The last of the travels

My time is now also nearly over.

For my last few remaining days I decided to head even further east on the coast of Venezuela. From Puerto La Cruz I moved to Santa Fe in the beautiful Mochima national park. The town itself is dirty and unapealing but does have some nice posadas right on the beach. Here I spent two nights and went snokeling on one of the small islands in the area with an American fellow named Ed. I soon grew weary of Santa Fe and we decided to move to Isla de Margarita. Here I would spend the remainder of my time, 7 nights, which is also the longest I've stayed in one place for the past four months.

After a five hour ferry from Puerto La Cruz and a short bus ride we arrived in Porlamar, the commercial capital of the island. The next day we moved to Juan Griego on the north western side - another quiet fishing village. As soon as I could I organized for a couple of dives and went the next day to Los Frailes off the north eastern coast of the island. All in all I was unimpressed and realized that I've been spoiled by my many previous diving experiances in Mozambique. The rest of my time on Isla de Margarita was spent laying on the picturesque beaches, swimming and having some beer. Rather the small beaches for me, as I feel that at the main beaches, like playa El Agua, are very trendy, full of the bad things, aparently, and don't really have space for my beard (that is now starting to reach epic proportions). Mostly I was at playa Caribe with other people from the hotel where I stayed. This one's smaller and has very pleasant, laid back beach bars.

fishing around Juan Griego

more fish and coral

My final day was spent on this beach consuming, perhaps, a bit too much sun and beer. The next day from Isla margarita I got a flight to Caracas, and then that evening, flew to Sao Paulo via Lima, arriving at 3:30 am. Portugese is not the same as spanish!

playa Caribe and some friends

another Caribbean beach sunset

All in all my travels have been amazing! By the tomorrow I will be out of South America altogether and that will mark exactly 4 months of traveling. And what an experiance it has been! From enourmous waterfalls in brazil, to the glaciers of Argentina, to the Andean peaks and altiplano of Bolivia, to the Inca ruins of Peru, to the rainforests of Ecuador, to the Caribbean beaches of Venezuela! As Neil also said, I hope that everyone has enjoyed following our adventures and that this blog has inspired its readers to visit Latin America. This will probably be the last entry concerning my travels although Neil and I may make a final joint update from back home in Stellenbosch.

Lloyd

A Caribbean adventure

Get a coffee, this is quite a long update.

Since I last posted in Mérida, my travels have taken me Northwards and Eastwards. I first traveled to Coro on the north western coast at the base of penensula Paraguanà. Here I checked into the Posada Turistica Gallo where, as it turns out, everyone speaks french - the owner Eric, his wife and the other travellers! This was a good opportunity to grease my French a bit but found myself invariably throwing in Spanish words (I can`t grease my Spanish because it`s still missing a few large gears). My first day in Coro was spent taking it easy as I had arrived at 5:30am - more reading, some beer and naps in hammocks.

The second day I went on a 4x4 tour of the peninsula with the owner and two girls from Slovakia, Katerina and Susana. The vegetation is arid and sparse and some areas are covered in sand dunes (although not as impressive as those around Ica, Peru). We visited the national park Médanos, home to some interesting and rare species of lizards, spiders, and a prehistoric plant species dating 35 million years back. Other parts of the tour included the salinas, a dip in the sea near a big wreak, flamingo watching and the first church ever built in South America (now designated a chapel by the Vatican).

the oldest church in South America

another 8-legged critter, this time in blue and orange

a very pink salt lagoon

As for traveling, I decided to skip Chichiriviche and the surroundings as a chemical spill in the 90s has apparently killed much of the coral and I figured diving might be disapointing. So the next day was a long hard day´s traveling, from Coro to Valencia to Maracay to Puerto Colombia.

Finally, the real Caribbean, with it´s romantic allure of turquoise waters and coconut palm beaches! Almost as soon as I arrived I was offered a room by one of the locals. They do this often and their prices more often than not beat those of the posadas. My first day in Puerto Colombia was spent seeing the town and the beautiful Playa Grande (big beach). I heard at one of the tourist shops that the diving in the area was among the best in Venezuela and that there was a "dive shop" at one of the nearby beaches, Playa Cepe. I decided to go check it out and got one of the boats that go from beach to beach. "Yes, Yes. It´s possible to come back today" said the skipper, so off I went. About 40 min and 4 beaches later I was dropped off at playa Cepe - smaller, more isolated and truly beautiful!

playa Cepe

The diving, as it turns out, is extremely unorganized: "Yes tomorrow, if we can get a boat. We´ll see how many people there are. Don´t know at what time we´ll open" kind of thing. So I spent some time on the beach reading and waiting for a boat back. Nada, and the sun was getting low. Schedules here are very unreliable, especially if it`s quiet, and you have to be flexible. By sunset I was chatting to a local, Omar, and his girlfriend from Austria (if I remember her name, I´ll put it in here). By sunset we were having some of the traditional drink in these parts - rum! (see Pirates of the Caribbean). As for sleeping, I borrowed a hammock from one of the local artisans and strung it up right there between two palm trees.

