Zelma’s Trip

In the morning I headed down to the ´Gravity tours´office where I met Yssac, one of the guides, and also a lovely American girl who was also coming on the trip.  She was evidently studying in Merida as part of her degree.  I was pleased that there was someone on the trip other than staff to keep me company, and also for a fellow English speaker who was a really nice girl.  Although, to be honest she was also a particularly adept Spanish speaker and put me to shame.  After some sorting out of Paypal accounts and the like we headed off, Ysaac, myself, another guide and the American girl in one jeep, the Manager and his family in another and another jeep of guides and staff.  God, I feel awful that I can´t remember her name.  I´m hoping that it will come to me and I will be able to go back and replace all the "American girl" points before I publish this post but we´ll see.  The journey was entertaining, partly as Ysaac turned out to be a character and a real hoot and partly as he loved his Reggaeton.  Reggaeton has grown on me slightly, partly due to hearing better parts of it and partly having heard it with decent bass speakers.  Driving through the villages was amazing as the lines of people queueing up to vote was quite extraordinary.  After a little while we got into the mountains proper and the views were something else.  I had seen the Andes in Chile but the look of them was very different.  In Venezuela they were much greener but just as spectacular.  We also went right up into two of the highest peaks and I was pleased that I didn´t have any kind of altitude problems.  I think we were around four thousand metres above sea level at one point when we stopped.

Having stopped for lunch (where I had a gorgeous river fish cooked in garlic), and after around four hours driving, we arrived at the camp near the town, or rather city, of Barinas.  The camp itself was lovely, in lush green gardens and less basic than I had imagined.  After dumping our things we changed and headed out to the river.  We took the small yellow boat, which I always want to call a banana boat, but I guess technically they aren´t.  I prefer rafting in smaller boats whenever possible as you get thrown about a lot more which is fun.  The rafting itself was great.  There were a couple of awesome sections and, added to the appeal, was the fact that it was getting dark, leading to my hysterical joke about it not being, "white water rafting" but "night water rafting".  I think there must have been something lost in translation as no-one else seemed to find it anywhere near as amusing as I did!

At the bottom we loaded the boats onto the jeeps and headed back to camp where we had a much needed dinner.  After dinner we chatted and discussed the elections.  Prior to these elections there were grave concerns as it was possible that Chavez could lose a considerable number of seats which may lead to great trouble in the country.  In the evening the local guides were phoning friends and family to let them know that they were okay.  Apparently Merida was one of the contentious areas in the country and trouble had been expected.  We went and watched television in the house for a while and Manuel, one of the guides, reported back about incidents such as armed men arriving on motorbikes and stealing ballot boxes.  After all the talk of potential trouble, riots and the like my mind started wandering and I thought about military coups and being stuck in Venezuela indefinitely.  After all their talk they told me not to worry and that besides, as a British citizen, I would be whisked out by helicopter or something by the British army.  Most reassuring I thought!  So, after dinner, election talk and some rather nasty neat gin, we headed to bed.

The following morning we got up early and rafted the same section of river.  The main difference, other than being able to see where you were going, was that there was more bird life around including the most beautiful Kingfishers.  At one point we stopped and climbed up onto a small cliff where you threw yourself into the water, which was fun.  At this point there were what Manuel told me were, "monkey spiders" on the rocks, which were hairy beasts with very long legs and medium sized bodies.  I guess they were probably around the size of an outstretched hand.  Once back at camp we took the raft and some kayaks upstream where the guides practised manouvres and we faffed about on the beach, in the water and in the kayaks.  The river itself was stunning and the weather was magnificent, hot and sunny with beautiful blue sky.

We got back to the camp and drove to Barinas where I was going to be dropped off.  I had asked if this was possible so that I didn´t have to do the eight hour round trip to Merida prior to the Los Llanos safari the following day.  For some reason I was crazily tired and almost napped in the back of the van.  We stopped at a shopping centre for lunch and then I was dropped off at a hotel opposite the bus station in Barinas.  The place was okay, although it was next to a kind of bus park.  I explored a bit, grabbed some food and had an early night.  Well I tried to but the bus park next to my window was slightly distracting in terms of sleep.  I had almost got used to that until the entire wall started shaking next to my head.  At first I thought it was some kind of strange vehicle that had arrived outside and then I realised that it was actually the air conditioning unit from the room nextdoor.  Unfortunately this was on all night and, to add insult to injury I didn´t figure out how to get mine to work until the following morning.  It was particularly tricky, alright ….you had to flick a switch and everything!