Vanquishing Venezuela, Trindidad and Tobago
December 1993/January 1994
December 11th - Lisbon, Portugal
We were flying with Air Portugal (or Air Mickey Mouse as we ended up calling them) to Caracus, Venezuela but had to stop over in Lisbon, Portugal for night. I had cycled through there Xmas 91, so I knew the setup and we got cheap digs in the centre of town. Very cold & foggy (as usual in the winter).
December 12th - 15th Macuto (coastal resort outside Caracus)
We flew on to Caracus the next afternoon and had an excellent 11 hour flight. Free booze and spacious seats. Fuel stop over at the Dominican Republic. Arriving in Caracus airport in the evening, we didn't bother to taxi to the city (an hour away in the mountains), but got a taxi 20 mins along the coast to Macuto - a seaside resort for the Caracus population. Great hotel with cable TV, air conditioning, pool - across the road from the sea. Town was scruffy, dirty, litter, holes in the road. Small beaches with broken glass. Huge trucks and cars rolled past (petrol was 7 cents a litre so everyone drove pickups and V8s) all day and night, honking horns. Graffiti on walls. Everyone wearing American Football shirts. There did'nt seem to be much culture. They just wanted to be Americans and had a tacky American culture.
Phones didn't work (it took 20 mins to get a connection to the airport). Very few spoke English and I had to rely on basic Spanish. We were able to use Por Puesos (minibus) to get around - a few cents per ride. Latin American music blared out everywhere. Not much western music. Food was excellent. Seafood. Steaks. Surf & Turf. Huge portions. Prices for hotel & meals was acceptable. I had read that Caracus was expensive. We holed up in Mercuto for 3 days with a marvellous backdrop of the mountains and wonderful temps of over 30 degrees. Very sunny. Paced the suntanning. I explored the area and found a travel agent at the Sheridon hotel ($110 a night and the water was cold we were told by a guest) who gave me all the info I needed to plan the rest of the trip.. Rather than spend days on buses, we decided to fly everywhere and save on time and comfort.
December 16/17th - Angel Falls
First trip was down to the jungles in the southeast of Venezuela to see Angel Falls - the longest waterfall in the world (1000 metres drop). It took 2 flights to get us into the jungle where there were cabins and a lagoon. American monopoly. They charged the earth so we could only stay one night and 2 days. ($210 for the trip). Lovely setting. Waterfalls. Swimming in the brown lagoon. Boat trip. We walked into the jungle to see the local Indians. Disappointing to find them wearing US Football shirts. At the outside restaurant, huge parrots (3 foot tails) came and ate off our plates.
The next morning we flew over the rainforests into the mountains to see Angel Falls. Mist everywhere. Only saw bottom of falls, but scenery was spectacular (where they filmed "The Land That Time Forgot"). Low flying over the jungle and rivers in clapped out old plane. throughly enjoyed it.
December 18th - 23rd - Merida, Andes
We flew back to Caracus and caught another plane straight to Merida in the Andes over in the west of Venezuela. Merida lies at 5000 ft. 200,000 pop. It seemed to have traffic gridlock every day. Tiny airport was in middle of town. We met a woman at the airport who had a hostel and we checked in for our stay. Merida is surrounded by the Andes and is famous for having the longest cable car in the world (13km) which takes you up to 15,000 ft. Inevitably it was shut down for repair (like the rest of the country).
We spent a week catching por puesos up into the mountains to explore Andean villages, watch the huge swooping condor birds, walking in the hills, hiring horses to climb up to lakes - we suffered from altitude problems - sore throats (and I had to ask for period pain pills in a chemist in Spanish - interesting experience - first he gave me "Deep Heat muscle relaxant"). We climbed to 13,000 feet. Soaring temps. Only a smattering of snow on the hills. We bought acres of pottery and had to carry them hand luggage on the plane (6 bags worth). Wonderful Andean steaks and trout (from local fish farms). We enjoyed the Andes so much, we ended up staying there a week, finally checking into a log cabin in the hills for the final days.
Flew back to Macuto for a day and left our luggage at the hotel in a store (a relief to leave the pottery and our "winter climbing gear" which we did'nt need in the Andes). Decided to leave a visit to Caracus city until the end. Not bothered.
December 23rd - Trinidad
We flew to Trindidad. Horrendous airport procedures to leave the country. And when we arrived they wouldn't let us in because we hadn't booked a hotel. We were trying to get Tobago but could only get a ticket to Trindidad from Venezuela. And it was near Xmas. Originally we were going to try and get a ferry, but we discovered that it didn't arrive until 9pm on Xmas eve in Tobago and we didn't know if anything would be open (it wasn't). Once we persuaded customs we were legal, we were told that if we turned up at 6am we might get a standby ticket to Tobago. Trinidad airport is half an hour from town and the taxis have a monopoly. It cost $40 each way and $25 for the hostel which we spent 5 hours at. Rip offs everywhere.
