Hi there!

Tomorrow at 5 p.m. we will be taking the plane back home. From Caracas to Madrid, and from Madrid to Brussels. If all goes well –usually we are not very lucky with flight schedules, we will be arriving in Brussels on Sunday a bit before noon.

I expect us to be a little numb upon arrival, as to us it will seem as if it was 6 in the morning. On top of not being reputed as morning people, six hours will be cut out of our night’s sleep (in an Iberia plane, with a lay-over of three hours in Madrid). Oh boy, oh boy.

During our last days of our sabbatical Laurent has bought a supply of CDs, I have bought a handbag (off course) and had a typical South American manicure and pedicure.

Tonight we will have our last supper and then... it will be over...

 

Heleen

Dear friends,

We are spending the last days of our trip in South America at the Carribean beaches of Venezuela – could be worse.
First we went to Choroni, a small fishermen’s village with a beautiful beach. During the day we relaxed from a year of hard travel and in the evenings we dined with an English musician, a Belgian historian, an Israeli student and a German banker.

To get from Choroni to Chichiriviche we had to take three different busses, and the ticket salesman of the 3rd bus made us pay more than double the normal price. When I found out I thought it was time for a tantrum. What? Ripping us off in the last week of our travel? I warned Laurent of what was coming and went up to the front of the bus, where the ladron was seated. I did not want my money back, I just wanted to get rid of my frustration. I told him that it was very ugly to rob tourists and that Simon Bolivar would be very ashamed of people like him. The only thing I regret is that the engines of the bus were so noisy that the people in the back could not hear me. I hope that the ticket salesman will think another time before he ripps off silly gringos and that the 18.000 bolivars were not worth the embarassment.

Now we are in Chichiriviche were we are staying with Michael, Maria-Luisa, their parents and great aunt and are again relaxing and sunbathing.

The beaches here are absolutely beautiful, I wished we could stay longer.

But we are also looking forward to seeing ou family and friends in a week’s time.

See you soon!


Heleen

Dear all,

After a few days in the Paradise of Tayrona Park we headed back to Santa Marta, the first town founded by the conquistadores in Colombia in 1525.

Hot, hot Santa Marta

Santa Marta is an unfeasibly hot town, but we stayed here a few days with our Colombian friend Clara who is a university professor and had a fantastic time.  We chatted for hours about the beauties and pitfalls of Colombia, visited the wonderful old city and the ‘hacienda’ where ‘El Libertador’ (Bolivar) died, got a haircut  (short again…), walked around the coast when the sun was not too overwhelming and went shopping…. And yes (even if the purpose of the shopping was rather souvenir hunting) my dear wife was not forgotten and received already a silver necklace and earrings as an early 30th birthday present...

Clara’s hospitality was – like all the guest families we stayed with in South America – unforgettable and we could have stayed there forever.  Unfortunately, time was an issue since we already stepped into the last weeks of our travels. Therefore, we decided to move on to Cartagena, our last stop in Colombia before heading back to Venezuela.

Postcards from colourful Cartagena

Cartagena is only about 4 hours travelling south-east from Santa Marta. So, this time no need of freezing nightmare night busses. Cartagena is one of the most interesting and beautiful cities I ever saw.  It combines a splendid colonial architecture with a mix of Caribbean / indigenous culture and a large backpackers’ community.  This, further combined with beautiful and great people, splendid (if very hot) weather, blue sea, nice music, food and cocktails leads to the fact that Cartagena has to be one of the most enjoyable places on earth…

As Cartagena was a crucial storage point and port for Spain, the old city was built as a fortress and was almost impossible to seize. Therefore the city conserved some of the finest colonial buildings in South America. On every corner lay a postcard picture opportunity and (with my acquired photographic eye) I took all advantage of this. Have a look yourself on our website…

Heleen’s mud birthday, seasoned with Sushi and lots of Cuba Libre

Heleen, for her birthday wanted to … take a mud bath in an active volcano nearby Cartegena!!! I would have chosen rather different things for my birthday, but yeh since it was her birthday even I had to be able to join her in that kind of ‘enjoyable’ things. In the end, I have to admit that this wasn’t that bad. We floated in a small volcano crater filled with mud that bubbled strangely while we received a kind of ‘massage’ (call it painful hitting). It was quite impossible to move without swallowing a mouthful of mud, but we were told that it was `bueno por la salud’ and after all… Heleen seemed to enjoy it. I did not mind to leave the mud bath as I was grabbed by local beauties and stripped down to the Adam’s costume to be washed in the river. Since I saw that the others got the same treatment, even those with the Eva thing, I did not think more of it and let it be.

In the evening we went for a walk in the city, ate sushi with a bottle of tasty Sauternes and had an improvised Cuba Libre party at the hostel (Casa Vienna). In the end, quite a bunch of travellers joined us and we even ended up having live music with a group of Argentinean guys who treated us with a small concert. When we were thrown out by the night watch, who had apparently endured enough of our ‘lovely’ recitals, the ‘fiesta’ did not end and we headed to a local pub. To be honest, further on we don’t really remember all the details of it, but after a few hours of sleep everybody agreed that it had been a great party.

