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Published: December 18th 2006
CATIA LA MAR (near Caracas) - Fri 06/10 to Sun 08/10
Arrived in Caracas airport in Venezuela on Friday 6th October at about 4pm. After reading many reviews of Caracas, it was clear that it was one of the most dangerous cities in South America so we agreed it was best to stay near the airport. The flight from Madrid to Caracas was quite ironically the longest and shortest I have ever been on - the longest because I have never been on a 9 hour flight before and the shortest because the fear of what was ahead of us when we got off the plane was so great I just wanted the flight to go on forever!! Just to give you an idea of how I was feeling on the plane - before we got on the flight I had just read this review of the hotel we had booked for our first 2 nights:
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Anyway, we decided to try Catimar for the return and it was a disaster. They weren't waiting for us at the airport as agreed. I had to call the hotel and they arrived 30 min after. When we arived at the hotel, four guys with guns were robbing the hotel at the reception desk. They locked the chauffer in a closet, the receptionist was sitting on the floor with the arms in his head. They didn't hurt anyone but took our purse where we had all our passports. The hotel owner was helpful and took me to the police station. However, I missed my flight the next day and had to stay from Thursday to Tuesday at Caracas to get new passports and visas
We too had arranged a transfer to the hotel from the airport and were praying the driver would be there for us. We were a little late arriving but lucky enough our driver was waiting for us in the airport
and transported us swiftly to our hotel. What a culture shock! Maurice nearly had to lift my chin off the floor, there were shanty towns and slums everywhere, gangs hanging on street corners, it was just crazy, hmm not lovin´ this I thought- not quite what I had pictured for my honeymoon!!!
We got to the hotel and it definitely wasn’t the nicest area or hotel I have ever stayed in. Due to the unsavory looking characters outside the hotel, we didn’t leave the surrounds of the hotel for the 2 days we were there. At night, Maurice had to put the dresser up against the door in our bedroom, there were various replacement pieces of wood in the door above the handle where it seems it had been kicked in numerous times before!!
Thankfully things worked out fine for us and after a very long 2 days we headed to the airport to fly to Merida.
Arrived at Caracas airport, we had $30 left so thought we should withdraw some money - easy you would think. Not so, none of the ATM´s in the airport would give us money on any of our 3 credit cards,
oh dear!! We still had to pay $16 in tax to leave Caracas, I really wasn´t hopeful that $14 would last the rest of our 15 day stay in Venezuela. Anyway we paid the $16 and headed for the plane. Oh me God, it was a 16 seater plane, we were so close to the cockpit, we could see the dashboard of the plane and could see how many thousand feet we were flying at (ascended to 24,000 feet and cruised at that until our descent and finally arrived 1 hour 40 minutes later), we felt like we were landing the plane - we could see out the windscreen - it was crazy!!
MERIDA (Western Venezuela in the Venezuelan Andes) - Sun 08/10 to Wed 25/10
Arrived in Merida - seemed like a nice spot - safety at last :o) Tried the ATM in Merida airport and thank God, one of our cards worked. Got a taxi to our ´home´ for the next few days - it was up the mountains at an altitude of 7,500 feet. It was a lovely spot to recharge the batteries. Had dinner there on the first night - felt a little strange
- we were sitting around a big table having dinner with 3 other guests. Luckily 2 of them spoke some English so there was a little conversation flowing. Maurice even got cracking on some international jokes which went down a treat!! We had planned on staying there for 5 nights but since it was 20 minutes outside town we realised that it wasn’t going to suit us so we decided to have 3 relaxing nights and then to move into town.
A few days later, the money ran out and we needed cash again to pay the hotel for dinner, lodging etc. We walked the streets of Merida trying every ATM to get cash to no avail. Went into one of the banks and tried to explain in very broken Spanish the situation, they just told us to use the ATM - hmmm, it seems we needed to brush up on our Spanish somewhat! Stress city, Siobhan is going home. Of course Maurice didn´t see it as a big problem - it will all work out he kept saying, work out - how can it work out - WE CANNOT GET MONEY. Surprise, surprise it did work out, the
owner of our hotel recommended a bank to us which was a little outside town and hey presto money at last.
