Chichirivichie

Chichirivichie
A popular expensive beach town, dirty and not that attractive (population of about 7,000)
So we are dropped off at 4:30 pm on a hot dirty street full of tacky shops and people staring at us like we are fresh meat.
No quite true but it felt like it at the time. As Brent said our unique back packs are like Gucci bags to them.
We once again stop on a safe corner and regroup. We get out the Footprints book and look up the Posada we want to stay at. Now it becomes slightly difficult. It is later in the day and there is only about 2 hrs of day light left. We see an address in the book but there are no street signs (as they have all been stolen for scrap metal). Eventually we keep walking and see signs for hotels and then we caught a glimpse of the ocean. Now we feel better. The first hotel says that they wanted $150 Bolivar which is about $73.50 US for the night. We thought what happened to cheap and left. Next found one for $40 US a night and then settled on one for $30 a night. It was on the main strip and part of a store that sold general goods and pastries. PS We never found the posada we were looking for until our 5th day there.

We settle in and look for food and a few beers to take the edge off. $38 US dollars later we knew this was not a cheap place to stay but there was a party in the streets that night.

By the next morning we met a guy named Vicki who spoke English and was a self proclaimed tour guide who likes the sauce. He assisted us in getting a cheaper room with use of the kitchen ($20 per night at the Posada el Negro)
Day 24

7-Jun

Coffee
$3.00
Bus
$6.50
Water
$2.50
Taxi
$12.50
Bus
$12.00
Bus
$15.00
Gatorade
$1.00
Bathroom charges X 3
$1.50
Dinner
$20.00
Hotel
$30.00
Beers
$10.00
Liquor
$8.00

$122.00


Day 25

8-Jun

Hotel
$30.00
Breakfast
$7.00
Tour guide
$5.00
Beers
$5.00
Lunch
$8.00
Beer and a cooler
$19.00
Dinner
$10.00

$84.00


Day 26

9-Jun

Coconut Rum
$15.00
Hotel
$20.00
Food for week
$44.00
Beer
$2.50
Flamingos
$20.00
2 time food for week
$30.00

$131.50


Day 27

10-Jun

Hotel
$20.00
Internet
$1.50
Medication
$3.00
Cookies
$1.50

$26.00


Day 28

11-Jun

Hotel
$20.00
Internet
$1.50
Cookies
$1.00

$22.50


Day 29

12-Jun

Hotel
$20.00
Juice
$2.00
Internet
$1.50
Internet
$23.50


and giving us a lot of info on where things are and how things work. His fee was $5 US and a beer- Not bad.
Vicki had told us that the town is expensive even for the locals so we bought groceries and laid low getting the hang of the lingo, banking, internet and discovering the next major leg of our journey.

This town has good people in it but it has garbage laying everywhere and many dogs and cats that run the streets.
For the most part the town appears to be trying to clean up and the inside of peoples homes seem to be well kept it is just the outside streets no one is taking care of.

On the North beach it can be difficult to locate an area of the beach that is not full of garbage but when you do the ocean is clean and full of soft sand to walk out on.

On the Wednesday of our stay we decided to walk to the other end of town and go to south beach. This was about a 1 hr walk but well worth it. We were the only ones on the beach other than a few people fishing. The views were great and the quietness was excellent. Under the water there was sand but it was laced with stiff short foliage and scattered star fish, still very pleasant!
There are three main islands (Los Muertos, Cayo Sombrero, Paiclas) that you can go to for the day to beach it. $30 to $45 US for a boat so get in with others!

At long last a really cool thing this town has is pink Flamingos. We took a cab $10 US each way back to the main road where the Flamingos are located. Our driver tried hard to get us as close as possible to the birds and find the biggest flocks. It was truly worth paying the cash, although it would have been free if we had the bikes.

I must comment on the taxis. They get the gas for almost free for example an entire tank of gas is only 2 US max. The cars are old and have been paid for with cash. So why 20 US of a 10 minute drive?
We want to see more so we are off to Puerto Columbia or Choroni (the locals know it better as).

I would say you can skip Chichiriviche if you simply want the highlights.

