Zelma’s Trip

Ciudad Bolivar is the place where most people head to Angel Falls from, which was the purpose of my visit.  Angel Falls is nigh on impossible to visit independently so I booked a tour from the hostel where I was staying.  I headed into town and was pleasantly surprised with the hilly streets of colourfully painted houses leaning on steep roads to the river.  The town was a place of contradictions though as, along with the quaint houses, lovely plazas and architecture, is a feeling of an unemployed and unsettled population.  The area used to have a large number of mines but these were apparently closed by the government as they were bad environmentally.  The Chavez government offered all the miners a decent payout for the closures and their redundancies but no money ever transpired.  As a result there are a large number of seriously disgruntled men around who have now apparently resorted to crime, robbery and the like, in order to try to support themselves.

Despite the apparent unrest, the town was welcoming enough and the street market was a buzzing and lively place.  I wandered around, bought a long pair of trousers to fend off the mozzies and replace my ones which I ripped whilst dismounting and got some food.

In the evening at the Posada I met a German couple, Christina and Oliver, along with a French girl, Juliette, who were all apparently on my group for the Falls trip the following day.  We had a few beers and chatted and I was pleased that they seemed to be a really good bunch of people.