The next morning I decided not to go through the hassle of organizing a dive and went snorkeling. The visibility was excellent and the water the perfect temperature. There is quite a lot of sea life and I even saw a long horned cowfish. Around midday I got a boat back and spent the rest of the day swimming at playa grande at Puerto Colombia. I`ve never seen such clear waters - it was perfect!

undu da sea...

sunset in Puerto Colombia, with the remnance of a more dangerous era

dusk on the Caribbean

I have since decided to move on and Saturday I had another hard days traveling; from Puerto Colombia is a beautiful bus ride to Maracay, over the mountains (2000m+) and through beautiful cloud forest on a very bendy road. From Maracay I traveled to Caracas and straight to Puerto la Cruz, a modern city with a pleasant beachfront. Today I plan to go to Santa Fe and stay there for a while before moving on to see the famous oilbird caves and possibly Isla Margarita.

the road between Puerto Colombia and Maracay

Adios all

The world´s highest and longest cable car

Hello everybody! As you all probably know by now, Neil and I parted ways at the end of our Ecuador circuit. He returned to Stellenbosch, South Africa, and I continued on to Venezuela, extending my journey with about 3 weeks. I have inherited this blog and will post updates as often as I can bring myself to do so.

My first stop, flying from Quito (where the police actually took x-rays of my stomach at the airport - must be the beard and the green passport!) was Caracas, another noisy, dirty city. Nothing about the city appealed to me and I have no pictures or words in it´s admiration. I focused on getting to Mérida, the tourist capital of Venezuela. After one night in a styles pay-per-hour Caracas hotel I got a night bus to Mérida. As Venezuela is a major oil producing country, it is much better off financially than most other countries we´ve visited and so the buses are almost comparable to those in Argentina. And just imagine filling your car from empty to the brim for under 2US$!!!!

the valley next to Mérida

Mérida itself is smaller and although touristy, it is not overbearing. It is on the busy and noisy side though, and I look forward to even smaller towns. The main attraction of Mérida is the Teleférico, the highest and longest cable car system in the world! From the bottom at 1577m to the top at 4765m a.s.l. is 12.5km that is done in four stages. The mid stations are at 2436m and 4045m. The trip takes about an hour one way and provides beautiful views of the town and surrounding mountains. From the teleférico (third or fourth stop I think) it is possible to hike to a small mountain town, spend the night and come back the next day. I went down the same day as I was planning some canyoning for sunday morning. The way down was just as spectacular as the clouds had now come in and were right over the peak. Also, to appreciate the view and nature a bit more I hiked down from the second to the first station (about 1 hour) with an interesting Australian electritian who is also floating around South America.

a very long streach of unsupported cable

end of the first stage

the view from the very top

the jagged rocks at 4765m

Eva Maria

the way down

Now canyoning is a relatively new craze here and basically involves hiking to different waterfalls and rappelling down them. The tour includes 3 waterfalls, one of 8m, one of 15m and one of over 30m! Unfortunately this is tourist low season, and even though I booked, the agency could not get a big enough group together to make it worthwhile. They simply didn´t open Sunday morning and so the hotel owner gave me my refund. Pity. I decided to cut my losses in time and am now moving to Coro where I plan to stay for a day and then move on to Chichiriviche on the coast. I will post again from there. Lloyd

The End is Nigh

Dear readers, 97 days have passed since I´ve left South Africa. This morning Lloyd has taken the plane to Caracas, Venezuela and tonight I catch the plane back to Sao Paulo, Brazil. I am on my way back... I land back in Cape Town on the 5th of May. Looking back at everything we´ve experienced along the way, it has definitely been a most excellent adventure! I am sure that the experiences will stay with me for the rest of my life shaping my years to come. I have really enjoyed keeping this humble electronic journal these past three months and I hope you have enjoyed reading about our adventures. I wish that they can, in some small way, inspire you to pursue dreams of your own. Lloyd has taken over the duties now and will chronicle his further adventures over the next month. So stay tuned... Love Neil

Tempting Fate...

Since braving the wild rivers of Tena we have moved off to Baños.

