We went throiugh numerous security checks- seeing more guns than we had ever seen in our lives, and finally arrived at Ciudad Bolivar Bus station at 1am where we were picked up by our Bodyguard Oscar who took us safely to our Pousada- on a compound far away from the city.
The next morning despite hopes of a lie in past 8am for the 1st time in a week, we were brutally awaken by our German hostel owner at 7.30am with ¨Guten Morgan´(yes girls, exactly like Miss Hermann on the year 8 ski trip). That day we sat around the pool and played with the animals in the on site zoo!!! Loads of dogs, 3 monkeys, 2 huge disgusting rodent things, births, a pig, and a deer. And got ready to set off on our Canaima and Angel Falls trip the next day.
After a quick flight on a 21 seater plane to Canaima we had lunch and were taken on our 1st excursion to see the many waterfalls in Canaima (but saving Angel Falls for the 2nd day). We had potentially the best day of our entire trip so far when we trekked barefoot through a forest and then had to walk behind a waterfall for 190m of gushing water- Keelin finding it even better listening to Shauna and Eleanor´s screams over their contact lenses.
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| The waterfall we had just walked behind!! |
On the 2nd day we made our 3 hour boat trip to Angel Falls, stopping en route to swim in the Paradise Waterfalls.
Arriving at Angel Falls was absolutely spectacular. At 979m of freefalling water it is the tallest waterfall in the World!! Boom. After a trek through the jungle (we are getting used to this now) we were the ¨Brave (stupid) English girls that swam in the lake at the bottom of the falls.´´ But we were only ever going to be there once so why not!! That night we slept in the forest opposite the fall in hammocks. Very in touch with nature.
As most of you probably know, Venezuela is notoriously dangerous...so we wanted to have limited exposure to buses and the cities in general. so we were chauffer driven by a neighbour to get a connecting flight to Caracas airport. We were then going to have 12 hours in the airport so needed some more Venezuelan money. But Venexuelan currency at the official exchange rate is about 2 for $1. Whereas at the blackmarket rate you can get abour 7 or 8 for $1. So in order to pay the big departure tax and have some money for food we changed up $50 each with a man in the airport.
THEN, we made our way to the check in desk, where we informed our flight had been cancelled until the next day!!!! So scared about how we were going to survive a night in Caracas we were quickly told we were being put up in a 5 star hotel, dinner and drinks all included, with buses to and from the hotel. Sweeeeeeeeeeeettt.
Arriving back at the airport the next morning, there was more delays but we found that EVERYTHING was paid for. Meaning that we had approximately an hour to spend $50 each worth of Venezuelan bolivars on......Sweets and Chocolate!!!!! It is one of the most fun games any of us have ever played.
Apart from that delay we arrived safely in Quito, the capital of Ecuador. News on Quito to follow soon!!
xxxxx
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