We took a trip up the Teleferico in Merida - the highest and longest cable car in the world. There are 4 stops and there was snow on Pico Bolivar at the last stop. We both felt a little queezy and dizzy from the altitude and headed back down to the third stop on the Teleferico where we had planned to meet a guide to take us on a 4 hour trek to a town called Los Nevados. We were eventually introduced to our guide - he was drunk and didn't speak English. Up he lifted me onto this horse and left me to go and help Maurice onto his. I was sitting on this horse facing towards a big drop off the mountain. I had never been on a horse before in my life and hadn't a clue what to do plus this guide didn't speak any English - hmmm this was going to be a very long 4 hours. Off we set on these damn horses, what a bumpy ride, once we got over the biggest
climb Maurice and I decided to walk and our guide got onto the horse. After some time the altitude was tough so we needed a breather, our guide was delighted, he lay down and slept, we had to shake him to wake him up at which point he kept shouting 'Agua' which translated is 'water', it seems the hangover was setting in. Over the course of the walk he managed to drink our full 3 litres of water and wanted more. At various points on the walk we looked back and our guide was asleep on top of the horse, Lord knows how he managed to stay up there. Also for 30 minutes of our journey our guide went missing, we were really starting to wonder who was guiding who, we waited for 10 minutes for him and there was no sign so we had to continue on the path ourselves, he eventually caught up with us (when he needed more agua). Finally we arrived in Los Nevados. It was quite a strange town and very cold, the stares made us think we the first new faces to arrive in the town for 50 years. We stayed in Posada Buena
Vista and met an English couple - Julie and Tony - who had been travelling South America for 8 months, it was great as they were able to fill us in on the hotspots. The next day we got a Jeep ride back to Merida - it was terrifying, the Jeep drove over very narrow dirt tracks with major cliff drops off one side - I soon figured that it was less scarry to look out the back window and not the front!! Three hours later we arrive back safe in Merida - Thank God!
CIUDAD BOLIVAR & CANAIMA (South Eastern Venezuela) - Wed 18/10 to Wed 25/10
Arrived in the bus station in Puerto Ordaz - we'd read about these types of places - 'don't trust anyone, dodgy characters everywhere', we couldn't seem to find the bus to Ciudad Bolivar, eventually after asking many people we figured it. We were in the queue and who was in front of us only Julie and Tony from Los Nevados. They shared a taxi with us to their hostel where we also checked into. We walked through Ciudad Bolivar the next day and it was not a very nice town,
everyone stared as if they had never seen a foreigner before - I felt that we were liable to be mugged any minute. We had arranged to go to Angel Falls on the Friday and we needed to get money from the bank to pay for it - $350 each. We went to the ATM and were being closely watched by two dodgy looking characters, thankfully the ATM didn't work and we couldn't get money otherwise it would have come straight out of our bank and into their pockets. Later that day Maurice went into the bank and got a cash advance on his credit card, out of the public eye, but at no stage did we feel safe in Ciudad Bolivar.
Thursday night we were having a few drinks in the hostal and we met up with two other couples - Nat and Dom from Australia and Noel and Poina - Noel from Ireland and Poina from New Zealand but living in Ireland for the last 8 years. They were also going on our tour to Angel Falls the next day so we had a few drinks with them. Dom and Nat had just travelled through Central America
and were starting South America before heading home to Australia for a few weddings in January. Noel and Poina had started their 1 year trip about 4 days before us, they were travelling through South America and then going to New Zealand on the 18th March (7 days after us) to get married there on April 12th. After the wedding they were continuing their world tour in Asia.
Friday morning at 6am we headed to Canaima, the closest town to Angel Falls. We flew there on a 6 seater plane, it was an hour long flight - we felt quite vulnerable up there in that little tin can for that long. Arrived in Canaima and had a big lunch of steak and chips, it was one of the finest feeds we had, had in a long time. That day we headed to other water falls - Salto El Sapo, trekked through the jungle for about 30 minutes in the lashing rain and finally arrived at these extremely forceful waterfalls - very impressive. We stripped down to the bathers and ran under the waterfall - it was such an adrenaline rush - the force of it was unbelievable - I
nearly lost my contact lenses!!
Arrived back to the camp in Canima at about 4 pm and there was nothing for us to do for the rest of the evening. At about 4.30pm the Dominos came out - boring, still twiddling our thumbs at 5.30pm so we knew it was time for the rum and coke. Dinner was served about 7pm, it was pasta and one bowl of tuna in a tomato sauce, Noel took the bowl first and nearly finished the lot, leaving the rest of us with nada, he didn't live that one down for the rest of the weekend!! Finally, after 2 bottles of rum, a version of ''7 drunken nights', 'the aroochaacha', 'Limerick your a lady', 'Black is the colour' , Noel's own composition that sounded strangely enough just like 'Black is the colour' and Nat's demonstration of how to get a good night's sleep in a hammock, it was 2am and we knew it was time to go to bed.