Yesterday, we took a flight from Cartagena, over Bogota, back to Caracas (Venezuela). Yeh, this time we FLEW . I guess, we’re becoming a bit lazy and also wanted to avoid all the luggage searches at the uncountable checkpoints…
After a plane breakdown, hours of delay, and several thorough questionings, searches through all of our backpacks and luggage (even smelling at our CDs) in Cartegena, Bogota and Caracas – we finally arrived exhausted in the middle of the night at Michael’s apartment (our Hilton).

We will stay in Caracas over the weekend and then end our travels in beauty with a few days of sunbathing at the beaches of the Morocoy National Park.

Have fun,

Lorenzo (soon Laurent again…)

Dear all,

I just want to let you know that I had a splendid 30th birthday yesterday. Today I am recovering.

During the day Laurent and I went to a mud volcano which is 2300 meter deep and filled to the top with warm grey sulphurous mud in which we floated for about an hour. We got a massage and enjoyed the weird feeling that floating on a 2300 meter deep mud volcano provokes.

In the evening we had delicious sushi in the old center of Cartagena – I am getting pretty good with chop sticks by now – and bought a big bottle of rum  on the way back to our hostel where we had a party with a bunch of American, Argentinean, Australian, English, Israelean, Polish and Scottish backpackers. Some of them had really strange names like Fish, Steak, Odd, Now… Well, the last two names are from Israelis, perhaps the spelling is slightly different.
One Israeli and two Argentinean guys formed a live band for the occasion of my birthday – I was so honoured! But then the night guard started his duty and from the moment he arrived at 10 o’clock he reminded us every 10 minutes that he was going to kick us out at midnight. Night guards are not recruited on the basis of their sense of humour and their party potential and their duty is to maintain peace and order at the time that people want to party.
A bit after midnight we left the hostel looking for a club that was open on a Tuesday night and we found plenty, but they were all empty. So we chose the one with whom we could negotiate the best price for Cuba Libre and had the place to ourselves.     We danced and laughed a lot but by 2.30 a.m. I had reached my limit and had to go to bed.

Laurent is going to tell you later a bit more about Santa Marta and Cartagena, but right now he is chilling out. Maybe tomorrow. Mañana.

Cheers!

Heleen

Hi there!

Now we are in Colombia and we love it!
Originally Colombia was not in our itinerary because of the 40.000 kidnappings per year. Also the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that Colombia is not a holiday country and they advise to travel only by plane, not to visit National Parks or isolated areas and not to talk to strangers (sic). So far we have ignored all of it, but we are very careful (as always).

While traveling in South America we met so many daredevils  that were so enthusiastic about this country that we decided to come and have a look; we found beautiful beaches, helpful people, delicious fruit juices... what more does a backpacker in his last weeks of travel need?

Crossing borders: a hell of a job...
To tell the truth, crossing the border from Venezuela to Colombia was quite an adventure. When we arrived in Maracaibo after an 8-hour bus ride from Mérida, we wanted to take the bus to Cartagena in Colombia. However the lack of forward planning on behalf of the bus companies regarding the Semana Santa made that all buses were fully booked for the next 7 days.
As Maracaibo is the oil capital of Venezuela, we did not really want to sit and wait around for a week in this superhot place where there is absolutely nothing to do. Then we were approached by a guy who said that he was driving to Colombia “ahorita” and that we could ride with him until the first town in Colombia for 100 USD. A rip-off, so we denied. A couple of other guys proposed us to go by taxi for the same price. As there was no other way to get to Colombia that afternoon, we made a deal to go by taxi for 30 USD as the only two passengers. We were escorted by the group of other guys to the driver, where we were asked to pay up front. I did not want to pay up front, but Laurent said that there was no other way, so after a little fight  between the two of us, the taxi driver finally got his money.
He brought us to his car and made us wait for 40 minutes for his son that was going to accompany us. His son turned out to be three adults with a child. What a rip-off! And I haven’t told you about the condition of the car yet! I was sitting in the back squeezed between Laurent and a fat guy, so that my feet were resting in the middle, right above the exhaust pipe which was getting hotter and hotter. If I would have touched the metal with my bare skin, it would certainly have left burn marks. And then if you looked down, you could see the street passing under your feet.
All the way to Colombia soldiers made us show them our passports and asked us silly questions about our travel motives. Honestly, do they really expect that bad guys are going to tell the truth? Still unhappy about having paid our taxi driver up front, I was giving quite ironic answers  to “What were you doing in Mérida?” (“Parapente.”). Laurent told me that it was not the time nor the place for jokes and that the military did not share my sense of humour.
Somewhere near the border, we were given over to another driver who was to bring us to Macao. That was not part of the deal, but we had already paid, hadn’t we.
Again patrollers asked for our documents and expected a “tip”. We misunderstood and gave nothing. At the Venezuelan customs we paid 25 USD exit tax, and then finally entered Colombia. Some 30 minutes later we arrived at our hotel in Macao, the border town that is famous for its cartels and drug trafficking. Our guidebook advises not to walk in the streets after 4 p.m., but as we only arrived at 7 p.m. without having eaten all day, we had to venture into town in order to get some food and some Colombian pesos.

