Stage 9: Venezuela - Guianas - Brazil

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So after an amazing but expensive time in Europe I board a plane to take me back to South America. This will be my 2nd time to the continent, the 1st I traveled from Columbia down the west coast right to the bottom. This time I will take the east coast of the continent to fill in all the gaps I missed last trip. So here goes:

Venezuela

I have to admit as a seasoned traveler you should normally research your next country before you hit it. Unfortunately I only studied my guidebook which is probably one of the worst things you can do preparation wise. This then lead me to be totally unprepared and almost made me miss out on this outstanding country. So some quick facts:

* Anti American Leader
* Oil Rich, Left Leaning Country
* Worlds Highest Waterfall
* Worlds most corrupt police-force
* Worlds 2nd most dangerous city
* Official cash rate 1USD = 2 Bolivars
* Black Market cash rate 1USD = 8 Bolivars

So I fly in Caracas city which I have been warned by countless people that it isn't the worlds 2nd most dangerous city for nothing (Mexico city is #1). Upon arrival into the very modern airport I am surrounded by money sellers and as per usual with me I brush them all off and go straight to the bank. At the bank I exchange a $500 Travellers cheque. FIRST MISTAKE

Like Burma, Venezuela lower their official cash rate to make their imports cheaper and if I had researched the country I would have found this out (Its not in the guide book, of course). So my $500 travelers cheque on the black market would equal $4000 Bolivars but I only get $1000 from the bank, I just got ripped off. Now my taxi to the city costs me $75 USD and my night in the hotel costs me $200 a night.

So with this revelation I decide that I need to get out of the country quickly as I cannot afford it here. I only have $100 USD on me which I can change at the black market. It basically means that you cannot use your credit cards, bank cards or Travellers Cheques at all in this country. There goes what was to be part of my top 3 countries to visit this trip along with Pakistan and Uzbekistan. No Angel Falls, No Lost world of Venezuela.

So I check into my hotel by getting through the 3 barb wire fence protection and past the guards. They inform me to either get an armed bodyguard or get off the streets before dark. There are some cities that you just get a bad feeling about and Caracas at dusk is one of them. (One of my friends later told me that he got robbed two times in Caracas, both times by the police).

The next day I book my bus to get me to a point where I can exit the country into Brazil. As its a night bus I decide to head into the central city on their subway. Here I encounter a massive pro-Chavez rally in the streets numbering 10-20 thousand. I enthusiastically join the rally as we march the streets to salsa music and dancing. It turns out to be an all night party and I meet some very interesting people. The anti american sentiment in the rally is at fever pitch. I am lucky for my olive skin and by speaking Spanish I can pull off a Sth American look and am taken as one of them. Using a high tech approach they even get Chavez on a cellphone and by putting it up next to the mike he could give the earger crowd a rousing but somewhat distorted speech!

Now my next mistake comes when I am taking the subway home. As I pull my wallet out of my backpack to get my ticket I forget to zip it back up. Next thing I know my wallet is gone with all my cards and cash. SECOND MISTAKE. I am now in an absolute state, not only have I been ripped off by the banks I now have no cards or money whatsoever. I cancel all my cards but of course they cant get me my cards back to me, I am in the middle of a black hole. Running out of time I just catch my overnight bus with an empty stomach and no idea how I'm gonna get out of this one.

The next morning dawns and brings with it the solution to my problems. When my bus arrives at Ciudad Bolivar I am accosted by a travel agent Carlos and as I have no option I head to his office. He starts telling me about visiting angel falls and the lost world. Here I pretty much spurt out about my issues with money and my lost credit cards. Carlos as understanding as ever asks if I have travelers cheques and of course I do but the banks are only giving me a 1/4 of its value. Carlos replies "No problem my friend, I can change those on the black market for you". Here my mouth drops...So that morning I am on a plane bound for Angel falls with pockets filled to the brim with Venezuelan Bolivars and a big smile across my face!

Cainama is a beautiful village in the middle of the amazon and the gateway to Angel falls. The only way to reach Cainama is via a scenic Cessna flight, one in which our pilot just sits there reading the paper for pretty much the entire flight. The village is beautiful and it looks like we are at a Brazilian beach with white sands. The day is spent swimming and going behind beautiful waterfalls.

The next day the group piles into dugout canoes for the 1 day trip boat trip up to Angel falls. Sitting in a dug out canoe for 4-5 hours latter we see the immense sight that is Angel falls. At 980m it is the highest falls in the world and is so high that by the bottom the water is just turned into mist. It is an amazing sight and after an hour jungle walk we can swim in the bottom of it. That night we sleep in hammocks in the jungle and enjoy bbq roasted chicken. You really feel like a jungle adventurer in this sort of situation.

