We woke up a little bit too late to get cleaned up and get a
proper breakfast so we had to run over to the Broadway room to get checked in
for our excursion to La Guira and Caracas.
The boat really hadn’t docked yet before they asked us to be there but I
guess it is because there is a lot of traffic and the time is a little tight.
After we checked in Daniela did have time to run up to the breakfast buffet and
grab a couple things for us to eat on the bus.
Our trip was a tour of the city and then a ride up to the
top of a mountain on a cable car or teleferico in Spanish. The guide was a local Venezuelan named
Esperanza who spoke good English and apparently does most of her tours to
German customers so also speaks German.
This tour however was entirely in Spanish except for the few things she
said for me when she had a chance. The start was a longish ride to Caracas on
the bus. The ride was mostly long due to traffic. They don’t have to pay more
than a dollar to fill up a car in Venezuela due to the subsidized wealth
sharing of Chavez’s system so there are a lot of cars and motorcycles on the
road. There is a lot of poverty to be seen right at the start of the excursion.
As we got further in the buildings and areas did get nicer but still there was
a significant amount of trash on the streets and the sidewalks and a general
run down kind of look all around. The
buildings right near the port look like stacks of concrete blocks on top of
each other but at least painted different colors.
Our first stop was at what is basically the main square of
Caracas which is basically a giant tribute to Simon Bolivar and several other
war heroes who helped win independence from Spain for Venezuela as well as
several other South American countries. So there were fountains and statues and
giant monuments. This leads up to the
military parade grounds, a big part of Chavez’s theme. They kept his body there in state for a long
time after he died. Chavez renamed the
nation the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and tried to liken himself to
Bolivar which I am fairly certain was a significant stretch or such a self
serving ego maniac. There are tributes
to Chavez all over the city and it is best not to voice any opinions about the
way Venezuela is run if you aren’t from there.
After the main square we headed back the way we came some,
again through traffic to the cable car station. There we were able to get on
the first car along with Esperanza who was nice enough to say a few things in
English for me on the 20 minute ride that goes up over 2000 meters. There were
some significant drops during the ride and a couple areas where the car is over
very open air and you could hear the wind and feel it sort of pushing the
car. The last stretch is a very large
chasm followed by a very steep incline into the terminal.
At the top we had 1 and
half hours to get around and see what was going on up there. Esperanza
changed some money to Bolivars for us because the area doesn’t take US dollars
or anything else. We spent the first 45 minutes getting a Pepito Especial at a
small food stand. The line was handled poorly as you first had to wait to pay
and the hand them your receipt to get them to make the food. It was very
crowded as several cruises and tours were up at the top of the mountain at that
time. In any event the meal was a mixture of pork, beef, bacon, ham, cheese and
vegetables on a roll with some fries thrown on top. It was quite good though I
am not sure it was worth the hassle for all of it. By the time we were done we
didn’t really have a ton of time but we walked up to the top of the area which
had a moderately steep incline and bought a bag of coconut cookies that were
quite good. We also watched a group of Jehovah’s Witness teens play a game that
involved being able to slap the hands of the other contestants without getting
both of your own slapped. Each person could move one at a time. It was kind of
amusing to watch and the kid that won was fairly quick and sneaky.
After the top we had to pretty much head back to the
terminal and ride back down then eventually pile back into the bus where we
again waded through traffic back to the boat terminal. At the terminal they had
a few souvenir stands and we looked shopped for a little bit before returning
to the ship. Inside the ship we got changed quickly and headed to the Jacuzzi at
the pool area and stuffed our way in and stayed there for quite a while (I am
sure more than an hour). Then when we were done we went back to the room and
relaxed and ended up missing dinner by accident. Even the buffets were
closed. So we just went out and played
one game of bingo before deciding to go to the bar where the piano player is
and listened to them until they were done for the night. Then we went to Cyan
disco and danced for a few songs before calling it a night.
The pictures from day 5 are found here.
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