Venezuela and the consequences

Babies,

Getting in and around Colombia was easy. Far easier than any of you expected it to be. Getting into Venezuela, however, proved to be one of our worst nightmares.

Crossing the border itself, all in all, was a piece of cake. But then came the checkpoints. An officer ordered us to open our backpacks - not the easiest task, seen the amount of stuff we carry around. So far, everything normal. After looking through our gear, he requested we´d follow him into a little office. Then the fun began. He ordered us to lift our shirts, lower our pants, lower our underpants... and to go down through our knees about 10 times, ¨to check if we were smuggling something from Colombia. Obviously, this rule didn't apply for Venezuelan citizens.

Then we got into our car. So far, so good. Our driver was driving a 40-year-old Chevrolet at about 120 clicks an hour on the worst roads in the world, passing by whoever he could. Then suddenly we ended up in a manifestation. People were lighting fireworks through their carwindows. We knew this was going to end horribly. And it did. A few meters from our car a pick-up-truck with six people in the back came to a violent stop as fireworks exploded into a fireball and dark smoke...

We need some time to make up our mind on this country. Either way, we went horseriding in the Andes. Good fun!




So far, we've traveled for two months. Time for some staggering statistics:

RARITIES ENCOUNTERED
quetzal bird
shooting star
FBI in action
woman with beard

lava streams
fireworks exploding in a car
woodpecker committing suicide
nurse shark
seaturtle
kolibri
tamed owl

TRANSPORTATION
motorcycle rides: 1 hour
metro rides: 3 hours
bicycle rides: 4 hours
horseback rides: 4 hours
taxi rides: 11 hours
train rides: 11 hours
flights: 15 hours
boat trips: 17 hours
busrides: 177 hours

walking: didn't count

FINANCIAL ISSUES
money spent: $3300 each
items lost: Nick: sunglasses, 50 euro shirt, 2 towels; Sebastian: sweater, sunscreen, cellphone, flip flops, towel, sunglasses, booklet English-Spanish
lucky shots: car rental company forgot to charge $300, Nick won $5 on a Vegas bus for knowin' the capital of Tasmania, Sebastian intercepted fraude at the Guatemala-Belize border: $3, a 3 to 1 bolivares to $ exchange rate on the black market
unfortunate spendings: payed $20 each to see leatherback turtles and didn't see any, Sebastian mistook the flight hour, we missed the flight and had to pay $20 each to transfer it