Baños is in/famous for two reasons. Firstly, lovely hot springs to soak away pain and all sorts of ailments. Secondly, the constant threat of dying a most horrifying death by searing hot magma from the incredibly active volcano Tungurahua. In October, 1999 the city of Baños was evacuated after Tungurahua (meaning "throat of fire" in Quichua) suddenly became active again. After nothing happened for several months the 25000 people decided they would tempt fate and return. Violent clashes with the military ensued, but finally the Bañositos returned. They lived in relative peace for several years until last year activity increased dramtically culminating in huge eruptions in July and August. The August eruption featured a 10km high ash cloud and serious pyroclastic flows resulting in deaths and destruction of several small villages. Baños is a town totally dependant on tourism. The locals cannot afford not to stay there, they have nowhere else to go. We went for a night tour with our guide, Angel (he´s a man, not a prostitute), hoping for some volcano action. Angel also told us about the history of the Tungurahua and how he and the other people live with the volcano and the precautions they have taken. He said the August eruption was really scary. The blast downed the power lines and except for the glow of magma, the city was wrapped in darkness, all the windows constantly rattling for many hours... Our own experience was less frightening. It was relatively cloudy and there were no lava flows, but we could still see a huge cloud of ash billowing from the crater. Very impressive. The lookout point was frigid at 3000m, but Angel gave us a drink made from the local firewater (a STRONG sugar cane alcohol), served with hot herbal tea. Warmed us up a bit! Because I don´t have a cable for my camera at the moment and my volcano photos are less than spectacular, here are some good ones of Tungurahua I found on the internet.

1999 eruption

this is closest to our experience

also similar, but at sunset

The next morning we visited the hot springs in hope that the Virgin would heal some of the insane itching from the sandfly bites. Incredibly enough, after several dunks is the cold pool and then in the really hot one, the itching stopped! Except for minor relapses, it seems to have passed. After the baths we hired a quad bike to try and get another peak at the volcano. Climbing up to 3000m with a smallish bike suffering from some mechanical issues was to much, and just as fate would want it, the bike stopped on top of the mountain with only 16 minutes left to get back to the bottom. We freed all the way down... Because it was a mechanical failure we didn´t have to pay extra even though we were late. The afternoon we caught the bus back to Quito. The morning of the first we sorted out our tickets and set off exploring the vast colonial splendour of Quito (a world heritage site). Being labour day in South America, there were quite a few seemingly peaceful rallies going on with the riot cops looking on with guns and shields. Makes you feel a lot safer... That night was supposed to be our last night out but because of the holiday all the restaurants and bars were closed! We ended up eating KFC. How depressing... Neil

Riders of the Storm

From Lago Agrio we went directly to the small town of Tena. Our night bus stopped shortly after midnight, because we reached a patch of deep mud. We had to wait for sunrise and a bulldozer to help us across!

Tena is also situated in the jungle, but the jungle in this area is entirely different from our trip to the Cuyabeno. The terrain is much more mountainous, there are incredible volcanoes jutting out of the lush jungles, waterfalls crashing down deep ravines, absolutely beautiful!

Our reason for coming to Tena is the fact that it is the undisputed capital of river rafting in Ecuador. We booked a tour with River People, a very cool family business, which I can definitely recommend. Our previous experience with rafting in Arequipa left us hungering for more. We wanted a longer, harder, faster and more dangerous trip filled with testosterone and adrenaline... And we got it.

We went off to the river at 9h. It was just us and the two guides, Alex and Tim. It was a bit of a hike through some nasty slippery clay down to the river. The trip is a full day on the river, rafting two contrasting rivers. The first is a difficult and technical river with small fast level 3 rapids and LOTS of obstacles. The second is a raging river with lots of big waves, level 4 rapids and some serious whitewater. Lloyd, me and Alex took a small 4 man raft and Tim took a kayak for support, taking photos and just playing around! From the word go it was just an incredibly exciting ride through some of the most beautiful scenery of the whole trip. The canyon walls towered above us covered with insane jungle growth and waterfalls crashing down everywhere.

the river canyon

one of the many beautiful waterfalls

serious splashing

We took about 4 hours to get to the other river where we stopped for lunch. There we were absolutely ravaged by sand flies, I have more than a 100 bites and Lloyd is looking just as bad! Sand flies are worse than mosquitos, they get in everywhere, and if they bite you it starts bleeding and it itches like hell! Today it´s absolute torture...

another big rapid

The rest of the river was just as exciting culminating with the HUGE waffle maker. A mean rapid where we did really well not to tip! Along the way we had lots of fun swinging on lianas, swimming some of the smaller rivers and goofing around.

bombs away!

the wild man just got wilder...

taking a break

All in all, it was a great experience and something I would definitely do again and again! Anyone game for the Zambezi?

Neil

Heart of Darkness

Finally we have come to one of the wildest, unpassable places on earth. The mighty Amazon.

The part we visited is in a protected park called the Cuyabeno Reserve. This vast reserve sits on the borders of Peru, Columbia and Brazil and is one of the most bio-diverse areas in the world. The park is one of the most remote places in Ecuador. To get there we had to take a 4x4 for 3h to get to the park entrance. From there it was another 3h by motorized canoe to base camp. We spent four days exploring this amazing region with our extremely charming and knowledgeable guide Lenny, Glenn and Tam (Australia) and Claudia (Germany).

