$1 = 4.3 VEF (Venezuela Bolivares Fuertes) - bank rate
$1 = 8 VEF - black market rate
1 gallon of gasoline = 5 US cents!!! = free
I took a flight to Caracas, Venezuela (7h - $407).
Maldito rain followed me here too. Felipe picked me up from a metro station and we went to his house where I met his 3 roomies and 3 Argentinian couch surfers = full house = more fun.
Thursday, 14 IV 2011
Hmmmmmmm... a day to ponder about my trip... time to make some more decisions about my life...
Time to cut off another week. The date is set. I'm coming back to LA on May 5th ($340) and on the 12th I'm going to Poland for 3 weeks ($1000). Everything is falling in its place naturally. It is how it was meant to be. I'm really excited to see my family and friends!!!
Downside is that I won't have much time left for Venezuela and Colombia. I guess it'll be a quick recon trip. I'm sure I'll be back another day. My exploration days are far from over...
Friday, 15 IV 2011
Time to move my butt and see this big ass city. It's got a fame of being quite violent and dangerous. I have to say I didn't feel too safe in downtown. First thing out of the metro station police stopped me to check my documents... this time. Police is pretty corrupted here and sometimes find a creative way to extract money from you or just plain rob you. This is what I've heard from some travelers and locals. Hopefully I will not be able to confirm this. Next thing as I quickly took a photo of one of the squares one lady quickly told me not to take my camera out.
I wandered around many streets and two big parks. Parque del Este or Parque Miranda even had a small zoo with funny monkeys chasing each other and playing drums on the tree trunks. It's a big city no doubt and I had enough of it already. Of course clouds were hanging around all day and it rained in the evening as it does everyday. I didn't see the point taking teleferico up to Avila mountain which was hidden in the white mist.
With Felipe and some of his friend we were going to a house party but we never got there. Rain didn't disappoint. Perrito with his girl was following us on his new moto but slipped and slid. Luckily they got only few bruises. To everybody's surprise police was super nice and even asked to send them a text message that Perrito got back ok on his banged up moto. It's not all bad here after all.
Saturday, 16 IV 2011
This is the beginning of a Holly Week so all the bus tickets are sold out everywhere. I wanted to go to Merida located in the mountains and it didn't look good. Luckily there is a terminal La Bandera that only sells tickets for the same day. You have to get there before dawn and wait in super long and slow lines. The terminal is small and each bus company have only one window! The lines were like never-ending snakes crisscrossing each other. Everybody was screaming and pushing. Person next to a person struggling to breath. Istny Saigon!!! I haven't seen a bigger cluster fuck during my whole trip. Given this is Semana Santa and everyone wants to get out of the city but give me a break. Finding the end of a line borders with impossible and if you mistaken an end people are ready to kill you for cutting in. I stood in a line for 5!!! hours but at least I bought a ticket out of here. Unfortunately there were some rock/mud/road slides and there was no direct route. I had to go to Barinas first (7h - 88 VEF).
Getting a ticket for the evening really tired me out so I just went back to Felipe's house to rest.
I really thought the craziness ended at the ticket booth. When I got to the terminal the crowd was even bigger trying to board the buses. I could barely squeeze through to get somewhat close to my bus. Again, there was no room to breath. I don't know how I finally managed to get on and leave Caracas.
Sunday, 17 IV 2011
I got to Barinas at daybreak. Hour later I left for Merida in a minibus (4h - 40 VEF).
Fabricio agreed to host me for few days. Two German guys, Max and Felix, were already couch surfing there. The more, the merrier.
In the afternoon we went to La Culata where we hiked a bit up the mountain. We didn't go far as the fog was thick and it did start raining.
Tired from an all night trip that was it for today.
Today Augusta (German girl) joined us at the house. It was a lazy day soaked with rain.
Merida is a good base town for outdoor sports such as biking, canyoneering, trekking, climbing, paragliding and so forth. Unfortunately all of these don't sound too appealing when you're getting soaking wet.