The next day we took a chicken bus (with a lot of chickens, really) to Santa Marta and went straight to the fisher town Taganga. Because it was Semana Santa it was more crowded than usual and we had to share a room with two antisocial Israeli girls.
We enjoyed the beach and the snorkeling that Taganga has to offer and I went diving and delighted in the crystal clear sea water and the beautiful reef with its corals, starfish, sea urchins, lobsters and numerous of tropical fish - amongst the famous Club Brugge fish. It was great to swim in the middle of a group of fish and to discover again such a wide variety of sealife.

A few days in paradise
Because we found Taganga a little too crowded - because of Semana Santa - we only stayed two nights and then went to the National Park Tayrona.
We arrived at the Park entrance and took a jeep until the point where you have to start walking. It was a very hot day and our backpacks were as usual to heavily packed with clothes that we were not going to wear anyway. Whatever, we arrived at the first camping and saw that we were not the only people who had thought of coming here. After a snack and some drinks in the camping’s restaurant we pulled all our strength together and decided to walk another 45 minutes through the jungle to the next camping zone. On our path we crossed lizards, exotic butterflies and caravans of leafcutter ants. As a background sound we heard the whistling birds and the noise of the nearby sea.
Our efforts were generously rewarded when we walked out of the jungle and arrived at a paradise beach with coconut trees, white sand and light blue water. Moreover, because it was such a hot day, not many people had had the courage to walk the extra mile, so our paradise was nearly deserted.

Bumping into an old friend
At night we hung up our hammocks in a hut on the beach and before going to bed we made a little camp fire in front of our hut with our new Basque friends Vanesa and Igor.
The next day we continued our exploration and found more splendid nearly empty beaches.  When we returned to our campsite near the evening Laurent saw a guy that we had met before, but he could not quite place him. When I saw him I knew it immediately: Roland from Switzerland with whom we have been partying in Baños, some 10 months ago. Roland and his girlfriend Sophie (who arrived in South America in August) have to go home soon as well, so we made a camp fire on the beach and drank Cuba Libre to swallow our common depression.

Short hair... again
Now we are in Santa Marta, the city where in 1830 Simon Bolivar died from tuberculosis, at the age of 47 and penniless. His dream of Gran Colombia shattered here.
Clara, a university teacher, has taken us under her roof and she is taken very good care of us.
It is very hot in this city,  so we both had a haircut. The hairdresser we went to was a bit ambitious concerning Lorenzo’s hair, with the result that it is now nearly as short as when we arrived in Quito last year. Oh well, we have pictures of his long hair.

In the next days we are traveling to Cartagena and then we will head back to Venezuela, where we will spend some more time at the Caribbean beach.

