The Good Photos

The aspiring photographer on the Venezuela trip, Antoine, has uploaded his photos. They are amazing. Check them out here.

And here's a few to whet your appetites:

Venezuelan Top 10

More stories from Venezuela, in no particular order:

1. One of the most amazing sights: Our last night in the Gran Sabana, after trekking down the mountain, we slept in this field covered in fireflies. It was as though tiny Christmas lights had been strewn across the ground as far as the eye could see and were blinking on & off. Even when we went to bed, you could still see the fireflies lighting up through the wall of the tent. So beautiful.

2. Spending 2 days living in the clouds - couldn't see so far, except in the brief moments when the skies would clear, but was still an amazing feeling.

3. Lots and lots of waterfalls & rainbows.

4. Drinking coconuts on the side of the road.

5. Rice, roast chicken, "piquant" sauce made from ants, and Malta in a village

6. New Years Eve in Puerto La Cruz: Monica's mom pretty much cooked a feast. People just buy fireworks from stands on the side of the road and set them off all night. Only these are the good fireworks - giant umbrellas of gold that hang in the sky, bright white flashes with loud cannon-like blasts, bursts of pink balls, from which more bursts of pink balls shoot out from. And it covers the entire city. Everyone sets off their own fireworks, and as the time grows closer to midnight, the skyline becomes a frenzy of massive fireworks in all directions.

7. Catching a wooden boat-taxi with an outboard motor to an island with a beach for the afternoon. Relaxing, reading a novel, swimming, an excellent fish & plantain lunch, and watching sunset on the oil tankers (actually quite beautiful).

8. Hotdogs with "the works" in another village on our epic ride back.

9. A major education on the history of South America, Venezuela, and it's current political atmosphere (3 hours a day of Chavez on the tv & radio, slogans saying something like "patriotic socialism or death", drug trafficking check-points, freezes on bank accounts, all very interesting).

10. A week-long adventure with some new, excellent friends.

Venezuelan rollercoaster trip

So this trip had some major ups and downs. Here's the e-mail I sent back to my family upon my arrival at Monica's:

Hey all,

I am in Venezuela, and all is well except that I suspect that my checked luggage is still in Miami. It´s kind of a bummer, as my tent and sleeping bag were in there, but I was wearing my hiking boots, and had a blanket and layers and a rain poncho and Nalgene and malaria meds in my carry-on, so I´m actually in pretty good shape considering. We reckon we can fit 3 people in one of the tents here, and borrow a sleeping bag off someone, and I´m good to go. We did a super express shopping spree as soon as I arrived, as it was 5pm on NYE, and everything was closing. First stop was to get a bathing suit, as that was apparently the most important thing I lost. Underwear, socks and such followed. I can borrow some other clothes off the other girls here.

Ok, so we may have a mobile while hiking, the # ---. Not sure if we'll have reception though.

K, that's it for now. Laters,

Things improved after that. So the point of this trip was to go hike up Mt. Roraima, which we did. It was amazing.

So here are Ariane & Monica after about 20 min of hiking:

And Antoine & Julien fixing their packs outside the hut with satellite tv:

And some amazing photos from the hike:

Mt. Roraima:


There are a bunch more photos if you're interested here.

The other downers on the trip were that a bee stung me on the inside of my mouth when we were at the beach on the second last day, and I was robbed by the police in Caracas. Tough country. But the beach was still great, and as I'm not allergic to bee stings, I'm still alive. Also, Monica's mom is an amazing cook, and New Years in Puerto La Cruz was fun and interesting. And I got to brush up on my French. All in all, a great trip.