December 24th - 31st - Tobago
We were able to get a flight (15mins long) to Tobago and arrived at 7am. 50 feet outside the tiny airport terminal cows are grazing. They get about 6 planes a day. Luggage is passed from the plane through a hole in the wall. We walked 5 mins from the airport and found a self contained apartment with kitchen, bedroon, living room, and pool. $40 a night. We discovered later that the usual tourists were paying $200 a night for a room for the publicised hotel resorts (we were not sure we could afford Tobago until we got there). Set up for the holidays we stocked up at the local shop with food, beer and wine and headed for the beach a few minutes walk.
We spent Xmas Eve doing a boat trip over Buccoo Coral Reef, snorkelling, swimming and getting blitzed at a BBQ on a island. When we got dumped back on the mainland, we couldn't where we were staying and staggered through a mangrove swamp for an hour until I got my bearings! Xmas day. The island is deadly silent. Nothing open. Nothing running. Tobago is about 35 miles long and 20 wide. 116,000 pop. Ex English colony. So English the language. Reminded me of Fiji in many ways. We were staying in the south at Crown Point. We walked all day, swimming on the beaches, looking for something open. Hitching rides. Finally at 9pm we found a fish & chip shop open. Some Xmas dinner.
We explore other beaches and areas for a couple of days using buses. When people got on board they said goodmorning to everyone. Everyone was friendly. We moved up to the north to Charlottsville. A tiny fishing village. Lovely beaches with forested mountainous backdrop. A coastal enclave. Again we found self catering at $15 a night sharing facilities with another couple from Trinidad on honeymoon. They cooked us a traditional meal of fresh Kingfish caught off the coast. No traffic. A handful of tourists. We had the place to ourselves. After a day everyone knew who you were. Swimming, snorkelling. We caught a boat to an island to go trail walking and bird watching and then snorkelling. Huge angel & parrot fish everywhere and dozens of other species. I also climbed the highest mountain in Tobago - only 3000ft but I had to cut a path through the jungle and slashed my body on thorns everywhere.
I had helped the local fisherman to pull in the nets and one offered to take us out on a boat if we paid for gas. We set off at 7am and 4 lines dragged behind us. We trawled the coast for 7 hours, coasting with the waves one way and battering our way through them the other. Flying through the air as waves disappeared beneath us - then crashing back down to the sea. After 7 hours our arses hurt like hell and we hadn't caught a thing. But I had a wicked suntan. We ate fresh fish & chips most evenings. On our final night, a local group set up their oil drums on the pier and played all evening. We supplied the rum and they supplied the music. And then taught me how to play. It would have been a perfect New Years Eve except that it was the 30th.
We were flying out of Tobago on New Years Day and had to return to Crown point on New Years Eve to be sure of getting the plane. Checked into our apartment again. More surfing and snorkelling. New Years Eve. Most tourists had dos at their hotels so we just drank by the beach, ate fish & chips. Very quiet. But I felt I had already had mine the night before.
January 1st 1994
Catching a plane to Trinidad on New Years Day, we decided to try and avoid the taxi rides into the capital and opt to stay at the airport hotel. It still costs what it would have cost to get into town, stay and back. We console ourselves by visiting the local Bird Sanctuary to see the Scarlet Ibis (red storks) fly in to roost. We caught a boat into the swamps and see blue herons, ospray and numerous birds. About 8000 ibis flew in in flocks and settled in the same two trees. It looked like a Xmas tree as the sun sank overhead. Avoid Trinidad. Even the duty free has a new sales tax.
January 2nd
We had a 6.20am flight to Caracus. Por puesto back to the hotel in Macuto. Dump our bags. My camera and watch have disintergrated and my sneakers hang off my feet. We stuck our passports in our underwear, money in our shoes and caught a bus to Caracus. It was Sunday. There were miles of cars coming the other way to the coast. We had met two people so far that had been mugged at Caracus bus station in daylight) and lost everything. This made us feel much better for catching planes everywhere. We walked through the ugly centre and concluded that we were right in basing ourselves on the coast. No problems. But nothing to see really. The metro got us back to the bus stop and then back down to the coast, picked up the bags and headed for the airport.
We arrive 2 hours early at 3pm(you never know with South American airports) and we still didn't know what time we were leaving. Our tickets said 7pm. We were told 5pm. Check in. 5pm he says. Head for the bar. Use up currency. 5pm comes & goes. No call. Get another 6-pack in. 6pm - a hostess comes up and asks "Lisbon?" Yeah. "The plane leaves in 5 mins end of the terminal". Images of Bob running for the plane while downing four ice cold beers. I was still drinking them as I got on the plane. Couldn't sleep on the overnight. Lisbon 3 hour stop over. Then fly to Oporto and 3 hour stop. Then Heathrow. It had been 40hours since we woke up in Trinidad and flew to Tobago and been on the move ever since. All in all a great vacation. Venezuela much better than expected. Tobago - a real jewel. If you want a quiet holiday with no tourists and the sand, sea and snorkelling scene - get there. One of the cheaper Caribbean islands.