Take care,

Heleen

Hi there! We just returned from a safari in Los Llanos, the flat plains of Venezuela, one of the best places in the world to see birds and animals.                Los Llanos Los Llanos -300.000 sq km- take up one third of Venezuela’s surface and have similar characteristics as Las Pampas in Argentina and the Pantanal in Brazil; here and there you find small forests and swamps full of wildlife and in between them there are grass lands as far as eye can see on which cattle are grazing or laying under a tree to protect themselves from the heat of the sun. In the rainy season the grass lands are completely flooded and consequently the resident animals have to look in deep water for food and cattle are driven by the llaneros into the neighbouring hills or from one mesa (a slight upthrust of the land) to another. Nearly 80% of the Venezuela’s cattle are in this region, but only 10% of the human population. We visited Los Llanos with a not-very-professional tour agency (Gravity) from Merida and were accompanied by Christina, an American backpacker, Hildebrando, our funny driver and Junior, our guide. As our campamiento in Los Llanos is 950 km away from Merida, it took us a day and a half to get there by jeep . The roads are in very bad condition and in order to repair them there are road works every 10 km. It was very hot in the car  and we could buy cold drinks only sporadically, so we were obliged to satisfy our thirst with warm water. We were really craving for a really cold Coca-Cola and when we arrived at the camp we discovered that there was no fridge – and no Coca-Cola or beer, just warm water. Now is the end of the dry season, which is the best time to see animals. On our trip we saw plenty of alligators, otters, birds, turtles and liguanas. We also saw two capybara families; these animals are the world’s biggest rodents and look like giant guinea pigs. Furthermore our guide caught an anaconda  and put it on my and Christina’s neck – something all tourists must undergo – and we saw two wild ant eaters on our horse riding trip in the late afternoon, just before sunset. On the second morning we went fishing for piranhas that we ate for dinner that evening . Laurent caught two meat eating fish and I one. While fishing we also saw a couple of river dolphins that were passing by. Piranhas are not aggressive, but they can smell blood from 1 km distance, and for them this means that dinner is ready. They would never attack a non-bleeding animal or human being, but if have the smallest bleeding wound and you are swimming in their river, they will eat you to the bones. Our guide told us that some 30 years ago the waters of Los Llanos were overcrowded with piranhas so that food for them was so scarce that it was dangerous for cows to drink from the puddles in the regions. In order to cure this problem Venezuela imported an African fish that is a predator for piranhas with positive results. Today there are a lot less piranhas than 3 or 4 years ago, when every tourist caught at least 10 fish in half an hour (with compliments to Den Directeur ). Vampire While visiting another camp on our search for cold beer or Coke we met a domesticated ant eater and a domesticated monkey. The ant eater needed a lot of affection whilst the monkey, Couscous, was hyperactive. Couscous  was jumping on everybody and was trying to steal Laurent’s camera, cigarette and beer. When rum was being poured, Couscous held his hand under the bottle and licked his fingers. Couscous was very fond of Laurent and played on his head and shoulders for a long time. Now Laurent wants a monkey when we get back to Belgium. I was going to forget to tell you that we also saw a vampire. Actually it was a Venezuelan woman of American parents that wore very pale make-up and had the strangest concept of beautifying her lips and eyes. At first, Diana was very scary to look at, but after we dared to speak to her, she was actually very nice. Never judge a book by its cover. Teasing young American girls On our last night in Los Llanos a group of 14 American students arrived in our camp – and judging by the organizational chaos that followed, they apparently came unannounced, or perhaps they did not, who knows. The five girls that shared the room with us told us that they were studying Spanish in Merida and that during Semana Santa they were doing a trip to Los Llanos and the Amazon. As Laurent was at a baptism party in the neighbouring campamiento when the group arrived, he was not aware of the change in hammock distribution when he decided to go to bed at 3 a.m. and found a knitting Texan girl in his hammock. Laurent : “Why are you knitting with your flash light on in my hammock?” American girl : “Your wife moved your stuff to the hammock next to her.” Laurent (in Dutch): “Heleen, she is knitting.” Heleen : “Zzzzzz…” Laurent : “Heleen, where are my pyjamas?” Heleen : “Zzzzz…” Laurent : “Why do you have your flash light on?” American girl : “There is a big spider on the wall and I am afraid of spiders.” Laurent : “And you are going to the Amazon? If you are afraid of spiders now, then you have to take the first bus back to Merida.” American girl : "Who are you?" Laurent : "I'm the boogeyman." American girl's friend : "Do you want to switch places?" Laurent : “And now I can’t sleep because of you and your snoring friends!” Poor girl! Of course I did not hear anything of this, because I was sleeping like a baby, but the next morning the conversation was retold a couple of times as the American girl’s friend came to tell Laurent that he was so funny and also Christina had been laughing very hard. The drive back to Merida was very hot and long and bumpy, but fortunately we could stop a couple of times to buy cold drinks . A clean shower and a good bed never have been so much appreciated as yesterday night! In the next couple of days we will travel to Colombia. If we won’t be kidnapped we will keep you posted. ¡A la orden!   Heleen

Dear friends,

A short message to tell you that we are still alive and kicking!

Everybody had warned us about Caracas ,“a very ugly and extremely dangerous city”. We, however, had a great time over there. The Venezuelan capital counts about 5 million inhabitants and lays in a bassin between highly forested mountains. A nice site.

We spent our time resting in Michael’s beautiful apartment (the Hilton to us), strolling around in the city, tasting all kinds of delicious food  (Sushi, Venezuelan, Italian, Chinese...), meeting up with other Belgian friends of Michael and of course enjoying Caracas by night.

Michael and his sister Maria-Luisa did not enjoy too much the thought of us strolling alone around in the city during the day. When they heard that we had spent a visit to Plaza Venezuela and the bus station area of La Bandera, the could not believe us and said that we were completely “loco” (=crazy). “Es muy, muy peligroso”. We are always careful and take care everywhere, but could not really understand what the problem was. Ok, it was not the safest neighbourhood we had seen, but still...
I think we’re becoming used to be backpackers and start to see things in different way...

From Caracas we took again a  freezing nightbus (12 hours) to Merida in the Andes. Merida has the world’s highest and longest aerial cableway (to 4.800 meters) and is surrounded by a beautiful scenery. We came to Merida in order to visit the Llanos, one of the best places in the world to see birds and animals, but ended up in Merida with too many of exciting possibilities: canyoning, bridge jumping, mountain climbing, horse riding, mountain biking, paragliding, ... You name it. This is a backpackers paradise. However, since we are running out of time (and above all budget), we decided to book only a 4 day tour in Los Llanos and a paragliding flight.

We just came back from the paragliding flight and it was great. Landing was certainly a relief but the flying was awesome. In Tucuman (Argentina) I already did some deltaflying, but this was different. Well, I think the pilot definitely makes the difference. I told the pilot to do an average flight (not too rough) because my stomach had seen better days. After a while however he started spinning hard and swinging around. It went so hard that I thought I would be thrown out of my “seat”. It felt like being spinned around in a washing mashine. But still I enjoyed (a bit) that part also, even if I felt a bit dizzy. Afterwards the instructor told me with a big smile “this was great”. He admitted he had tested me “a bit” even though there was a thermic layer he had to avoid. The other instructors however did not completely agree. “Es peligroso hacer este...” They told me he should not do that, because it is quite dangerous and because there was an accident recently. Oeps, whatever, I’ll do it again!!!

