Zelma’s Trip

I woke up in the morning surprisingly refreshed given the disturbed night´s sleep I had had.  I found an internet cafe and, having discovered that the Paypal transaction had not worked, I had to go and organise more cash.  Actually it was pending but, somewhat annoyingly, I didn´t have any of the information with me […]

Read the rest of Tuesday 25th to Wednesday 26th November – Barinas to Los Llanos

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 […]

Read the rest of Sunday 23rd to Monday 24th November – Rafting near Barinas

After an overnight bus ride which took far longer than I had both expected and it was meant to I arrived in Merida.  I had an entertaining conversation with a taxi driver and then managed to share a cab with a girl heading into the city.  I was going to stay at Posada de Montana […]

Read the rest of Thursday 20th to Saturday 22nd November – Merida

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 […]

Read the rest of Wednesday 19th November – Las Trincheras to Valencia bus station

Miraculously we managed to get up and leave early in the morning and we took the subway across town to the bus station.  Reynold´s guidebook had stated that the metro station was not next to the bus stop and that there was a 350m walk through an unsavoury neighbourhood in order to get there and that […]

Read the rest of Tuesday 18th November – Caracas to Las Trincheras

When I woke up on the Saturday the World had, unfortunately, not worked my life out for me or, at very least, my plans in Venezuela and how to best travel around and get out of Caracas.  It became obvious very early on that people do not really stay in Caracas on their travels.  A […]

Read the rest of Saturday 15th November to Monday 17th November – Crazy Caracas!

I woke up to the sound of the alarm in the morning glad that Jose had booked the taxi for the airport the night before.  I headed to the airport, got there in plenty of time (I know, unusual for me) and bought a guidebook for Venezuela.  I also managed to board the plane at […]

Read the rest of Friday 14th November – Santiago to Caracas

If you haven´t gathered by now I positively loved Chile.  I think this may have been enhanced by sharing the majority of my travels there with my parents but regardless of that it was really a very special country.   People The people in Chile were friendly, almost without exception.  From the random stranger who […]

Read the rest of Chilean Observations

I woke up early as I was planning on getting a lift with Christian and his father who were heading into town for a meeting.  When I went down for breakfast I met Christian´s cousin (Felipe) who said that he was driving to Santiago and asked if I wanted a lift rather than having to […]

Read the rest of Thursday 13th November – Colbun Lake to Santiago (Happy Birthday Ben and Dad).

On the Wednesday I got up, albeit not at the crack of dawn, and walked down for breakast.  It was the kind of breakfast you always hope that you will get when breakfast is included with freshly cooked bread, eggs, fresh fruit, yoghurt, cereal and homemade preserves and local honey.  I, very nobley it has […]

Read the rest of Monday 10th November to Wednesday 12th November – Lago Colbun