Costs pp: bus from Casa Seca 35vef, Hotel Fantasy room with ensuite and tv 70vef 2 ppl, street hamburger 15vef, shave ice 2.5vef, phone .5/min.
Another interesting trip, nothing has topped Peru though for amazing scenery, this stuff is just interesting and nothing more. The entrance to Maracaibo is across a very long bridge and the city looks like it is full of factories, the roads are rough and the buildings ugly. The streets are full of huge old cars most with Taxi signs on the roof, some are barely holding together. They are all V8´s the big old cars, Chevys etc. Have we mentioned that petrol is the cheapest in the world here. You can fill up your tank for around 4vef, that´s about US.70c or NZ$1, yes you read it right, it is actually 1vef for 10 litres approx and you get 5.5 to 5.8vef to the US$1 !!!!!!!!!!!
At the terminal we found a guy who sells minutes on his cellphones and rang a couchsurfing friend to say hi but when we got through to him he was on his way to Coro and we made a date to ring him when we got there. We were told that any cheap places were far away and therefore requiring the aid of the taxi driver who was telling us this. We headed into the terminal and asked there and ended up crossing the street behind and asking at a couple of hotels there. This is the seedy side of the town obviously, the hotel we got a room in is a 'Love Hotel' we were offered the room from now 'til 8pm for 50vef or until 8am for 70vef (about half the price of all the other places we tried). The room was clean and tidy and had cable tv and airconditioning, gotta keep the clients cool. There were notices up in the foyer about being tidy and hygenic and in our room there was a big picture on the wall about Love.
We watched 'Charmed' then headed out to town, thru the terminal and out onto a busy street full on both sides with market stalls selling everything you can imagine. We wandered through these and ended up buying a new pair of shorts for Kent as his pair are going to holes. On and on, shave ice for two, streets full of people and rubbish, then WOW! Whats that! A huge long beautiful boulavard with lovely tiles, magical seats, wonderful fountains and amazing sculptures! Such a shock after what we just walked through. We wandered up and down the area taking pics, at each end there is a church and one was open and we went in. It was beautiful inside and had a model of what the plans were to upgrade it to a truly huge edifice. Well there really is some serious money around in this town, a pity they don't use it on important things... Maybe they feel that if they create something beautiful it will work its way out through the city like the ripples on a pond... maybe...
We ate a hamburger there by the church, by now it was dark and really we shouldn't be walking around unfamiliar places in the dark but we made it back to our lovenest with no problems except for having to wade through tons of rubbish from the abandoned stalls.
The evening was for watching tv, CSI or something similar and off to sleep before we could worry about the cockroaches that were creeping out of their hiddy-holes.
Next stop Coro.
