and luckily my Switch card was to hand. So I sorted a hotel from a nearby booking booth, and the hotel sent a cab for me which would be added to my bill.
In the hotel, disaster struck. The clerk swiped my card and said "Sorry sir, it´s not accepting it". WHAT? This was a problem. I also have a visa, but I always split my cards in case of trouble. I keep one on my person or in my daypack, and one in my rucksack. Therefore if I get mugged, or one of the bags is stolen, I still have a backup card. But the VISA card was currently on it´s way to Quito. I asked the taxi driver to take me to a cash machine, to try the card again. I nervously put my card in and..... it was rejected!! Now, what does one do in the situation? It´s 7 o´clock at night. You´ve just taken a cab you can´t pay for. The British Embassy is closed until tomorrow. You don´t know anyone in the country. You are penniless and homeless in one of the most dangerous cities in South America. What would you do? I´ll tell you what you do. You put your card in one last time and pray to the gods that it works. It worked, and I almost collapsed with relief. Money sorted, hotel sorted and I was back in Quito in time for breakfast two days later. BUT if it hadn´t worked, what would I have done? I´m keen to know your thoughts. Answers on a postcard or blog post please!
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Francoise
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What I would have done.
I would have try to find the next Western Union and called my parents or close relatives for a express deposit. It is sometimes good to always have some holiday cheques(if accepted there?) too.... Well done anyway.Keep smiling:)