Tomorrow we are leaving for Los Llanos for horse riding, bird watching, running after giant ant-eaters and... again catching crodociles, and again fishing piranhas. But life is like a box of chocolates. You never know want you’re gonna get...  Hope I’ll catch a piranha this time...

Have fun,

Lorenzo the Birdman II

Queridos amigos,

 Estamos de vuelta en un país donde podemos practicar nuestro español y nos encanta de entender de nuevo la gente aquí. Sin embargo, porque nuestros lectores quieren seguir nuestras noticias sobre el sitio vamos a continuar en inglés…

Dear friends,

Arriving in Manaus after navigating all those days through the jungle on the Amazon is a very special feeling. Not only because you finally set foot on the ground and hope to get a decent meal, shower and bed; but especially because you arrive in such a large city in the middle of the rainforest.

Manaus

Manaus grew substantually during the rubber boom at the end of the 19th century and it was then one of the richest cities in South America. In the middle of the jungle, it was even the second Brazilian city to be equipped with electricity. The fabulous and opulent Teatro Amazonas and the many plazas, palaces and beautiful houses are a testimony of a rich past. Manaus is a pleasant city with a few million inhabitants, and it’s main industrial activity is in electronics. It seems that the capital city of the Amazon region also houses quite a large population of transvestites, hookers, bars and strip clubs at night.
Since the city remains in the middle of the jungle, it is only accessible by plane or boat. Manaus is connected by only one major road towards Venezuela.  The rest is rainforest...  Spooky...

Sushi hunting

Heleen told you that we intended to go out for a last (cheap) Brazilian sushi evening in Manaus. Unfortunately after spending quite a few Reais on different taxis in search of such restaurant, we ended up eating in the same pizzeria as the day before. Sushi in Manaus seemed to be about 5 times more expensive than in the other places we had been to in Brazil and our wallet could not ‘digest’ such a meal, especially after spending a substantial part of our day budget on ‘sushi hunting by taxi’. You can imagine that I was very disapointed!!!
 

Jungle trip

The next morning we had an early wake up call. We had to leave for a short jungle trip of 2 days. Of course... the tour guide only came to pick us up 2 hours late. We are getting used to that kind of ‘delays’, but they still work a bit on our nerves.

On the boat we met Stan, our Dutch friend who had joined us during the boat trip on the Amazon from Belem to Manaus. First stop was ‘the meeting of the waters’: the point were two major Amazonian rivers flow together. (NB: For the die-hard fans, this is: the brownish Solimoes (Amazon) and the black/blue Rio Negro.)  Since those rivers have a completely different composition they flow next to each other for about 8 km, without mixing their waters. The water also contains a few pink dolphins. Have to admit that this was a strange sight.

Afterwards, the weather got quite rough... and Heleen a bit sick . Since the boat could not cross the large Amazon river anymore, we were obliged to float some time along the shore of the river, waiting for better weather. Fortunately, Stan made us laugh so hard with his Dutch humour that even Heleen forgot that she was actually sea sick. Stan also made us quite a detailed description of his night out in one of the many striptease clubs in Manaus. He stated that he had seen many things around the world, but nothing so disgusting. So, he told us that I should not miss out on this ‘exotic’ and ‘unique’ flavour of Manaus. Heleen dit not agree.

Feeding piranhas

In the end and with a few hours delay we arrived safe and well at a floating ‘lodge’ (call it floating hangar) where we headed out by canoe to go ‘piranha fishing’. I got more the impression that I was out on ‘piranha nursing’, since every little piece of meat (beef) I brought on the hook, disappeared without seeing any piranha appear. A few other people effectively caught piranhas. I got kind of desperate, and after a while it seemed clear that those little fish would not hook up with me!

With a serious blow on my fisherman´s ego we finally left those evil creatures and got back to the floating hangar for dinner. I would get my revenge with the alligator spotting later that night.

 Baby alligators lost in canoe!!! 

After sunset we left in a small motorized canoe for the ultimate adventure: alligator spotting!!! In the neighbourhood there are 3 types of alligators. The biggest ones can live up to 80 years and measure around 8 meters! Larger than our canoe...  In the meantime, our guide that had already captured alligators of 2.5 meters told us that (in contrary to crocodiles) the alligator doesn’t wait in the water until its pray is close enough to capture and drawn it. The alligator chases its pray and kills it on the shore by biting. Very reassuring, as we were cruising very slowly through the swamps in the dark. Only when the guide used his flashlight we could distinguish some red eyes. Alligators, finally!!!
Very creepy, but exciting. Apparently we all were way too enthusiastic and noisy. The guide had to remind us (too) many times not to use or own flash lights, and to stay very calm and quiet...

