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Whitneys on Tour
We arrived at this Brazillian border town after a 14 1/2 hour bus ride from Ciudad Bolivar, fresh from being robbed (see the Angel Falls write up). This was another in our awful bus journies list as this one was peppered with military check points which means members of the military coming on board and checking your passports etc. On this one they excelled themselves with four seperate stops including a 4am one which involved leaving the bus, getting our luggage from the hold and taking it to the checkpoint to be examined. The buggars even made us take our clothes out then re-pack. The reason we've heard for all these checkpoints is that Venezuela, not surprisingly is a major trafficking country for cocaine and the road south to Santa Elena into Brazil is just about the worlds most notorious and busy road for smuggling the stuff. We heard some stories featuring the worlds dumbest travellers who were caught with around 10kg of coke on their body on the border and who will get around 10 years in jail for their troubles. Given these tales we found it surprising that sniffer dogs weren't used at the checkpoints and endless passport checks seem a little pointless.
Santa Elena is a typically scruffy Venezuelan town but we felt safe enough here. The main attraction in these parts is a 6 day trek up a tepuis (flat topped) mountain called Roraima which we didn't have time for so instead we opted for a 2 day trip around the local region, known as the Gran Sabana. This trip was superb, a real unexpected bonus. It mainly featured waterfalls, eight of them al told, six of them which we could swim in, all georgeous. We also enjoyed superb views of Roraima and surrounding tepuis and visited a couple of Indian villages, spending the night in one of them. The traditional soup we were served as dinner was decent enough although the accomodation was less so, the most basic we've had on the trip so far and Stuart had the pleasure of removing a giant beetle from our room before we went to bed! Nevertheless is didn't detract from our enjoyment of the tour and it ensured we left Venezuela on a high.
There was just just the both of us on this trip plus our guide, Roberto who was was a great guy and highly informative and interesting to listen too. He was obviously proud of his country and painted a very different picture of President Hugo Chavez from the despot as portrayed by the USA in particular. You can understand why Venezuelans would vote for him given the circumstances. They are rich in natural resources, are the worlds 4th largest oil producer yet 90% of the people live in poverty. Why wouldn't a poor Venezuelan want a socialist in power as capitalism clearly hadn't done them any good in the decades since oil was discovered. Listening to Roberto it was clear Chavez had done much good in improving education and living standards for the poor and recognising the rights of the Indians.
We crossed the border back into Brazil on the 15th having had 3 1/2 weeks in Venezuela. We've had some real lows here, getting robbed obviously, grubby towns (and we didn't even bother with Caracus!) the hassle with ATM's and getting money , the excessive pollution and military checkpoints not to mention the lack of fresh food (Stuarts waistline has suffered accordingly) and as for those horrendous mosquitos aaaaaaaarrrgh! However, we wouldn't hesitate to recommend it as a place to visit. It's an amazing place for outdoor activities and we managed some superb trips yet for reasons of money and time couldn't make two of the most highly recommended places Roraima (mentioned above) and Los Roques, an awesome collection of beach islands off the Caribbean coast so there's much to do here. You have to accept it's rougher edges and appreciate that it doesn't have the tourist infrastructure of say Brazil or Argentina but many would say thats a good thing. There also has to be something said for a country where beer is 30p a bottle (see earlier comments about waistline). Finally, you certainly aren't overwhelmed by tourists here, they only had one million of them last year!
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