Zelma’s Trip

The following morning we headed back to the road where we had got off the bus and tried to beckon buses.  This is commonplace in countries like Venezuela and buses appear to stop just about anywhere to pick people up.  What you come to realise is that, just because somewhere doesn´t have a bus stop it doesn´t mean that the bus doesn´t stop there, or even that it is recognised as an informal bus stop.  This was one such place and we were pleased when two locals joined us to get the bus from there.  After a little wait we got on a crowded bus and headed to Valencia. 

Once at the bus station Reynold left pretty much straight away as he had a plane to catch from Caracas.  I headed to find out when buses left for Merida, a spot in the West famous for having the World´s longest cable car, its outdoor pursuits and access into Los Llanos to see the area´s wildlife.  I had read that there were night buses to Merida but was kind of banking on there being one during the day.  I was pleased when I got to the right place and there was one advertised at 11AM.  Unfortunately they told me that the 11 o clock bus was not leaving today, as did all the other companies I asked.  The next bus after that was at 6pm but, as it was a ten hour journey, this would arrive at the rather unhelpful time of 4am the following morning.  With a big sigh, and the realisation that this would give me more than twelve hours in Valencia bus station, I opted for the ten thirty bus to Valencia.

I was considering heading into the city but it didn´t look too exciting so I conceded that I would do exciting things like update my blog so that it wasn´t a complete waste of a day.  I am also now the World´s expert on buses in and out of Valencia, their times, the services of Valencia bus station and the surrounding areas and shops.  I know that none of those sound like the most exciting things in the World and in reality, they weren´t.  I spent so long at the darn bus station that I began to blend into the place, to the extent that locals starting asking me questions such as directions.  That´s when I knew that things really had got bad when I lost my identifiable gringo status.  So I spent the day exploring, woohoo, online, eating, drinking coke and smoking cigarettes.  The mean ones of you out there may be thinking that this is not unlike my normal kind of day but, in all fairness, I normally don´t dedicate -quite- as much time to such pursuits.

When it came to around the time for my bus I was actually quite excited.  This was partly as it was a double decker coach and I was at the top, partly as I always like going to the next place and largely as it meant I was actually going to get out of Valencia bus station.  Typically, after telling myself that  I only had two hours to wait, one hour to wait, etc, the bus was over an hour late!  Once on the bus I was pleasantly surprised at how comfortable, clean and safe it felt.  The only problem was it kept stopping, firstly so people could buy food and drink and then a number of times possibly or possibly not for reasons known to the driver.