The next day it is back to Cainama and another flight back to Ciudad Bolivar (which the same pilot reads the newspaper again!). Here I meet my guide for the next part of my trip to Roraima, Frank the Tank. Roraima is the lost world of Venezuela. It is a Tepui which basically is a table mountain in the tropical areas. It is about 2800m tall and has 400m vertical sides around the 50km2 area. It is unique to the world with its warm weather, high rainfall (every day of the year it rains), altitude and soft carving sandstone rock.

That night Frank and I have a few too many beers which angers his wife somewhat, so the next day I bring her a pineapple and this smooths things over enough so he can go with me. We board the overnight bus and head down to Roraima which is the south of Venezuela. In the middle of the night I am exposed to a few police guards trying to cheat or rob me. Luckily I am bigger them and push them around and with the help of Frank we pass through without losing any money.

The days up to Roraima are amazing, it just rains and rains everyday but it creates a great atmosphere. As we near the Tepui with its 400m cliffs I cannot understand how we can scale them without climbing gear. However the track turns out to be quite easy but then the rain really starts coming down. For the next two days on top the tepui everything I own gets drenched and hugging for warmth is not optional. However the top is unlike anything I have ever seen, it is truly spectacular. I thought I had seen everything this world had to offer but this is totally different. The rocks are carved by water into mind boggling designs and watching the clouds coming over the cliffs is truly inspiring.

So after 7 days we are all back to civilization and dry weather. It was a great experience and me and Frank the Tank have one too many beers to celebrate our successful return! The next day I cross the border into Brazil and then cross another border the same day into Guyana.

Guyana

I have died and gone to the Caribbean to be resurrected. The Guianas are a group of three countries in the top east corner of South America. These countries are totally different to the rest of Sth America and identify more with the Caribbean than where they are located. The road getting into Guyana is atrocious, and you can see that the government doesn't care at all about linking with the rest of the Americas. I arrive into Guyana and am instantly transformed. The people all speak with that slow marijuana induced speech that is so laid back. Guyana is a former British colony and they all speak English as a first language.... but you wouldn't know it. They speak with such a heavy accent that you have no idea what they are saying and they can't really understand you either. Ummm can I go back to speaking Spanish now?

Here I catch the 24 hr mini van that takes me through the amazon on an abysmal road through to the capital Georgetown. Wow now that was an experience, it was like an all night party in that mini van. The driver is smoking weed, old school r and b jams on the stereo and the patrons dancing it up the best they can in such an enclosed space. We stop for the night in the jungle and sling up some hammocks for the night. The next day we full ourselves on southern fried chicken and continue our journey.

Georgetown is a great colonial place. Again I am warned about walking after dark here and I can see why, it has a seedy underbelly. My taxi to my hotel talks in this cool Jamaican accent talking about "don't be swinging your diamonds or gold round here my brother". Then he details to me how to move round Georgetown safely with 'Bling'. Here I am sitting next to him in ripped clothing sporting a 9 kilo backpack, obviously 9kgs of diamonds and gold in there.

The afternoon I check out the colonial buildings left by the British and they are grand however I run into a couple of policeman pushing AK47s over their shoulders. They are wanting to know who I am, what I am doing here. Wisely I have left my passport at my hotel as I cannot afford to get that stolen. They ask my name and as I tell him a light bulb appears over his head and he says that he knows that name. Now he opens his diary and pores through it until he comes upon my exact name. I get a sinking feeling in my stomach that things are about to go bad.

He is now ordering me to go to the police station and I start fighting with him. He wont let me go and says that this "Shaun Williams" is wanted on smuggling charges. I check the date on his entry and it is over a month ago. I try to explain to him that I only got into the country yesterday but with my passport at the hotel I cannot prove it. After a 30min argument in the middle of the downtown we start to gather a big group of observers, this is a good thing because then they won't do anything stupid. I then manage to convince him that I will pay for all of us to taxi to my hotel, I can show him my passport and it can be cleared up. So next thing we are in a taxi, 2 armed police, me and one very scared taxi driver (About 5 taxis went past first being too scared to pick us up, in the end the policeman stands in the middle of the road with his AK and the taxi definitely stops!).

At the hotel which is a family house, I walk in there with my two armed guards. The mother obviously freaks out and runs for cover thinking we are robbing the joint. After a few calming words I retrieve my passport and clear everything up. They leave the house and everyone just starts cracking up and making fun of me, happy days. I will say this thing about the police there, they were never after money only after doing a good job and I commend them.

