Costs pp: bus from Tucacas 20, taxi to Ff's 20, cachapas 10, pizza 45. overnight semi-cama bus from Valencia to El Tigre 80.
We rang Freddyfelipe as we had asked about coming on Thursday but now with the islands being closed we wanted to come on Wednesday. Luckily for us he was welcoming as always, he had just had another couchsurfer leave this morning. So we caught the bus to Valencia and a taxi to his place. We had cachapas for lunch which here is 2 corn pancakes with a slab of cheese between, in other places they have one pancake which is folded over. We didn't go anywhere but tried to work out with Ff's help where we should go next as Carnival is just around the corner. In the evening we ate pizza, a Margarita, here it cost 45 which is about US$7.50 much more expensive than the same size and type we ate in Parati, Brazil which cost 10 real or US$5. Both tasted great tho!
We sent out some couch requests with Ff's cellphone number and received a call from Ricardo who we thought was on the coast but discovered he has just moved to El Tigre. So we decided we would head there, it would take us accross hitherto unknown territory and introduce us to a new part of Venezuela. Next day we caught a midday bus from the terminal which was to arrive in El Tigre at 9pm but actually arrived there at midnight.
We were quite worried about arriving there so late, Venezuela is a dangerous place after dark especially if you are carrying stealable items. So here we are arriving with all our worldly goods on display, luckily El Tigre has a brand new bus terminal, all lit up and with lots of people around even tho it was so late. A friendly guy there sent a text to Ricardo for us and he rang back and came down immediately to pick us up. He had been very worried about us, wondering where we were. He took us to his home where we met his two pitbulls and another mongrel puppy someone had brought to him. He lives at his place of work and gave us a mattress on the floor in one of his offices, he sleeps in the other in a hammock.
Next day we went with him on a short tour of El Tigre and out to a huge area beyond the town where the government is planning to grow soy in conjunction with Brazil. In the evening we bought food and had a barbeque. Ricardo is a ball of energy, not stopping long anywhere and is a self confessed male chauvinest, after a slightly uneven start we all got on really well - he has a great sense of humour. As with Ff Ricardo got to and organised us a couch in Cumana as he said we should be nearer to Guiria where the ferry leaves from. Our problem is how much traffic will be on the roads during the carnival period and how easy it will be to travel.
On Saturday Ricardo decided he was going to drive us through to Cumana, this is a 4 hour drive so no small thing, he says he does it every other day for work and wishes also to visit a girlfriend there. So he bundled us into the car as soon as we were up and we headed off. The landscape was uninteresting until we hit the coast then we saw some nice bays and islands out in the sea. In Cumana we met our next couch Gustavo at an arranged place and our next adventure began.
