For Mom, Love Steve

With a sleepless sweaty night of clock watching and mosquito alerts, I got up. I liken it to the time that one of my wisdom teeth had a huge cavity and needed to be removed. I was in so much pain that last night I wanted to go to the dentist. It was like the count down to the ending of pain. I took a quick sewage shower and headed out. The bar was all locked up but I wasn’t going to wait for someone to let me out. I found an open spot to get out of the bar and then hopped the fence to freedom. I bee lined it to the bank. The first employee I saw I asked about the cash advance capability and he said no problem and pointed to the tellers. I was happy that I would once again have money. The transaction was rather pain less and I got enough funds to easily last the week or two that I was allowed in country. On the way back I took a look in the guide book for another place to stay. They suggested another guest house just up the road, actually on my way back. After a little bit of confusion I found the place. It was in as bad a condition as the bar was. Luckily, I noticed a sign just down the road for another guest house. I stopped in and talked to an Indian family. They had some rooms and the lady told me the cost. I checked out the rooms and came back down. I offered the same amount I was paying at the Tropical Hotel, but I wanted the room with the bathroom and shower in room. She agreed and I went to get my stuff. There was only one guy awake when I got back so I handed him the keys and the amount for a single nights rent. Now I understood why the discount if you stayed for longer than one night. The best description of what the place was like was sketched in the door by a Donald and Sandy. It read “Welcome to hell.” Sandy and Donald. It summed it up perfectly. The only regret was that I didn’t get a chance to annihilate those bastards in my ex-room. My dream was to go in and seal all the windows. Then I would toss in a couple of foggers followed by a couple of smoldering mosquito coils. I would wander around in my chemical suit squishing them as they fell to the floor. Now that would have been cool.
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I woke with pretty much the same determination as my last day in Santa Elena, Venezuela. I wanted to get out of town and I was determined to find a way. I had learned from the guy the night before that the trip via road was rather sketchy. It was pot hole covered dirt road the entire way to Georgetown and it took his van 16 hours to get to Lethem. I was not thrilled about getting an ass pounding ride for 16 hours, but it was better than staying there. The meeting area was right by the hotel so I stopped by. The vans were already booked with the bus being broken down. I stopped by the terminal where I found out that “until further notice” meant that they would not be up and running until the bus could be towed in and damage fixed. The Airline guy was MIA and when I called the number that the guy had given me, they bounced me around until I got back to the terminal in Lethem. The guy was already getting pissed off explaining to the umpteenth person that the Airline person was still not there and that he did not know when the plane was arriving or if it had any scheduled flights out. After an hour and a half later, the guy showed up. He said that there would be a flight out at twelve thirty and he signed me up. I happily skipped back to the hotel to get my stuff. Luckily, since they were close to the border they also took Reals, so I would be able to use up my extra reals, the last of my Guy $’s, and cover the rest with US$’s. That was the plan at least.
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I woke early with a great nights sleep. I hadn’t slept in a twin size bed since I was at my parents home. It was surprisingly comfortable and I didn’t roll off like I thought I would. ... [Continue reading this entry]

I woke that morning at 5am, 6am, 7am, and laid there in bed twiddling my thumbs until 8am. It was king of like the first day of school, but in a good way. I hopped up brushed my ... [Continue reading this entry]

I woke up feeling blah. I was stuck another day in Santa Elena. I was no longer tired and wanted to be on the road. Two days of sitting around doing nothing was not what I needed. ... [Continue reading this entry]

Saturday was going to be our last day in Santa Elena. I was going to be heading south into Brazil and Sam and Anna would be going back to Ciudad Bolivar and then on up to Maracaibo where they ... [Continue reading this entry]

I woke up feeling new and refreshed but with 60 year old thighs. So even though I was ready to go, my body was rejecting the idea. Luckily, Sam and Anna were in the same boat. I ... [Continue reading this entry]

After such a long, grueling hike, we were looking for a day or two of recovery. Even Phillipe who was short on time thought it was crazy to take off without at least a night of recovery. My ... [Continue reading this entry]

After the marathon bus trip, I was a bit groggy but still feeling okay. The bus station was kind of out in the middle of no where. It was like being out in ... [Continue reading this entry]

One of things that became readily apparent during my Angel Falls trip was my lackluster clothing choice for actively backpacking. With that in mind I headed off to the malls. After wandering through the largest mall in Ciudad ... [Continue reading this entry]