In Georgetown I manage to fix my camera which got wet onto of Roraima and take a flight to Kaiteur falls. Kaiteur falls is in the middle of the amazon and is the highest volume single drop waterfalls in the world. Again I catch a Cessna out to it and hike through the jungle to see it. It is an immense site, no-where else have I seen a waterfall so powerful. And better still nobody visits Guyana so you have this untouched beauty all to yourself.

Suriname

Suriname is an untouched jewel. It was voted by Lonely planet as one of the top 10 destinations for 2010 and I can vouch for it. Suriname was conquered by the dutch so now we see these big black guys all speaking dutch. Just like Guyana it has completely unspoiled pristine jungle unlike that of the Brazilian Amazon. As I am running out of time I only end up staying in Parbo, the capital city. Here I experience the Caribbean markets with all the exotic fish and wildlife. I also hit the gym for a few days to lose some of the beer belly I accumulated in Venezuela with Frank the Tank. I really do want to come back to this place as it holds some really off the beaten track adventures.

French Guyana

Oh my gosh I just stepped from Suriname and its dutch influence to the damn middle of France, and for those who know me know how much I love the French! I am instantly taken from shitty roads and transport to a first world country. French Guyana is part of France and part of the EU so everything is 1st class. It is the largest part of the EU NOT in Europe. Part of the reason for this is the space launching station situated here. Because of its proximity to the equator, satellites launched from here benefit from a sling shot affect so that when launched into space they can use half the amount of fuel if you were to do it say in Europe away from the equator. This now means that the French Guyana launching facility is now the most used satellite launching facility in the world. Therefore the French want to hold onto this land and pump millions into the infrastructure. It is actually quite sad because you see the locals really have no identity and is over run by arrogant obnoxious French from the mainland. Anything they need must be purchased FROM France ie. they cannot buy beer from Brazil, if they want that beer it must go to France then be shopped back. What this means is that EVERYTHING in French Guyana is expensive.

So the first night I stay in St Laurant a former French penal colony. Here I see the old cell blocks where the famous escape artist Papillion stayed. At night due to the high cost of accommodation I sleep in a locals backyard with a hammock and this alone costs me $25 euro, to sleep outside!!!!!! From here I head to the capital of Cayenne. It takes me two days to reach the capital as the buses are so few. Because people are quite well off everyone drives, so it is agonizing to go to the bus station wait eight hours and if the buses don't fill up you have to come back the next day and do it all again.

Cayenne is nice and overflowing with french patisseries and amazing coffee. Yes its expensive but you cant beat a espresso and croissant just like in France for a breakfast. From Cayenne I spend two days waiting for another bus to take me out of here. God its agonizing sitting around all day only for the bus to not go. However the next day one leaves by about 10.00 so only 2 hours of waiting. I reach the border with Brazil and catch a dug out across the river and I leave civilization behind and go right back to village life.

Brazil

I am exhausted, I have been traveling hard for a month now to get to the very north of Brazil. It has been an absolute adventure but I need to keep going. I have been to Brazil before and knew my Spanish works here so the customs checks go through easily. That night I board another 24 hour bus to get me to North Brazil's capital Macapa. In Macapa I arrive on a Sunday morning so everything is closed. I practically starve myself for the entire day in sweltering 45 degree temperatures until the night. At night there is a festival on where I fill up on BBQ chicken and watch the Brazilians party as only they can. The festival has about 1000 very funny looking people but I just shrug it off. Next thing you know there are about 20 drag queens going through the crowd carrying a 20m rainbow flag. Now they are on stage singing "I will survive" in the worst Portuguese-English I have ever heard. Wow Brazilians really are gods people, they just love life.

The next day I am on a 6 hour flight to Rio. I had the option of this flight or a 120 hour bus + 40 hour boat ride so I think I made the right choice. Back in Rio, my favorite city in the world it is raining. I spend a few days in the gym and eating "by the kilo" meals. I only party once and show everyone that I have NOTHING on the salsa floor. I then board a bus for the 30 hours to the border with Argentina after numerous bus changes and flat tires.

Well that's about it for this part. I have to say going through Venezuela and then the Guineas was a real eye opener. I thought that I had seen most of what the world has to offer but this was yet another surprise. It was a real off the beaten track adventure. I didn't think that Sth America could offer this sort of trip anymore because it is overflowing with gringo tourists but up there it is back to basics. I recommend these countries to anyone who wants to experience real travel without the package tourists and get in touch with the people. It is definitely hard to travel there but worth it. I came out of these countries totally exhausted and totally over travel but I also came out of it thinking that I saw a part of this world that only a privileged few see.

Thanks for reading my blog and take a look at the photos:
Venezuela Photos
Guianas Photos

Shaun

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