(from the left) Claudia, Lenny, Lloyd, Glenn, Tam, me

Day 1:

Our trip with the canoe was extremely cool. It is currently almost the end of the rainy season, but the rivers are still swollen and creates easy pathways between the trees to navigate. We saw quite a few animals on the way to the camp, including some rare river dolphins, monkeys, toucans and hoatzins (a weird almost prehistoric bird).

two white-hand monkeys

the mysterious hoatzin or as locals refer to them, stinky turkeys

The lodge was basically a couple of thatched roof buildings with the sleeping area consisting of matresses covered by mosquito nets. Very basic, but very authentic and more than enough!

the dining room

After sunset we went for a short night walk to see what types of creepy crawleys we could find. Within a few metres, we have stumbled upon several big, scary spiders and all sorts of bugs. After the walk he took us to see the BIG spiders. Two gigantic (as big as my hand) tarantulas right above our heads in the dining area! Luckily they are not aggresive and we sat and watched how they caught their prey. Really cool!

nice little tarantula

After that it was a noisy night in the jungle. The jungle feels to me like a massive single entity, and it does not like to be infiltrated by mere men. It is quite intimidating being so far away from civilization in this dark and mysterious place. I did not sleep to well that first night...

Day 2:

We got up as the sun rose at 6h and after breakfast it was into the surrounding forest for a 3h walk. Lenny told us about the different animals we could see and the plants and their medicinal properties. We tried out quite a few. We even ate some ants called lemon ants. They taste like lemons! Although the walk was interesting, the heat and humidty was extreme and the mosquitos attacked us with relish undeterred by our repellent. I racked up more than 50 bites...

Lloyd of the Jungle

frog on leaf

We arrived back at base at about 12h and immediately went for a swim in the river. So refreshing I almost felt clean!

The afternoon we were joined by three French people and a short, but severe tropical rainstorm and went downstream by canoe to a nearby Siona village. The Sionas are the natives who still live in the forest. There we met Aurora, one of the local woman and she showed us the secret of making manioc "pancake". Manioc is a root we´ve eaten quite a few times on our travels. We went out into the forest to go and dig some out and then went through the process of skinning, grating, drying and sifting it into a fine meal. The drying was particulary interesting. They weave palmleaves into a piece they call the anaconda. The grated manioc is wrapped in the anaconda and then they wring out all the water. After we made the meal it is placed on a hot plate and baked to form a type of cake. It was really good, although it could use some salt or tomato sauce!

Aurora operating the anaconda

the finished product

After that it was back to camp for dinner and rest. We were tired and had no trouble falling asleep!

Day 3:

We got up early for some bird watching by canoe. Very nice and relaxing. We saw quite a few interesting birds and monkeys before we returned to camp for breakfast.

a snake bird

After that it was off to a big lagoon about 1h30´s canoe trip away. It is very impressive and you can see how high the water is because the top of some bushes stick out a few inches above the water! It a very unique experience driving through trees with the canoe. We stopped on an island and went for another 3h hike.

the forest in the lake

Aurora joined us again and showed us many of secrets of jungle existence. She showed us which plants were for healing and which plants for pain. We saw the plants used for curare (famous Amazon poison) and some halluciogenic vines. We tried a root that is used for anaesthetic purposes and it left our tongues and lips numb and tingly! Another cool plant was paperleaf. Paperleaf stains after pressure is applied on it. You scratch your message on the leaf and in a few seconds they start appearing in dark brown.

origin of the species

Aurora weaving a backpack

Getting back to the canoe we had some lunch and rest. During that time a caiman (crocodile family) appeared close to the canoe and we lured him closer with some fish. Quite impressive!

looking for lunch

After this fun it was off to the middle of the lake for some swimming. The water was wonderfully warm and some river dolphins swam close by for an unforgettable experience.

swimming

Next was the art of piranha fishing. We drove into the roots of the trees and sat there waiting for the bites. They are difficult to catch as they take tiny bites and don´t swallow the hook. I was the only one to catch one but ended up accidentally flicking him into the boat next to Glenn! Luckily Lenny quickly caught the little bastard and showed off his teeth!

fishing for piranha

my catch! look at those teeth...

We rode out into the middle of the lake again for the sunset and then headed back in the dark watching the fisher bats dipping and diving around us.

ANOTHER sunset photo

We were exhausted, but we had a great day!

Day 4:

The last day we had breakfast and then it was the long way back to the reserve gate. We were lucky on the way back and saw lots of animals including the elusive red howler monkey and a two-toed sloth!

Neil