The next morning 6 very hungover heads arose full of life dying to sit on a wooden boat for 4 hours (NOT). We all took our seats on the very uncomfortable boat and
headed for Angel Falls. 4 hours and numb asses later we finally arrived, we trekked through the jungle for about 1 hour and 30 minutes to reach the viewing point. Nobody had mentioned to us that sandles and shorts were probably not the best attire for trekking through the jungle. We arrived at the viewing point just as it started to rain, it wasn't so bad though as we could still get a good view of the falls - very impressive. After many pictures we headed to a point under the falls where you could take a dip. Maurice stripped off and I not keen on cold water or fish decided I would be better suited to taking some shots. We left there and after what felt like a never ending trek through the jungle we emerged just as it was starting to get dark, thank God, because the jungle is not somewhere I desire to be in the dark. Relief at last - ho ho ho, not so fast, we still had to cross a river before we got to our camp. We all formed a line and tried to cross the river - it was twilight, the water
'Show me the way to go home'
Our guide needed a nap after last night's effortswas knee deep, the current was flowing and we were trying to find stable stones in the river to stand on to make it across. Finally we all made it through. As we got across the river we noticed fire flies everywhere it was a fascinating sight.
We all marched into camp, which consisted of a waist high concrete wall, a corregated iron roof, a long table, hammocks and a toilet. We got set up for the night while our guide cooked up some dinner - it was a candlelit dinner of chicken on an open fire with rice salad and bread - after the day that we had I can tell you it was super tasty. One of the guys had a battery powered Ipod with speakers so we listened to some tunes, drank some rum and coke and headed off to bed about 7pm. Into the hammock with me, Maurice rocked me a few times, I thought for sure I'd have to sleep cause I was soooo tired. I wish - it was the longest night of my life, I didn´t sleep a wink all night worrying about what animals/insects etc. were going to join me in
Poor Mule
The poor horses that had to carry us up over the mountain my hammock. It was one of the most terrifying nights of my life and the sounds from the jungle were unbelieveable. Next morning I was about to say to Maurice how terrible it was and he gets out of his hammock and says ´that was fantastic, 9 hours solid sleep´ I nearly cried.
We arrived back to Ciudad Bolivar on the Sunday - we all headed back to Posada Don Carlos where we were going to stay for two more nights. After all the adventures, all we wanted was a shower and could you believe it, - the electricity was out!! What do you do when the electricity goes out - drink of course - the boys headed down the town to stock up for the evening - Regional Light all round. It was a sweltering evening, the sweat was dripping off us as we sat there drinking and chatting.
Monday evening we planned on going out for dinner with the others to a local Chinese. Before we all headed out some people in the hostel told us about an Italian couple that had just arrived the day before and had gone out for a walk in the
Botanic Gardens and were held up at gunpoint and lost everything - passports, camera, visa cards - you just gotta be so careful we reminded ourselves - it could have been any of us - again Ciudad Bolivar was not a nice town. After a nice Chinese we swaped e-mail addresses and said our goodbyes as we all went our separate ways the following day.
The next day it was back to Puerto Ordaz to catch our flight to Havana, Cuba. We were excited to be flying to Cuba. Just to round off our Venezuelan trip, the authorities informed us that we would each have to pay a $56 exit tax to leave the country, hmmm, we won´t be rushing back we thought.
VENEZUELA SUMMARY
Currency: Bolivars
Time Zone: Ireland -5 hours
People: Not very welcoming to tourists or tourism, we felt they really just want to get as much money as they can out of us.
Beer: Polar ice & Regional Light for about $1 but we found Regional for $0.25 in Merida.
Interesting: Every street corner has young entrepreneurs with about a dozen mobile phones selling cheap
phone calls. Chavez - their president is a character, we heard that he always has an empty chair beside him at press conferences and government meetings & when asked about it answered that Simon Bolivar´s spirit was always beside him advising him what is best for Venezuela. Crazy queues in banks but they give you free coffee. Chevrolet make Corsas.
Highlights: Merida is a nice town to visit & the Venezuelan Andes are very impressive; Angel Falls is impressive but we now reckon that volume is more important than height when it comes to waterfalls, roll on Iguazu Falls, Argentina.
Lowlights: Always having to watch over your shoulder, never feeling safe, everyone carrying guns.
Recommend it as a destination to visit: Has the potential to be a fantastic country however, for us it was definitely not a highlight of our trip, the mix of guns, stickly heat & poverty makes for a dodgy spot at present.
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Anne Nicholl
non-member comment
Scary!!!!
Great to read all about your exploits. I'd never heard of Travel Blogs, then again, I only got my first computer this year, that shows you what a technofob I am. Anyway I was about to delete these emails as Junk mail, I am so glad I didnt. You two are sooooo brave, I'm afraid I would have been on the next plane out of there. That said it sounds so differe t and it will be something that you will never forget. I look forward to reading more of your holiday highlights. Hope you are somewhere warm and luxurious for christmas. all the best for the new year and the rest of your trip. Anne