Wasn't exactly sure what to expect when entering Venezuela after so many people telling us not to travel there! On the ferry we met a couple from England Sam and Chloe who had started the travels amongst the Caribbean Islands and were working there way across to Colombia as were Harry and I, We got along quite well, spending a long time talking whilst we waited for customs to arrive at the Venezuelan boarder, we waited almost a hour it was a joke, they just ran on there own time. Sam, Chloe, Harry and I all decided to group up and go together to a town called Puerto la Cruz, little did we realise how much of a hassle it was to get to.
This was the crazy woman that was meant to be Venezuelan Immigration, it was a joke. She couldn't even talk !!!
After departing the ferry and clearing customs, which was a complete waste of time with them not even looking at our bags anyway, we changed some US dollars with some people standing around were the ferry docked was, We were told to bring a lot of US dollars in because you can trade it for the local currency on the black market and get a lot more for your money, we just didn't realise how much. Basically the local currency official rate is $1 US = 6 Bs but on the black market rate we were getting 8.5 times more $1 US = 54 Bs, Things have been absolutely ridiculously cheap. We left the dock in the back of and old beaten up truck taxi after being told "don't walk down that street" with the guy imitating someone being beheaded, my heart sunk a little. We took the truck to the centre of Guiria, where we got another taxi that drove us 3 hours for $2 each to a bigger town, where we then caught a coach for 5 hours to transfer at another town. One more bus ride of 4 hours got us to Puerto la Cruz at midnight, which was the last thing i wanted, walking around in the middle of the night in a crazy country with my camera, passport bank cards and all my cash. Lucky this taxi driver warned us and said "don't walk around outside of the bus terminal" holding his hand to his head in a gun shaped figure, he drove us to a hotel that Sam had read about in his book. Of course the reception was closed, the taxi drive took us to another hotel that was open, it turned out to be a 4.5 star hotel with a pool, buffet breakfast and right in the centre of everything all for $6 each a night. It's actually sad the countries money crisis is so messed up, but i guess it means we get to save a bit of money.
Our whole plan from Puerto la Cruz was to catch the ferry across to the island called Isla Margareta (know as the pearl of the Caribbean) but there was some big problem with the ferry system, they were filling like crazy and it was to hard to get tickets, we tried for days in a row, one of the days it almost being a small riot, with the locals screaming and bashing on the booth window demanding tickets, the young girls working behind the desk were just in shock not knowing what to do. We lined for hours and hours those day not knowing what to do or how to get there, we couldn't get answers from anyone, one of the days we got a taxi to a near by beach,
after all the chaos the previous days wasting time at the ferry terminal, this was
exactly what we needed. We decided to go out this night to a few clubs in the super wealthy part of town, it was so much fun we were all dancing a having fun with the locals,
It was as if we were in a club at home the locals were super friendly and obviously had money because our big cocktails everyone was drinking were 250Bs and that was $5 for us at the black market rate so that meant they were paying the equivalent of $40 for a drink which is just insane. We were out until around 5 or 6 am then got a taxi back to the hotel. The next day was tough we packed our bags hung over and went for one last try at the ferry terminal, this was now the 4th day we had wasted there. We lined there again for hours just for the same thing to happen again, we were hung over not in the mood and right there and then we said "what are we going to do" i just randomly said lets go to Angel Falls" and we kinda looked at each other and just laughed, we weren't exactly thinking clear with a hang over. We literally agreed and walked out of the ferry terminal and jumped in a cab, went to the bus terminal and within 25 mins we were on a bus to Ciudad Bolivar where they run the tours from to Canima National Park ( Angel Falls )
This is the only photo i took in the first week, didn't really feel safe taking my camera out anywhere there..
Puerto la Cruz
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