Vamos a la playa !


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South America » Venezuela » Guayana » Santa Fé
July 18th 2007
Published: July 18th 2007
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Hola amigos and amigas,

We promise this will be a short update ! No time to waste on the Caribbean coast.....

Our encounter with Venezuela started in Santa Elena, a quiet town in the South of the country. From there we visited the Gran Sabana, a vast grassy highland, famous for its tepuis (table mountains). We had a very nice day, exploring waterfalls, waterslopes and hilly landscapes. Although slightly hindered by the 1.000.000 mosquitos..... proofs on our arms and legs still visible !

With a very cold nightbus (upon disembarkment our glasses 'steamed', caused by the difference in temperature...) we then moved on to Ciudad Bolivar, from where we took a 6-seater Cessna plane in order to reach the famous Canaima Angel Falls which are the highest in the world (983 m).

In Canaima we joined a 3-day excursion, exploring the surroundings of this waterfall- and rainforest region. One of the highlights was bikini-walking through a 'curtain'of water from one of the falls, like being in a severe storm, it took our breath away ! The Angel Falls can only be reached by boat (or helicopter.... not for our budget !). The falls were beautiful, but since we had already seen Iguazu, we were (unfortunately) only moderately impressed. After a nice afternoon forest hike, we then spent the night in our cosy hammocks at a campsite that was beautifully situated at the border of a wild river and just under the Angel Falls (Salto Angel in Spanish).

We then took a plane back to Ciudad Bolivar. This time it was a very old Cessna (same for the pilot...). And Cessna´s are famous for...... right, crashing ! So that's what we did... well almost ! In a nutshell, the regular GPS-system and the 2nd back-up one were BOTH out of order. Our pilot got a bit nervous, no clue where he was flying..... and so did we, especially since the fuel meter indicated 'Fuel Quantity EMPTY' (we still don't know whether this was true or if the meter was broken TOO !). We finally managed to land, after flying really low (special city tour for us?) for 10 minutes, in search of the airport. The pilot was visibly relieved, and so were we..... Quite shaky, we decided to comfort ourselves at McDonalds with Happy Meals and icecream.

And for the last 10 days we have been enjoying the beach at Santa Fe at the East coast. Very relaxing, with visits to several exotic islands (ever laid in the shade of a palm tree?), snorkeling, dolphin-watching, sunbathing, what else do you need?

It was not all relaxation, on the morning of Marieke's birthday, Martina was very busy blowing up a lot of balloons.... (ok, ok, 30!). But ok, you need to make an effort for your older friends... No worries Marieke, I will follow soon !

In the coming week Marieke and Matt (joining our trip for 3 weeks) will continue the beach life at Isla Margarita while Martina already heads off to Merida (in the Andes mountains) for some more active stuff, where M&M will join her later on.

Hasta la vista !

MarMar



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