Ultimately and fortunately, we only caught 2 ‘baby’ alligators of about 6 months old and 40 cm long. They looked very cute and we were even allowed to hold them tightly and hug them. Untill one of our South-African co-travellers got the great idea to lose one of them in the boat. Small panic, but the guide could prevent a small finger and toe tragedy.
Afterwards, way too late to our taste, he told us that those cute little animals could easily bite of fingers and toes. Heleen’s face went white... The faces of the men went white when we returned to our lodge and noticed that the others had drunk all the beer!!!

Electrifying ants and tarantulas

Everyone went early to bed. Unfortunately we had a lousy, loud snorring guy next to us. Result, I had a very bad night of sleep. After a heavy breakfast we left early in the morning for a jungle walk. Without sounding ‘blasé’ we can say that we already saw a lot in the rainforest. But every walk is different and surprises lay beyond every tree.
For the first time during this trip we were able to see a taratula who went hiding in its hole. The guide tried to catch it, but this did not work out. The enormous spider kept hiding.

A few hundred yards further, we encountered our first real jungle terror when we were suddenly bitten everywhere!!! I felt like electric shocks and like knifes cutting me in the flesh. Everybody started more or less at the same time to yell and run around, ripping their clothes off. We thought it could be spiders or bees, but the guide told us that they were ‘only biting ants’   and that the bites would dissapear quite rapidly. He was right. Despite the very painful bites and despite the fact that those bites swell immediatly to demonic proportones they were completely gone 2 hours later. All relieved and when we got back to the lodge we finally could enjoy a cold beer!

Fleas again!! Yekkk

In the afternoon we took the boat back to Manaus, got a quick bite and went to the station for our bus to Venezuela. The bus from Manaus to Boa Vista revealed to be a nightmare. Not only was it a regular bus (no sleeping seats) and did it had a flat tire, our seats were also infested by fleas. When we arrived in Boa Vista we had like hundreds of bites on our back. There we had to wait for another bus taking us to the Venezuelan border and take a taxi to Santa Elena, when we arrived after about 24 hours of travel. We threw all our clothes in the wash, showered and met our Canadian friends, Janice and Howard who had arrived the day before.

 

More news soon, have fun!

Lorenzo

Dear friends,

Yesterday evening around 9 p.m. we arrived safe and sound in Manaus, after 5 nights and 5 days on a passenger’s boat. It was not so hard; after 10 months of traveling, we start getting used to the lack of luxury.
Just today I found out that our boat, Cisne Branco (white swan), once sunk to the bottom of the Amazon, because the freight was not properly attached and started rolling to one side. As a result the boat capsized and sunk. Two hundred people died. After that they brought the boat back above water, cleaned her and started using her again.
Janice found this out somewhere in the middle of the trip, but she only decided to tell me today. Thank you, Janice!
To our parents we just want to say that we will be home in two months and that in the meantime we will try not to do too many dangerous things.

With Sal in Belem
As we told you before, we ran into Sal in the streets of Belem. We had met Sal in October in Salta, Argentina and then later again in Buenos Aires.

The three of us went looking to find a boat that could bring us to Manaus.
The first company we contacted still had space on the boat that was leaving the next day and there were three options. The first one was to take a hammock space, which means that you hang your hammock somewhere on the 1st or 2nd deck, along with some 200 other passengers. The Footprint says that this option can seem romantic, but that the reality is that you will probably sleep next to the toilets and have an aching back after five nights. Also, there is nowhere to store your belongings safely, so you have to keep an eye on them for the whole trip.
We decided to follow the Footprint’s recommendations and went for a cabin. There are two types of cabins, one is where you share bathroom with the other cabin passengers, and the one we chose is called a “suite”, which means that you have your own bathroom.

Sal decided to take a flight, as he is heading for Colombia and pressed for time.

The three of us spent a nice evening together; talking about the places we had been to, low-budget traveling and the prospects of going home. Bumping into friends in a foreign city and sharing travel stories is something that we are going to miss very badly when we return to Belgium. Being part of this backpacker community is so great!

Friday 18 February
In preparation of our boat trip, we go shopping for a private supply of bottled water, biscuits, M&M’s, toilet paper  and Bacardi. We also buy Worcester sauce, two lightweight hammocks for during the day, repellent (OFF!), two English secondhand books and enough cigarettes.

After visiting the colourful market of Belem, we go back to the hotel to pick up our stuff and take a taxi to the port. We say goodbye to Sal and promise to stay in touch.

As we have booked a cabin, we do not have to embark early and find a good space to put up our hammocks. The boat is scheduled to leave at 6 p.m., so we get to the port around five, where plenty of people are trying to get our attention – probably trying to sell us things. We ignore them all and go to the boarding “counter”, but our tickets are rejected. We first have to pass by an office, where a nice lady copies our tickets onto another piece of paper. She gives us the copies and with these we finally can embark.

After signing the registration book, we are brought to our suite. It is very small, but it looks cleaner and better than we had expected. Inside the cabin it is extremely hot, as the air conditioning is broken. Two guys on the roof of the boat are trying to fix it.
Laurent and I go looking for other foreign passengers and meet Howard and Janice, a Canadian couple who are traveling each year for a couple of months since their youngest son turned 18.

