June 14 - June 15 2008
The bus ride to Maracay ended up being longer than I expected. It ended up taking us about 12 hours because the bus stopped at quite a few different cities along the way. Once we arrived Maracay we then had to take a shared taxi ride for about an hour to Choroni, and then from Choroni, once we gathered all the couchsurfers, we all took a boat ride about 30 minutes to the beach that we were all camping at. This was a pretty nice secluded beach area, and we ended up having 25 couchsurfers at the outing. We expected more, but it was a great time.
The first night couchsurfer Dani cooked us all dinner and we all just kindve sat around in a circle after to dinner and introduced ourselves to each other etc. Then we just started playing some games and having a good time like we were back in grade school again. The next morning some people took off, but about 15 of us that were left all went on a hike to this waterfall. It was a two hour hike into the waterfall, and it was pretty sweet. After we made it there we all jumped into the water at the waterfall and took some pictures etc. Then we had a little bite to eat, and just all sat around socializing and taking some more pictures. Around 5pm or so we started hiking back, and I was planning to catch the bus back to Colombia at 9:15 pm (Sunday, June 15). Some people were staying and leaving on Monday, but I was ready to head it back to Colombia. Once we got back to the campsite area it was around 7 pm or so, myself and two other couchsurfers had to catch a boat back to Choroni and then take a taxi back to Maracay (a crazy taxi ride around these windey roads for an hour), and then I had to catch a bus to San Cristobal. The other two couchsurfers were actually staying in Maracay, but they came with me to the bus terminal and made sure I caught my bus alright. I actually just made it in time. It was a struggle to find my bus. After about 10 hours to San Cristobal, I had to catch a shared taxi to Cucuta, Colombia (the Colombian border city)...there was a ton of people at the Colombian border, so the taxi driver actually took me to the airport in Cucuta to get me stamped into Colombia. I had to pay a little extra, but it was well worth it because I didnt have to wait at the airport.
Once I got stamped in at the airport the taxi driver took me back to the terminal where I had to catch another bus for 5.5 hours to Bucaramanga. This was by far the craziest ride I have been on yet. This was a small bus that carried 13 passengers, and the roads were so damn windey that I was almost falling into the persons seat next to me at every corner (there was times where I could here the tires burning rubber on the concrete). The whole time we were up in the mountains and every corner we came around the driver had to honk so nobody would hit us because the roads were so narrow. I felt like I was riding in a go-kart for 5.5 hours. It was sad to see how many people were throwing trash out the window on this bus ride. We had to stop several times due to road work, and when we were sitting still people were throwing out yogurt cups, cans, etc, and even doing it while we were flying down the street. I must have seen at least 8 people throw things out the window on this bus trip from age range of 10 to 70 years old. It is sad that the adults do this and show their children a terrible way of taking care of the beauty of their country. It was tough to see them do that, and I almost wanted to say something, but I didnt. Anyways I ended up making it through this crazy ¨go-kart ride, and once I arrived Bucaramanga I had to catch another 2.5 hour bus to San Gil.
After 27 hours of travel time, I ended up making it to San Gil at 10 pm the following night (June 16). Seeing it was late on the night of the 16th and the bus terminal was open 24 hours, I decided to sleep in the bus terminal until about 5:30 am when I had a taxi take me to the hostel. I paid for the hostel (on June 17th), and planned to spend the night in San Gil, but I was able to cover both the towns of San Gil and Barichara (45 min from San Gil) all in one day, so I caught a overnight bus to Bogota on Tuesday (June 17) and arrived Bogota, Colombia early Wednesday (June 18) morning where my couchsurfer Eliana will pick me up at the terminal at 730 am.
All in all it was a great time hanging with all the Venezuelan couchsurfers. I am glad I made the bus trip up there, but I was eager to get back to Colombia where the prices are a little bit cheaper. Venezuela was quite expensive and the maximum amount of money I could take out of the bank there was $150 and that doesnt last very long there...on top of that I was getting $10 bank charges from them per transaction.
