sophie and james have ended up in SOUTH america...

We seem to be travelling in more or less complete ignorance of extreme weather disasters taking place across the continent, haphazardly arriving at new destinations with eyes averted from hurricanes and/or earthquakes. In fact, upon arrival at Caracas, the closest either of us came to being concerned about the hurricane taking place in the country was to babble about the ridiculously heavy rain delaying our flight.

I have to mention here that amidst the airport-wide yelling, crying, confusion and people demanding courtesy 500km taxi rides, the officials at our desk told us that there was no plane for us. When shouts immediately began about the plane that had been sitting outside our terminal for the past three hours, we were told: "Well, there is no crew". Ten minutes later, over 3 hours late, we took the invisible unmanned flight across to Margarita Island, couldn't get my card to work, couldn't pay our taxi driver, and were greeted by a security guard who had no idea who i was, a very locked door, and a broken intercom with my parents 9 storeys above us. We were in South America, and we were eventually bailed out by my mother running about in a swimsuit and sarong at midnight wondering where the hell we were.

The next week was nice and EASY. I hardly had to say a word in spanish, courtesy of my aunty Karina, and we didn't really do anything. At all. Except sun ourselves and eat, which of course we did in abundance.

A week later we took a ferry to the mainland and a bus to Ciudad Bolivar, where we found a nice hostel run by some Germans who served really bad food. Teamed with 3 days in Canaima on a trip to see Angel Falls, where the food was either chicken or egg with chicken or egg (i don't eat chicken), i reckon we have just about atoned for the sheer gustatory decadence of our holiday from our holiday now. It is a hard life, after all...

Anyway. Despite the direct negative correlation between the cost of a tour to the Falls and my enjoyment of it, i would reccommend that anyone sold a body part in order to be able to go. We flew (me with my eyes squeezed shut) by Cessna to the camp and took a four hour boat to watch a lot of water drop off a big rock, got wet, slept in hammocks, got cold, got the boat back, got wet and cold, went to another waterfall, walked behind it, got very very wet, dried off then went for a beer and got rained on. It was amazing. Hopefully the pictures speak for themselves.

The sun came out the next day...

Sapo Falls

Brown water. Good for the skin, apparently.

This morning we set off for Los Llanos, but have got as far as back into Ciudad Bolivar. The bus doesn't leave till the evening, hence the massive blog update. We both have high hopes for seeing some big snakes/ reptiles/ nasty things that bite once we get there, but judging by previous luck with excursions we might see a llama.