Category: Venezuela 23/12-2011 – 6/1-2012 Page 1 of 2

Today was our last day at the island, which we spent snorkling. We were picked up at eight in the morning and after a 45 minutes drive we and (parts of, some of us are unluckily sick) the other Swedish family sailed out from the port with a pretty big sailing boat, maybe 40 feet, and its two captains. We sailed (with a little help from the motor) for maybe one and a half hour and it was all very relaxing – we sat at the deck in the sun drinking cold drinks while the boat slowly took us forward!

One and a half hour later we stopped near an island to go snorkling. The corals and the fishes were though not as impressing as in the Red Sea in Egypt where we snorkled last winter, but it was pretty good. After a while we ate lunch at the boat (and I think it was one of the best meals of our stay here in Venezuela, maybe because of that we sat in the back of a sailing boat surrounded by the perfectly blue sea and with the sun shining above us…), and after snorkling a little more we started to go back again. We were back at the hotel by 17.30, took a shower, started to pack, and then me, Olivia and dad ate dinner at the a la carte here at the hotel – our last dinner here in Venezuela, our next one will be at the flight Caracas-Frankfurt…

Tomorrow we’ll set the clock at 4.00 and then go to the airport here at Isla at 4.30, to take a flight to Caracas. At Caracas airport we’ll be waiting for ten hours for the plane that will leave in the afternoon and take us to Frankfurt, a ten hours and 45 minutes long flight. From Frankfurt we’ll take a flight to Gothenburg. Tomorrow will be a loooong day, travelling for over 24 hours…

//ALiCE med ICE

Today we woke up to the sound of the pouring rain, (and I break down as you walk away, Stay, stay!). Okay, that was just some lyrics from a song called Stay by Hurts. Never mind.

So, because of the rain we sat at our balcony until lunch when the sun showed again. So we ate lunch and took a swim in the pool at the hotel, and then we took a taxi in to the city Porlamar, the “capital” of Isla de Margarita. We walked around among the many stores that sold everything (but mostly clothes) and I bought a new pair of jeans. Lucky girl!

Now I’m talking to Pierre (only three nights more without you now!!) and in half an hour we’re going to eat dinner. Tomorrow is our last day here, and we’ll go snorkling in the beautiful sea, and then go to bed early since we’re leaving around three or four in the morning on Friday.

Hugs!

//ALiCE med ICE

Good evening sunshines!

The time is 18.22 in Venezuela and me and Olivia are sitting here at the Internet Café at the hotel as usual this time, and I’m talking to Pierre (miss you so f**cing much ♥), check Facebook and blogs, check my mail… And so on.

Today we’ve been to the surfing beach! Mark, Josefine, Bjorn and Erik tested wavesurfing yesterday and thought it was really fun, and thought me and Olivia should try it as well so we did. And I can tell you – it is REALLY difficult. In one and a half hour I managed to really stand up at a wave maybe three times. Though I wasn’t as good as Olivia were, and I didn’t had the patience… But it was fun to try and I can imagine why people love it so much. Those who like snowboarding, you should try! Or if you just like to get a one meter high wave in your face every other second and get salt water in your eyes and get a board in your head, then you should try it as well. No seriously, it was fun but really, really difficult and not really my thing, but I’m glad I’ve tried it 🙂

This is definitely not me, and the waves were definitely not that big, but this is real wavesurfing when someone who can surf is surfing.. 😉 Picture from Google.

The afternoon we spent by the pool at the hotel, drinking piña coladas and poco locos in the evening sun. When my Internet time is over (oh wonderful I’ve got 47 minutes left!) we’ll eat dinner and before that I’ll take a shower to shower away all the sand from the beach and inspect my burn from today, ’cause yes, I think I burned my thighs a bit today 🙁

//ALiCE med ICE

Today we took a taxi to another part of the island, and after a few clumsy attempts of trying to make the taxi driver understand that he would pick us up again at four and then be payed, he understood and gave us the 25 minutes ride to Playa Cariba without require money.

We were at the beach already somewhere after ten in the morning, so it was pretty empty with people which was nice. This beach was very good actually – it was much longer and wider than the beach at our hotel, there was not that much people (at least not in the morning) and the waves were a bit smaller. But sometimes they are about 1,5 meters high, so you don’t dare to go out in the water more than a few meters from the beach…

We ate lunch and drank piña coladas, sunbathed and made our skins a liiiittle more brown before we were picked up again at four, exactly as we decided, and the taxidriver got his money when he left us at our hotel again. Now I’ve got half an hour more with Internet, which I’m going to spend talking to Pierre, who I miss very, very much… ♥ Then I will take a shower and then it’s dinner at the á la carte restaurant at the hotel – you get really tired of the all inclusive food pretty fast.

Write again tomorrow!

//ALiCE med ICE

Today we wanted to test another beach so we took the “beach bus” (a bus that goes between our hotel and its sister-hotel by another beach) from the hotel and rode with that to another part of the island, a ride for about ten, fifteen minutes. When the bus stopped by the other beach, it suddenly started to rain (it does here sometimes, the sky just opens up and the rain falls down for a few minutes and then suddenly stops again and gives place for a hot sun again), and noone got out of the bus – noone wanted to get wet, and nor did we. And we also didn’t really know how it worked, if this really was the right stop, since it was the first time we did it.