The boat leaves the port with only a half hour delay. By that time the air-conditioning is fixed.

When the bar opens, we have a beer together with Howard and Janice. The Brazilian passengers look at us as if we are a welcome novelty. They are filming us and the four of us smile into the video camera and say things like “Brasil muito bom!” with our thumbs up.

A bit later we discover that there are some more foreign passengers: an American student, a Dutch teacher, a Danish student and two Dutch girls.

At night we have a lively discussion with Brandon, the American student, about gay marriage, carrying weapons and of course the war in Iraq -it is the Danish guy who brought up that topic, we are so tired of Iraq. Brandon is from Texas and a convinced republican; he defends George W. Bush with passion. When it becomes clear that the Europeans never will be able to convince the American, I go to bed.

The air-conditioning in our room is freezing cold, but Laurent and I both got a good night sleep.

Cisne Branco
Our ferry is called Cisne Branco which means “White swan” in Portuguese. The boat transports 232 passengers and employs 18 crew members.
It has three decks; on the first decks are the kitchen, the engines and hammock passengers; on the second are the 4 shared bathrooms, the cabins and hammock passengers and on the third and top deck are the suites, the bar and the captain.
There are 20 lifeboats, they are really small and in case of an accident they should have to carry each more than 10 victims. We hope it won't be necessary.
The maximum speed of the Cisne Branco is 25 km per hour and on our trip it reaches a speed of 300 km per day.

Saturday 19 February
A crew member knocks on our door at 7 a.m. We open the door and she asks “Coffee?” “Yes, please!” we answer. As we are still sleepy, we think that she is going to bring breakfast to our room – also, we did not see a dining room on the boat. As she does not come back, we fall asleep again and only wake up a couple of hours later.
At 11.30 a.m. it is time for lunch – the crew member comes to get us and tells us that the table is ready. So we have overlooked the dining room yesterday. Or not, as two big tables are placed on the 2nd deck, where usually hammocks are hanging. Brandon fills us in: they were woken up at 6 a.m. by a loud bell and were told to put their hammock and belongings away, so the tables could be put up.

Cabin passengers get a separate table – in the corridor where the bathrooms are. Food is not bad at all; it is a lot better than what guidebooks made us expect. Brandon tells us that the cabin passengers get better pieces of meat. Another advantage of having a cabin.
A Brazilian tourist asks us what we are doing on that boat. “This is not a tourist boat,” he says, but he does not tell us the story of when the boat capsized.

After lunch we hang up our hammocks in an area where actually we are not allowed to put them. When a crew member complains, we tell him that we do not speak Portuguese, which is the end of the discussion. Lying in our hammocks, swinging with the movement of the boat, we read our new books and write in our diary.
The ferry is passing by a number of houses that are built alongside the banks of the Amazon; sometimes there are 4 or 5 houses next to each other, but most of the time there are miles between single houses or huts.

While cruising up the Amazon, people in tiny canoes row up to the boat and wave at the passengers with a signal that is understood as begging. The local passengers put some money or some food in a plastic bag, blow air in it and throw it towards the canoes. A bit further some people come in their little canoes to sell fruits. They attach the little canoes to the Cisne Branco and climb onto the second deck. We try the fruits of the Amazon: castanha do para, pupunha (family of the Açai fruit) and Inga (long green fruit). Delicious and nutritious!

We discover another gringo and he turns out to be Belgian: Nicolas from Namur. Nicolas is already traveling for 20 months through Central and South America and is planning to go home in June. Like us, he has not met many Belgians during his trip.

After dinner, we decide to open the Barcardi in the company of Howard, Janice and Stan, the Dutch teacher. Howard tells us about the time when he was struck with malaria: “I thought I was going to die, and I wished I was going to die,” meaning that he felt really terrible. His story convinces us that taking malaria tablets in the Amazon is a wise thing to do. We will take them!

The sky is clear and we look at the stars. Howard and Janice show us where Orion is. Beautiful!
The ferry makes a first stop and Laurent and Howard decide to get on shore for a couple of minutes. Some passengers get off here and some new ones get on board.

When the Bacardi bottle is half empty, we go to bed in our freezing room.

Sunday, 20 February
The crew member wakes us up at 7 a.m. and the answer to “Coffee?” is “No, thank you!” We got to bed way too late, and also the bar kept blasting the horrible cheap music into the Amazon and into our ears.
We get up and have a mini shower in the mini bathroom – impossible to stand up straight under the shower. We start realizing that the water we shower with is water from the Amazon, with its typical brown colour. We also realize that the water from the sink comes straight from the river beneath us, so we brush our teeth with bottled water from now on.
After our early lunch we lay down in our hammocks for a rest while reading, writing our diary or just watching the changing scenery and sky. Some local passengers stop by where we are lying in our hammocks and try to make conversation with us, especially the children.

