http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from South America , Venezuela en-us Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:56:42 BST Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:56:42 BST Amazon 3.0 Part 4 Continuing Up the OrinocoJune 2730This set of photos is from June 27 to June 30 as we continued up the Orinoco on Iguana. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/blog-302881.html Amazon 3.0 Part 3 Getting Onto Amazon Time June 2426What day was it Irsquod been on Iguana four days and had lost track of time. I asked Lucho what day it was and he said Saturday. But Lucho had it wrong also and he was in charge of the trip. It was Friday. When I told Lucho Irsquod lost track of time he responded ldquoThat is a good thing.rdquo I may still be on the Orinoco bu http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/blog-302475.html Amazon 3.0 Vines and EpiphytesJune 25July 7A tropical rainforest rarely allows any plant the space to just grow and be left alone. To a vine a tree trunk is a convenient pathway to sunlight. To an epiphyte a tree branch is a pleasant place to just hangout and wait for water and nutrients to drift or fall your way.Aside from my SpanishEnglish and PortugueseEnglish dictionaries and the appro http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/blog-300754.html Amazon 3.0 Part 1 Puerto AyacuchoJune 1923 2008There has been one major change in my travel plans for this my third Amazon trip the addition of Harrison my 23year old nephew. The twomonth trip is a retirement present for me and a graduation present for Harrison.Getting there is half the fun Not when it involves an overzealous airline agent who tries to take away my insect repellant http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/blog-300273.html Hola fui con David hace casi un mes para el Cumple de Couchsurfing in Choroni. Habia bastante genta alla como 23 chicos de CS. Pasemos demasiado bueno y queria poner estas fotos antes pero estuve muy vaga...Ac estan algunas espero que los disfruten.BesosHelen http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Central/Maracay/blog-299344.html We arrived in Cuidad Bolivar tired confused and in bad need of a long shower We had left Merida at around lunch time on the 18th of June and it took over 24 hours to arrived in Cuidad Bolivar. First a 4 hour bus ride from Merida to a town called Barinas..... then a VERY hot and sweaty 5 hour wait in a really dodgy bus station in Barinas which we had to sprint across a duel carriage way to catch http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Guayana/Canaima-National-Park/blog-295644.html Arriving at the airport in Caracas at 6.30am remember we have had very little ldquosleeprdquo at the airport we are immediately faced with the biggest problem in this country We have no local currency or dollars with us and the cash points at the airport do not accept our cards. We had read that there are two exchange rates used in the country the official at 3.7 and the unofficial wh http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Insular/Los-Roques/blog-295054.html Our next stop after lovely Cuzco was Arequipa another nice city and the base for trip to the Colca Canyon which is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. So the next day we were back on a bus this time with a tour guide on our way to the small town of Chivay which would be our base for the night. After our bus had knocked down someonersquos low hanging electricity cable we made our way to the l http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Andean/Merida/blog-293187.html Last weekend some friends and I headed to the 'main attraction of Merida' to the teleferico which is the highest cable car in the world up to the highest peak of the Andes mountains. Along with gleefully shrieking Venezuelans who were bundled up in hats and mittens for altitude weather change we rode all the way up to the top with frequent stops for pictures along the way. The view was awesome http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Andean/Merida/blog-292507.html Los Llanos Consistently described to me as The Heart of Venezuela. Of course the two folk who said that was a tour guidetout and a ranch hand who lived there so they might be more than a little biased. In my regards though if its not the heart its a damn major organ. So. After some trepidation on heading into the wilderness you never know...Chavez might have a NaeemeatingAnaconda out http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Llanos/San-Fernando/blog-290839.html I think I can finally understand the etymology of the word shitfaced. I woke up today and said shit...my face hurts.If there is a more literal meaning I sure dont want to know it.But more on that later.Mrida Continued My first impression of Mrida as bland was unfairly skewed as Id arrived on a Sunday. And these folk really seem to take their day of rest quite literally. Id finished my b http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Andean/Merida/blog-289081.html Our journey to Merida was one of the longest weve endured in South America so far that is.... wait until we get to Brazil. We were up at 6am to get a flight from Quito to Caracas and we were hoping once we arrived in Caracas that we would be able to get a flight from Caracas to Merida....... but no such luck. Caracas airport was a bit mad too Loads of guys roaming around trying to get you t http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Andean/Merida/blog-288544.html The next 5 days followed a similar theme so I'll give a run down of a typical day on Los Rocques.Wake up at about 8am for breakfast. This consisted of melon venezuelan bread thingies with cheese and ham yes and not or eggs pancakes and some cakey type fellas. Topped up with juice and coffee it was time for the first of 18 applications of suncream. Pack your bag and chill out in the Posada http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Insular/Los-Roques/blog-288483.html Mr Cool rocked up fashionably late and helps us check in to our flight over to Los Rocques. The wife was extremely excited at the prospect of spending an extended period on the island archipelago despite being in the airport i was already applying the suncream.The plane was small and noisey but the view out of the window was impressive. A distinct line where the reef begins signals the gateway http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Insular/Los-Roques/blog-288457.html 2 days of travelling to get to Los Rocques in Venzuela started with a morning on the beach before saying goodbye to Pucon most agreeable. A trip in the taxi with The Bunk to the airport before flying to Santiago.Santiago appears surrounded by hills and looked impressive as the sun set in