At night we went to two bars filled with smoke :/ In the next six months they will ban smoking in bars but for now it is what it is. On top of that the music was almost too loud even to hear your thoughts.
Tuesday, 19 IV 2011
The Germans wanted to eat some mushrooms so we went looking for them in the fields of Paramo along with Carolina and Maruxi. I realized that this time of the year it's not a question if it will rain but at what time will it start. Especially if you go higher it starts earlier with a thick, drizzling fog.
The super green, wet mountain fields were looking pretty mysterious engulfed by the fog. We found cows and Max found a bull that wanted to charge him. No shrooms though. We got pretty wet and it sure didn't help my cold I caught yesterday. On the way down we got a ride from a Spanish dude. Actually we got a seat, or a space on the back of his Ford F-150 truck along with 7 other hitchhikers making a total of 13 hehe.
Not wanting to go out to some smoky bar with a cold I went to Maruxi's house with Carolina to relax and watch a flick.
Wednesday, 20 IV 2011
Sleeping till noon feels good hehe. With Maruxi we decided to ride bikes around the city since I still haven't really saw it. It was a good plan until it started raining hard. At first we hid in a restaurant. We hoped that after a meal it would die down but that didn't happen. We got completely soaked zooming down the streets which almost turned into rivers.
Thursday, 21 IV 2011
In the afternoon I went with Maruxi, Carolina and Shawn to Mucuchies, a small village up on the paramo. It had a nice and relaxing feel to it strolling the hilly streets in the rain (D'oh).
On the way we passed a series of... I can't even call them villages. Few houses hugging a side of the mountain along the road. Cool stuff but there is just nothing to do there locked in by the valley walls. 3km (2mi) of the main road were some hot springs but we opted out of it as it was raining and getting late.
This stupid rain is really pissing me off. It's ruining my trip. I wanted to go for a few day trek but with my gear letting the water in and thick fog it would be pointless and not fun at all. Around Merida are great conditions for ridge soaring with paragliders so I might be back.
I was planning to leave today to Maracaibo on a night bus but with Semana Santa that plan crashed and burned. I was able to buy a ticket for Saturday morning. I wanted to avoid loosing a whole day for travel but it wasn't possible this time.
I don't know why but uncomfortable situation arouse at Fabricio's house so I moved to Maruxi's place for the next two nights.
Friday, 22 IV 2011
Today we wandered for quite a while up and down the one way streets of Merida. It have some nice plazas and views from atop. Too bad that teleferico is still not working. Through 4 stations it goes up to almost 4,800m (15,750ft) and I'm sure the view has to be amazing from up there.
Saturday, 23 IV 2011
Loooooooong ride to Maracaibo (10h - 85 VEF) killed my day. Police/military check points were every 30 minutes or so. Only one really checked us and only asked me a whole bunch of questions who, what, where and why.
The humidity slapped me in the face upon stepping off the bus. My host Jose picked me up and gave me a night tour of the town. Some parts were really nice with small streets dotted with colorful buildings. People hanging out enjoying the cool of the night.
Sunday, 24 IV 2011
Jose had time again to show me Maracaibo during the day. We drove around and walked a bit but the heat was pouring down from the sky. Air conditioning in the car was sooooooo good lol. Later on we met with other CS-ers and went to Santa Rosa de Agua. Very characteristic houses on palafitos (wooden logs) elevated above the water. It was pleasant to chat and drink a beer with a fresh breeze coming from the water. The only problem with that neighborhood is that trash is being thrown out everywhere into the water. I'm sure this part would get touristy if they would clean it up.
Monday, 25 IV 2011
Instead of taking a bus it is faster to take a regular "taxi" car (2h - 70 VEF) to Maicao (first town in Colombia). I did just that but the driver left me on the border saying the line with the immigration will take me 3 hours. He unloaded my backpack and I had no choice. As it turned out there was no line. Others told me that I will have to pay around 70 VEF to exit Venezuela but that didn't happen either.
Goodbye Venezuela.
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