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Published: August 17th 2007
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Well, for those that have been following this blog the whole way, you may have noticed a downturn in the general levels of enthusiasm for this trip. I believe this is a common condition known as 3-month fever. I guess it started to creep up on me as I left Peru. Leaving Lukas was supposed to be the start of a big solo adventure again. Alas I never quite got that feeling. There was a brief recovery during days at Cotopaxi and in and around Quito, and also at the Angel Falls. But since then I've basically been waiting for the end... it almost feels like i'm escaping from south america!! (thanks to various cock-ups with my ticket to Miami it may well be just that). Anyway, it's come as a bit of a surprise to meet a couple of other travellers with much the same condition, one of whom, a Slovenian girl who I met briefly the first time at Merida bus station just as I was leaving, turned up again (was it by chance I wonder) in Puerto Columbia. So I actually had a fun last night in South America with her and her room-mate from Australia (I say
room-mate, but this doesn't imply they were friends - i believe they'd just met and decided to cut costs by sharing a room) drinking Polar Ice beer till late-ish. I can't remember their names for the life of me... darn, but I hope they both made it on wherever they were going to.
That last morning I had to get up at 5:30 to catch the 6am bus back inland to Maracay, then change for a bus to Caracas, then leg it across Caracas via the Metro to Gato Negro station for the airport express bus. Incredibly I made it bang on 12 noon and in plenty of time for my 3pm flight to Miami. No bus breakdowns, crashes, lost luggage, highway robbery. After queueing interminably (outward immigration checks on locals taking forever) I got checked in (wave of relief) and got on to the happy task of trying to recover the money Aeropostal had inadvertantly overcharged me for the ticket, about US$450! Try arguing with a beaurocratic venezulean through a glass partition in spanish and you'll soon realise why I gave up. Let's hope my bank back home will be more helpful and get this sorted.
Anyway,
I got to the US. HOOORAY!
Back to the bit before that... but it was kinda uneventful. An overnight bus from Merida to Maracay and then on via a funky bus (read: uncomfortable with loud music) to Puerto Columbia. I was tagging along with a Danish-Swedish couple, but they seemed to want their privacy. We ended up staying at the same place though, but after we checked in I barely saw them again. Instead I got on with enjoying the last couple of days as best I could. That involved a couple of trips to Playa Grande the beach near the town, and splashing out on some fresh fish in the evening. After food sitting out in the breeze on the waterfront was a nice way to end the day. Day 2, I hopped onto a boat going to a nearby beach. To be honest the beach was no better or worse than Playa Grande, however the ride there and back on the speedboat was a lot of fun.
And that was it really.
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