the distance. Our airport hotel did the job and the pain of the previous day's bike ride was slowly diminish http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Capital/Caracas/blog-288442.html Its funny how life tends to work out. Of course in order for life towork outlife usually had to have thrown you a few curveballs...and probably beaned you with one or two of them...But since Ive resolved to be the glass half full type this morning Ill focus on the good stuff namely that I have finally embarked on an escursion. SO sans sense and sensibility and the major working of a p http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Capital/Caracas/blog-287809.html This week I have just been busy with class of course students battling more outbreaks of parasites and amoebas a few daily runins with power outages or water shortages but of course fun things as well Its become a house routine at night to take turns watching movies in Spanishwith English subtitles or in English with Spanish subtitles. We mostly end up watching the movies in Spanish but its http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Andean/Merida/blog-287285.html Flying. Thatrsquos how they explained what we would be doing not paragliding nor the lsquoparapentersquo Spanish equivalent. It was always are you going to fly today Are you ready to fly off the 9000 ft. mountain Yeah of course Irsquom ready to flyare you kidding me I was terrified however I suppose the miscommunication leading me to believe we were going hang gliding which was http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/blog-287283.html Another weekendhellipanother adventurehellipThursday after class four of us decided we would try to find something to eat. I havenrsquot spent much time in El Centro yet so I was excited to go downtown and eat at a true Venezuelan restaurant. Two of the girls I went with had asked one of their professors for suggestions on where to eat and she told us a name of a great Italian restaurant http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Zulian/Maracaibo/blog-286508.html The weekend was another adventure to say the least A group of students and I along with our trusty Venezuelan guide Tony ventured north to Lake Maracaibo in search of the natural lightening phenomenon at Catatumbo. According to Tony who is literally the South American Steve Erwin this guy catches piranhas and alligators barehanded for fun Catatumbo is one of four places in the world http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Zulian/Maracaibo/blog-285942.html Nothing too crazy has happened here during the week but while there's kind of a lull I thought Irsquod share a bit more than just what I do on the weekends. Of course the weekends are the exciting times but the weekdays have their perks and quirks too. Irsquoll try to share different aspects of the culture and my life here when I get a chance.Starting with food the most important part of e http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Andean/Merida/blog-284481.html Here are some more Merida pictures...I am leaving for the weekend to Lake Maracaibo to stay at a place on the lake where it silent lightenings 24 hours a day every day of the year. I guess it is a natural wordly phenomen 8 other students and I leave in the morning and will be sleeping in hammocks by tomorrow night http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Andean/Merida/blog-284192.html Following a night of sleeping in hammocks we all woke up at 630 stuffed ourselves with amazing food and headed out on another safari. We rode in the jeeps for about fifteen minutes until we reached the river. We hopped into a huge canoe and our guide began to paddle away. Once it was deep enough one of the local boys started the motor but we still had to maintain our balance so as not to fa http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Llanos/San-Fernando/blog-283779.html Turns out I brought back a lizard and a parasite from Choroni. The lizard crawled out of our bag and the parasite who knows I could have even got sick before I left everyone seems to be dropping like flys here. At least half of the students from the US are sick or have been sick yet so far. It is definitely not fun especially to think about having a parasite feeding off your body Sick. My t http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Andean/Merida/blog-283757.html Well I made it back from Choroni I literally rolled right into class and off the night bus yesterday morning having slept four hours and not eaten in oh maybe 18 hours. Where to even begin with the weekend storyhellipLast Thursday night about 11 other students and I hopped on board a bus around 8pm for the long 12 hour drive to Maracay. Luckily the buses were actually nice kind of like a coac http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Central/Maracay/blog-283752.html Itrsquos Week Three already Time has gone so fast here So far Irsquove had two great weekends six days of classes and two exams. I still or only have three weekends fourteen days of classes eight exams and three papers. Eight exams and three classes seem like a lot but I know itrsquos going to go by too quickly.Last week mainly involved a lot of class and a lot of studying. My fi http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Llanos/San-Fernando/blog-283335.html Here I am in Caracas finding it horrendously expensive even though Im not paying for accommodation. Should be leaving fairly soon. Ive been having a great time and have been accompanied most of the time by various hospitality club and couchsurfing members so thats been great fun. Ive tasted the national beer Polar and I can safely say its far nicer than Brazilian beer ha ha... Ive alrea http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Capital/Caracas/blog-281928.html Leaving for Choroni beach tonight I am so glad to be done with class for week. 10 other students and I are taking a bus overnight to the northern tip of Venezuela by Maracay past Maricaibo lake the one where Geremi Gonzalez the american baseball player got struck by lightening did you hear about that I guess it was all over news there I will be going there next weekend I guess we will be st http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Andean/Merida/blog-281563.html After a few nights sleeping at my host familyrsquos kara my roomate and I ran into a few problemshellipthe spring in my bed right in the middle completely broke so now I sleep with a little slide down to the middle of my bed J Did I mention the bugs are huge here When kara and I were sleeping we heard a flapping thing over our heads that sounded like a bat we donrsquot really have clos http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Venezuela/Andean/Merida/blog-281552.html