After Angel Falls
it was time to pick up the pace a little, but first a detour along the
Caribbean coastline. We are hanging out for some beaches.
We leave Cuidad
Bolivar after a short stop to explore the old city, and then head across the
flat countryside. There is a lot of logging & cattle farms. We head to
Venezuela’s famous caves – Cueva del Guacharo. Catch a tour, all in Spanish,
and wade through mud & bird poop, with lots of little rats running around.
Glad to wash the mud off my feet when we get out 2 hrs later.
Now for the beach!
Our first glimpse is not very impressive. Long stretches of slurpy water &
rubbish. Eventually we reach Playa Medina. Wow – it exceeds expectations! It is
seriously gorgeous. There is no camping allowed, so we ask at the Posada. Yes
we can stay but just outside his gate for free. Then we head on to the even
more (if possible) Playa Pui Pui. We have it nearly to ourselves if you ignore
the village down the other end. It was worth the windy narrow road through lush
jungle & villages. The locals are drying cacao seeds on the road, so there
is more to dodge than potholes. When we leave we stop in at an old Cacao Hacienda
to get a tour (in English) of the whole process from tree to yummy chocolate –
samples included in the price. Then on to our next destination –Peninsula de
Araya.
It is getting late
and we see some lovely spots on the beach we would normally have no hesitation
to camp at, but here in Venezuela we have been extra cautious because of the
bad reputation of the country and the locals constantly warning us. We finally
find a spot hidden off the road beside a substation. The road has been pretty
disgusting, so when we reach the end of the peninsula we are relieved to see
that there is definitely is a ferry across to the mainland. Enough time to
explore the enormous Spanish fort & have a quick swim in the aqua waters
before we see the ferry heading into port. We race to join the queue, but
departure is delayed by 4 hours. They won’t leave until it is totally full. In
the meantime we chat to a lovely young Venezuelan couple and find out many
interesting facts about life in Venezuela.
We had planned to
stop in the city of Camana for internet, but with the ferry delays we decide we
should get along the coast to our campspot at Playa Colorado as suggested in
Nessies Travel Blog (Thank you Nessie). We pass through the lovely Parque
Nacional Mochima, with its lush foliage, coconut fringed beaches & many
islands. We are too tall for the suggested posada, but find Sonia’s Posada just
down the road. A lovely grassy spot to camp behind a secure fence for a few
dollars.
We want to bypass
the huge city of Caracas. Everyone (even the locals) have warned us about
Caracas, but there is no ring road. The motorway goes right through the middle.
The GPS map we have is pretty useless so we are following signs. I see what I
think is our turn off & we end up in the centre of the city in rush hour.
Not the best scenario. Police directions prove useless & we retrace our
steps a few times – not so easy in this crazy traffic. Finally, when we are
sitting in yet another queue of traffic, John winds down his window & asks
the guy in the next car “Where is the Autopista to Maracay?” Amazingly he says
“Follow me”, which we do for the next 40 minutes. He leads us on a windy hilly
drive through lots of side streets, ducking & diving through traffic (not
so easy in GR2). Eventually he pulls over and points ahead. “Go down there. It
enters the Autopista. DONOT turn off” Phew! Thank you Gabriel.
Now all we have to
do is look for a spot to stop. We finally find a secure spot beside a
restaurant/petrol station with a guard. In the morning we wake surrounded by
security guards with massive guns. It looks as if we are in the middle of a
heist. One of the money trucks has a flat tyre and all the guards are paranoid.
Our next detour is
to one of the Lonely Planet’s must do’s. A visit to the Henry Pittier Nacional
Parque. It is a 55km drive – but takes over 2 hours on a narrow (single lane in
lots of places), windy track. The traffic we meet is amazing. Not just cars,
but buses & trucks. It is a very stressful drive, with lots of watching the
road for oncoming vehicles & potholes.
We wind our way up through rain forest, & then down through thatched
villages. Finally we pop out into the narrow streets of colonial Choroni, &
then onto the rather grotty port of Puerto Colombia. It has a rocky beach,
& lots of boats. We walk to the lovely Playa, but there are heaps of
people, & worse still heaps of rubbish. There is nowhere exciting to camp
so we decide to bite the bullet and drive back out. Surely there will be less
traffic now! But no. If anything there is more, so it is another tense, edge of
the seat 2 hours. Was the Parque worth it. Not for us!!
Again back in town
at dusk. Another Nessie suggestion is Hotel Militar (an army base area) We ask
if we can stay, and yes we can. Full guard tonight & as a bonus a full tour
of the premises & dinner in the mess thrown in.
Our next city is
Valencia. The Autopista heads right through it. No way do we detour it. Oh my
goodness you should see all the shopping centres – all packed of course.
Christmas shopping I do not miss at all!) On to our last seaside destination –
Peninsula de Paraguana. There are some gorgeous sanddunes & then flat
barren land. We head to Punta Fijo to see the duty free zone. Actually not very
exciting, but the bonus is that we find a shop selling Garmin GPS & we get
maps for Venezuela, Colombia & Ecuador loaded onto our GPS. We overnight at
Bambuda Posada & get Wifi. Again the beaches were not worth the detour –
flat, straight & strewn with rubbish.
Our last stop is
the lovely colonial city of Coro, with it’s gorgeous old centre, practically
deserted, making it an easy visit. It is time to head to the border. As we get
nearer there are even more military checkpoints. Very rarely do we get stopped.
There are lots of toll booths, but these are all free. Most are unmanned, but
some trucks have to pay at. We fill up with fuel as we probably won’t be able
to any nearer the border. We decide to
get through the last city of Maracaibo to be nearer the border. It takes ages.
There are queues of traffic everywhere. Some caused by the military shrinking
us from 4 lanes to 1, & some by cars queuing to get into shopping centres.
It is dark by the time we find a spot behind a military checkpoint. We are up
& away by 6.30am – only 80km left to the border. This takes all of 3 hours.
Why? Crazy, crazy traffic! It is only a 2 lane road & when all the traffic
comes to a stop the cars/trucks/buses/whatever behind us decide to overtake on
the oncoming side. Guess what happens when they meet oncoming traffic. They
push into our lane, move onto the grass or there is complete gridlock. This
happens both ways over & over & over again. Absolute chaos!
I am starting to
wonder exactly what the border will be like. John is convinced it will be OK,
but I am right. Chaos reigns. No carpark areas, crazy streams of traffic &
people everywhere. Three hours later we
emerge with all the stamps in our passports & a Temp Vehicle Import License
for Colombia. ) but no insurance – our policy doesn’t cover Colombia & the
lady in the insurance office has run out of paper) The very helpful guy who
showed us what to do said maybe they won’t notice, and sure enough they didn’t.
But guess what. The police at our first checkpoint did. So in the next town we
stop to get it, but we don’t have enough money. John heads off on a mototaxi to
get some. Finally we are free in Colombia.
We head to another
of Nessies GPS points to a gorgeous campground “Casa Grande” near Nat Pk
Natural Tayrona. What a lovely spot right on a gorgeous sandy beach. A bit of
R&R is needed after that border.
Coming next: Feliz
Navidad
