bonnie & clyde

this is it, as we are writing we are breathing the last ounces of latin air, because we´re off in less than 24 hours. from coro we undertook an easy 6 hour busride to Valencia, changed to another 1 hour busride to Maracay and stayed there beacuse it was getting late. We searched for a cheap hostel and the conclusion is simple: there aren´t any. So we found i think the cheapest one after long search with the cabdriver, Hotel El Conde for 65 Bs. Maracay was described in our book as a chill place, a world apart, so we had to see why. we could for the life of us not see why. Maracay is as dirty, overcrowded and noisy as any other city in venezuela and apart from the green(ish) plaza bolivar, there is shit to see in this town. S we got ou and took a 2hour busdrive through Parque Nacional Henry Pittier to Choroní, much nicer than Maracay. Choroní is the end of the line, it´s a nice colonial town, with nothing to do, so that´s why all tourists remain seated for another 10 minutes and get off in Puerto Colombia, which is like a barrio of Choroní, but this is where all the action is. If you don´t like tourist hangouts don´t come here. It´s actually quite nice, very relaxing but very overpriced. Again we could not get a room for less than 60, but that´s because it was weekend and prices skyrocket that time of week. We stayed at Hotel Colonial. The first 2 days we did nothing but lay back at Playa Grande, honestly one of the most beautiful beaches we had seen so far, and god damn hot weather! Third day we met up with our american friend Geena and Vinnie again, who take the plane from caracas like we do, and we took a lancha to Chuao, the next small fishing village. We walked through a world famous cacao plant towards the little town which is very nice, like Choroní very colonial but even less to do. We walked back and rested on the beach before we got back with our drunken boatdrivers. But we got back safely. Last day we spent another relaxing day at Playa Grande, we cooked together at our place, Poasada Nelson, where we had changed to beacuse this one is 30 and has a kitchen for use. A real moneysaver at all times. That´s it, next day, we took a bus back to maracay, got on a bus to Caracas and went to our hotel, Altamira, in the safer neighbourhood of town. We had a great deal of trouble getting money out, and in the end we jus didn´t, we changed our last dollars and hope to live to the end, but when push comes to shove, here´s VISA! so here we are, finished, and ready to go tomorrow. The last supper is gonna be a damn good one.
Nobody will ever hear from us again through this medium, we close and go home!
Enjoy your travels and I hope you enjoyed ours!

parque tayrona is one of colombia´s finest national parks, with jungle stretching all the way to the coast. the first day we took a bus that drove us to quebrada de valencia, a waterfall in different levels, wherein between each level you can swim freely in natural ponds. too much family life though but otherwise very interesting. immediately after that we headed straight to the entrance of the park, paid the 25000 Pesos fee and took a jeep to Arrecifes entrance point, after which we had the walk a very very beautiful jungletrail for 1 hour to arrive at the equally beuatiful beach of Arrecifes. It´s very quiet and has 3 `laces where you can put your tent up or just rent one for 20000 pesos. we did the latter. slep well but hot, and mosquitos abound. second day had nice weather and walked up to Cabo de San Juan, which truely is one of the finest beaches of Colombia. The water´s a bit rough so you cant go out too far, but that doesn´t matter, the settings´all that! next up a 1-hour walk up the hill towards el pueblito, tayrona´s indigineous village. a very beautiful walk barefoot took us to the one-family village that was completely deserted. It is quite nice to se it. that night we went back and slept at Arrecifes, because Cabo is much more packed with tourists and 90 pct of them are israelis, no offence! last day we went to playa cristal or playa de la muerte known to the people here. Again a very nice whitesandy beach but no more jungle. this is dry almost desert land. and than that night back to taganga for another day chilling. After taganga we were headed for Cabo de la Vela, a not so easy ride because of changing a couple of times. First we took a bus that left us at Cuatro Vias, which is a crossroad point between Riohacha and Maicao, much closer to Maicao. There you get of and search for a "carro", a jeep that carries you with 15 other people on it to Uribia, a town 30 km further andf than to Cabo, 1 ,5 hours more through rough desert road. it´s very much worthed for the experience (a very different way of travelling, like being on a safari in the serengeti, except for the animals of course). Cabo itself isn´t all that it´s cracked up to be. It´s more a colombian family favorite than anything else, but Pilon de Azucar, which is 1 hour walk further is very nice. It´s green water at a desert setting. We slept in a cabana and paid 25000 for a room, after handling the price. All they have for dinner here is fish, but gooood fresh fish of course.
That´s it for our colombia-adventure, very sad to say so, but we are to go to venezuela, we have only one week left. The ride back was faster than the ride to Cabo. We changed at cuatro vias de nuevo, took another jeep to Maicao, 40 minutes further, took a taxi to the busstation (Maicao itself is absolutely horrible, as is any smuggler´s town) and instead of taking a bus to maracaibo, we took a venezuelan cab: The old 80´s oversized decaying american cars, venezuela is full of them, i love them! Everybody takes a cab like that, you pay 20000 pesos and you´re in maracaibo in 3 hours: easy. You only do customs at Paraguachon, which is very easy and quick, pass a million police controls (so have you passport at hand all times) and down to maracaibo. The city. or at least what we´ve seen of it, is the most ugly imaginable, but that´s because apparently they´re building an overland metro so half of the town is in works. the taxi dropped us at the busstation, where we took a very quick and easy bus to Coro (4,5 hours). Coro is a lovely colonial town, feels very cosy and at home, and The Venezuelans are freindly people. We stayed in Casa Tun Tun, hosted by a belgian couple, very good service, with free DVD´s, clean showers, free water and kitchen free for use. we loved it and it´s right next to the cathedral. next day we visited the medanos de Coro, a sahara-like national park, right out of town. It´s walkable from the center! we saw the sunset, walked back and got robbed! There we have it, all the stories we´ve heard about venezuela... it seems, even in such a tranquil town, a lot of it is true. 2 guys, 1 armed, came running up to us and snatched the bag off of us, We lost our camera but luckily ot my wallet because they ran off fast enough. We searched police, anke found a really friendly one helping us, i myself, when i ran back because i thought i saw them running again, faced a not so friendly cop pointing his rifle at me and ready to shoot. since i told him i got robbed he went back to the car and drove off without saying a word. it seems he was put off by the fact there was nothing to rob from me... hehe, we need to take care when we walk alone, especially after dark!
this day we leave for Parque Morrocoy and Chichiriviche, said to have beautiful sandy beaches, islands, corals and cays. a combination we already died for and are happy to die for again.
rob you later