When noone got off the bus, it started to drive again after a few minutes. I guess we thought it would just turn around or drive a bit more to let us out at another place, but after a few minutes we realised that the bus was going back to our own hotel, where we started and after a while we surely saw our own hotel outside the buswindow.

The strangest thing of all was though that when the bus stopped everyone got out and went back to our pool at this hotel. Wtf? Thought you were supposed to go to another beach? Well, we took the same ride again but this time we got off…

//ALiCE med ICE

Okay folks, now we’ve only got 355 days left to live (or actually 354 point something), so let’s make 2012 an awesome year – it is after all our last one since we’re supposed to die the 21st of december 2012…

Yesterday night was really fun, it got much more fun than I first thought it would be. We ate buffet at the hotel – as always the food always looks better than it tastes but it was pretty good. We’re travelling with another very nice and kind Swedish family from Stockholm – Bjorn, Josefin, Mark and Erik who are 21-26 years old and their parents, and during the night the young people asked me to join them after the countdown to 2012 and go into the city to test the Venezuelan nightlife. I said yes of course…

So after 24.00 when 2011 died and 2012 was borned, we drank champagne and danced and at 01.30 me, Bjorn, Mark, Erik and Josefin took a taxi from outside the hotel into the city. We came to the nightclub Bora Bora at two or something and spent two hours dancing and trying to recognize any song. Think we knew six songs during those two hours – the rest were Spanish music. But it was fun anyway and I didn’t got to bed until five o’clock in the morning but it was definitely worth it! 😉

Picture from google, but this is my first night club… and I definitely got a taste for it and I’m longing to turn 18 so I can go out legally 😉

//ALiCE med ICE

We spent the day in Bolivar with a guided tour, ate lunch at a fish restaurant (the fish tasted very fishy) and at the evening we flew to Isla Margarita – a flight that takes around one hour. We arrived at the hotel pretty late and me and Olivia got to bed at once.

Today it was so nice to eat breakfast at a breakfast buffet – to be able to eat what ever you want, how much you want and at what time you want. And it was nice to not have these eggs and these arepas to breakfast like we’ve got almost the whole journey. After breakfast we went straight to the beach and we’ve spent the whole day there, greedy to get as much sun on our winter white Swedish bodies as possible. But I’ve already got a bikini line! 🙂

Here it’s almost five in the afternoon and in Sweden it’s almost 22.30 – one and a half hour ’til New Year and I guess you’re partying at the most right now. Don’t get too drunk folks 😉 Here the hotel staff is fixing for the evening and my Internet time is soon over so I will go take a shower and fix makeup and hair and so on for tonight, New Year! We’re celebrating it five and a half hours later than you in Sweden so I’m wishig you all a happy new year here and now – Happy New Year from a warm Venezuela and hugs from me!

//ALiCE med ICE

We all woke up pretty early – it’s not that comfortable to sleep in a hangmata. We ate breakfast at 5.30 (eggs and arepas again) and left the falls early and were back at the camp/hotel in Canaima before lunch. After lunch and a few hours waiting (always this waiting) at the “airport” we finally got with a flight from Canaima. This airport is really a little open house next to the landing area, where women sell necklaces and bracelets, and the airplanes are small ones with five to thirty seats or something like that.

It was nice to be back at the hotel in Bolivar which felt really luxury after the night in the primitive camp by the Angel Falls. We spent the afternoon in the sun by the pool and ate a very preciated meal of pizza in the evening, full of amazing images of the powerfall Angel Falls!

Angel Falls, picture from Google

//ALiCE med ICE

We were supposed to eat breakfast at 7.30 but it was at eight – this Venezuelan definition of time again. We were also supposed to leave for Angel Falls – the highest waterfall in the whole world – at nine but we left the lagoon at 10.30. The four hours boatride to the Angel Falls was dramatic – it was like Flumride or Colorado in Liseberg but ten times worse (or better?) – water that wet you down every time we drove up one “step” in the river, stones and sticks from the trees that the “captain”  skilfully avoided and lots of “steps” in the river to drive up through. The heart pounded pretty fast at those “steps”, boy it did.

When we finally got to Angel Falls we started to climb the long way up at once, because we wanted to be back at the camp before it was dark. Our local guide told us the climb would take one and a half hour, but we started at 14.45 and we marched over the roots and up the mountain in a high speed so we were at the view point 40 minutes later – totally wet of sweat but stunned by the breathtaking sight up over the highest waterfall in the world. It’s not that wide but it’s very high – almost one km high. After a little rest at the viewpoint we climbed up a little bit more to take a swim right where all the water from the fall lands, in a little “bowl” filled with cold water from the Angel Fall. Pretty cool to have swimmed in the water of the highest waterfall in the world, isn’t it?

We spent the evening playing cards with another Swedish family and slept in hangmatas – we slept around twenty persons in under a roof with open walls to the dark djungle and fell asleep to the sound of the water from Angel Falls, wind in the trees, birds and other sounds from undefinitioned animals.

//ALiCE med ICE