The scenery changes as we move on. Sometimes the Amazon gets really wide, and then it becomes narrower again. Cargo ships transporting wood and containers are passing by and along the banks we see houses, here and there a church and even a cemetery. There aren’t any beggars around any more. Some houses are surrounded by open fields and here and there we see flocks of cows and some horses. The clouds change shapes and you can see so far. Beautiful!

On the top deck local passengers are taking showers because it is very hot today. Others are playing domino, just like the previous days.

Stan is getting bored, so he interviews me for his video report that he will show his daughters in The Netherlands in a few weeks.

We meet another gringo, an American and we ask him if he just got on the boat this morning in the last port. He tells us that he has been on the boat since Belem, since Friday. He is staying on the 1st deck, perhaps that’s why.
We ask him if he has any books to exchange and yes, he’s got plenty of books. He goes and gets his books, while I get our two books that we want to swap. When I start thinking that he won’t come back, he reappears with indeed plenty of books; this guy is traveling with a library (we as well, actually: 14 books). Most of his books are about German history (e.g. Hitler’s biography), so we are not that interested. There is one book that interests us: indigenous tales, written in Spanish, but he does not want to give that away. Also, he does not like our books as he is “a conservative Christian”. The books we have are detective stories and one of them possibly questions the Bible.

Dinner that night is really not good. Luckily we have our supply of chocolate biscuits!

As the air-conditioning is way too cold, Laurent cover half of it with Duct tape. Hopefully it will be a bit warmer during the night.

Howard and Janice decide to go to bed early and I follow their example. I fall asleep on Laurent’s bed which is not according to his liking. He wakes me up around 9.30 p.m., after which I move to my own bed. Off course I cannot sleep anymore.

Monday 21 February
We miss breakfast again. What a surprise!
Laurent wakes me up at 9.30 a.m. with the news that the ferry has arrived in the port of Santarem, the biggest town between Belem and Manaus, since quite a while. He gets dressed and leaves for town. I get up a bit later and start tidying our room. When he comes back, Laurent brings a new supply of bottled water, biscuits and some apples. He has also checked our e-mails and tells me that I've received a lot of messages. Can't wait to read them!
There are plenty of ship in the port. Crew is loading and unloading all kinds of stuff, mainly food supplies.
Laurent and I decide to get on the shore together, as we calculate that we still have enough time for a little walk. Wise as we are, we ask again at what time we have to get back. It seems very confusing, but then we realise that the hour  has changed. The crew just forgot to inform us.

It is drizzling for the rest of the morning, but in the afternoon the weather clears up and at night we watch the beautiful sunset.

The Amazon changes all the time. Here and there you see islands, and today we see open fields along the banks. Also small flocks of cows, a couple of pigs and horses that belong to a nearby farm.

We finish the Bacardi bottle with the help of Howard and Janice. I dance with Stan and a couple of Brazilians. Very romantic, dancing on the top deck of a boat, cruising up the Amazon, in a very black night. Later, when the bar tender finally accepts to change CDs, he puts on the music we brought from the carnival in Salvador - and more people are dancing.

Tuesday 22 February
We get up late again. Why should we get up early? There is not much to do on the boat anyway, so we don’t feel guilty. Above all it is drizzling.
At lunch we notice that some new cabin passengers have joined since Santarem, and they don't exactly behave like 1st class passengers at table. Use your imagination.
During the afternoon, Laurent is playing cards with the locals and beats them. They are playing for money and he wins enough to buy two beers.

People start getting bored. Nicolas is getting bored as well and he cannot understand why Brazilians sleep that much.

During the day we stop at a couple of ports, but there is not enough time to get off and set foot on land.

About toilet facilities: for the hammock passengers there are two bathrooms for men and two bathrooms for women. I saw some little boys peeing from the second deck, with the intention to pee straight into the Amazon. The reality is that it lands on the first deck, where more people are sleeping in hammocks.

The Amazon
The Amazon River (6280 km) is the second longest river in the world, only the Nile in Africa is longer. The Amazon, which starts in Peru, at any one point in time has the highest amount of water flowing down it. No other river even comes close. It may not be the longest, but it is the widest. The daily flow of the river is said to be enough to supply a city the size of New York with water for nearly ten years. The Amazon produces approximately 20 percent of all the water that the world's rivers pour into the oceans on its own.

Wednesday 23 February
Tonight we will arrive in Manaus! Not too early, according to Nicolas who is complaining about the sleeping Brazilians again.
The weather is hot during the day, so I stay in our cabin with the air-conditioning to read.
Around 7.30 p.m. we arrive at the "meeting of the waters", where the Rio Negro flows into the brown Amazon river. The two rivers do not mix water for about 18 km and just run alongside each other. I could not see it, as it was after sunset.

As we got nearer to Manaus we could see the beautiful lights of the port. Also it started lightning in every direction. A wonderful performance!
Off course, when we arrived in Manaus it started raining.

After we found hotel, we took a clean shower and went out to eat something different: pizza.

Today we booked a jungle tour for two days, and after that we will take the bus to Venezuela together with Howard and Janice.
Tonight we are going out to eat sushi.

Take care,

Heleen