From the jungle to the city

After El Pauji we made our way to the Caribbean Coast to search for the out-of-the-way beaches everyone we´d met in Venezuela, had told us about.

First we stopped at Santa Fe – a fishing village where there seemed to be a lot of out of work fisherman getting drunk and a terrible smell of rotten fish. So we didn´t stay long. After that we headed to Archimedes’ pousada – we´d been told about his place by some hippy friends of his in El Pauji – A Swiss named Rita who was married to English Tony. They had taken us in and fed us Irish coffee one afternoon when we had nowhere else to go. We arrived on his doorstep unsure what to expect and were invited to have dinner with him and the other guests that night. Then we strung our hammocks on his porch. We stayed with Archimedes for four nights and helped with the cooking for the other guests and the cleaning. This way we were given the tasty leftovers for us tea and really cheap rent.

We left there and went north to the Caribbean coast. Pui Pui and Medina beaches – San Juan was the last stop and here the road ended. There was no public transport to speak of, sometimes a collectivo – communal pick-up truck – was going our way, and we´d ride with locals, getting strange looks. On one occasion we were forced to journey with a family who were moving house.  Other times we either managed to flag a lift on the back of a truck full of yuka or the back of a pickup with workmen, fishermen, or an occasional car or truck. But there wasn’t much traffic, it was really remote, so often we just had to walk. Most of this area was classified a national park and was lush green jungle so walking was fun along the winding roads with occasional villages dotted along the way. The locals thought we were crazy walking in that heat. But we were traveling light – we left most of our stuff in Santa Elena to collect on the way back to Argentina: I only had one pair of flip flops, one kini, two Ts, a pair of shorts and jeans, a sleeping bag and hammock. 

Medina was really something but a bit high-class for our budget – we got a lift a bit of the way there on the back of a fish truck having walked most of the way – you weren´t allowed to camp there or sling your hammock so we had to find a way to get to Pui Pui before the day was over. We managed to get a cheap lift on a boat captained by this really irate dude who spent the whole trip shouting at his two-man crew. At one point the ratty guy hurt his knee and told one of them to rub it for him, they refused so he looked at me and ordered me to rub it. I declined. We were dropped off on the shores of Pui Pui a bit drenched and the rest of that day was interesting to say the least. We had some guy try to rip us off three times – in the end we had to give him money just to leave us alone but this guy was really tormenting and as gorgeous as the beach was we left early next morning. After a few hours of walking we hitched a lift to a local chocolate factory to lift our spirits.These pictures were on the wall of a shack in one little village.

   

We spent a day and a night some natural thermal spring things. We hitched there and then sat in muddy pools, looking silly. 

We also stopped to look around a huge cave where thousands of blind birds live. Like bats, they navigate by echoes, the only birds in the world to do this. We only had us flipflops and the ground was deep slimey bird poo, so we got mucky again.  

Next was Cuidad Guyana, further south, away from the coast, quite a big city where we stayed at this crazy Germans house for a couple of nights. The town reminded us a bit of LA – fast food drive-ins (auto Macs) and massive shopping malls. In the evenings we´d sit around trying to learn the rules for ´Skat´, a German card game, but we couldn´t grasp it and when they tried to explain the rules all they could say was that ‘it was a German thing´. Claro!

Also staying at the house was a legendary metaller dude from Dresden who was on his third trip around the world and had won the money to come away on a game show. He told us stories about living with Native Americans and hanging out with Bruce Dickenson, the lead singer of Iron Maiden.

Near this house there was a massive park with monkeys roaming the walkways – they loved sour cream ruffles, we found out. This is a movie of them eating crisps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkW2E2jFZXg

 

Then we were on our way back to Argentina. We flew over Brazil and ended up in Montevideo in Uruguay. Having been in a jungle only a few days before, suddenly we were in what could have been a stately European city. Except everything was so cheap. Amazing hotel for less than a fiver a night. It was like a big old house in the middle of the old town. We used to visit the market everyday for their amazing parrilla (like an indoor Barbecue) where we ate the best steaks, big salads and black sausage – which were better than Barnsley’s best. Muy rico.    

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Now we’re in Argentina – Buenos Aries. We could really imagine living here. So we thought we would, for one month anyway. We rented this  amazing flat in San Telmo. This is where we are now. Taking life easy after roughing it for a few months. I’m doing some voluntary work with kids in a bad neighbourhood. Nick is sitting around scratching himself. In a month we’re leaving South America.