Arrival in Venezuela

Arrival June 7th 9:00am.
What a whirl wind day.
We caught a flight out of Miami June 6th at 7:00pm arriving in Port of Spain (the capital of Trinidad) at 11:30pm for a stop over until 6:55 am to Caracas. Therefore we spent the night trying to sleep in the airport- the AC was so high you just about froze and of course a couple of bench chairs are not that comfortable, plus it is raining out side so you can not even enjoy the heat of Trinidad.
While in Trinidad we attempted to extend our stay there as we new we would not be able to pick the bikes up until June 16th so why not hang in Trinidad. To extend the fight would be no problem, only $65 each (cheap) but the problem was when we came through customs the agent stamped a pass just for the day (which is essentially a tourist card into the country –this sort of acts as a visa). Normally you can get one of these no problems for up to a 90 day stay. The tourist card can not be extended for any reason. You must leave the country then return. Ours was only for the night, so if we would have asked for 90 days upon arrival it would have been a done deal. Lesson #1

The next morning we arrive in Caracas, completely seamless entry through customs (much easier that Canada and the US). As we get out of the main doors Brent is bombarded with Taxi drivers via for his business. (Keep in mind we are tired and disoriented plus we are in a different country that speaks a different language and in a country that does not have a good reputation for safety). What a way to start!

We stop to regroup in a corner, get out the maps & books; re filed our id and we decide where we are heading? Why Chichiriviche of course- That sounds happy.
Unsure of what to do or where to go we decided to get of the huge mass they call Caracas and go to something much smaller such as a small beach town of 7000 and on that note I am glad we did that.
In the footprints travel book it talked about the beaches in Chichiriviche, it was near Parque Nacional Henri Pittier Park and they said that there were Posadas for around $7-11 US a night, seemed good.- Right

We ask at the Venezuela tourist counter about busses, of course no one can speak English.

Eventually we communicate enough to discover we need to take 1 cab and three buses to get to where we want to go. We walk out of Simon Bolival international looking for the domestic terminal to the left. Well there are no actual signs for the domestic terminal that we scene but there were a lot of busses.
The tourist office had said that we needed to take the bus to Plaza Venezuela and the take a cab to La Bandera where we can take a bus to Valencia and then another bus to Chichiriviche. Unfortunately the bus had signs for other stops but not Plaza Venezuela eventually we show a guy on the map and he points to Plaza Central. All buses are packed of course they need to make as much $ s as possible (about $6.50 pp) for about a 45 minute drive and no ac or no bathrooms either (for that matter no washroom stops along the way) good thing I had been tired, not eaten or drank for hours!
The first terminal was insane, full of cabbies yelling at you for your business, people walking in all directions, and buses that are driving within inches of each other and the public. A guy on the bus from the airport could not speak English but got enough out to tell us to take a taxi. The taxi was a rip off (we feel) at $12.50 US for about a 10 minute ride (but who knows- It was better than walking or trying to take the subway). He drops us off at the next point we find a bathroom- cost is $0.50 US and locate the bus we need no problem.
You get on and then part way down the road they collect the $s and 2.5 hrs later we arrive. Brent watched others pay and determined it was $6 US for both, it was. Finally we arrive at the last terminal and there are no signs for Chichiriviche we ask and people point eventually finding the bus in a sea of buses we get on, hot, sticky and quite tired at this stage. People get on and when the bus is full we go for the last 2 hr bus ride. This time we did not have correct change and the guy on the bus did not want to give us change, saying that was the cost of the fair. ($7.50 US each) Next time we will have the correct change.

USA 11 states and over 6500km

USA

The original intention was to get through the USA quickly and even be in Miami in about a week. We left the night of May 15th and did not get out of the USA until June 6th where we flew into Caracas.

Some of the high lights:
Mount Rushmore- Although free parking was $10.00 for the motorbikes. This was a great high light and the first of many sites to see. Mount Rushmore is one of the 68 wonders of the world. The sculpture and his son (who was 11 at the time) moved to the location from Europe and spent a life time working on the 4 presidents. Unfortunately he did not complete the heads so his son completed the last head and a monument for his father.
I was surprised upon arrival although quite grand I did somehow think they were much larger- (maybe do to the sized of the mountains in Calgary).
After we had viewed the sculptures we sat out side under a tree and made sandwiches and looked over the grand valley.


St Louis Arch- Wow this was unexpended and truly remarkable. This stands 630 feet tall and is stainless steel which makes for a grand effect. The actual shape of the structure is a triangle type shape and starts out larger and moves to only 18 feet wide at the top of the arch.- Cool!
This was our second stop and is the second on my list of wonders of the world to see.
This monument is completely free to see. If you would like to take a ride up in the arch to the top centre the cost is $10.00 pp.
We meet a guy who lived there and he was telling us that someone shortly after the arch was built flew a plane through the arches, to this date they do not know who as of course the individual can not come forward due to prosecution.


Ruby Falls- Our first on a whim trip to see something we had never heard of. There were simply so many signs on the highway (literally one every 5 minutes) we though it must be something worth seeing, and it was.
The mountain that Ruby falls sits in actual spans over 3 states and the view from the top of the mountain is on 7 states. The falls are actually 1100 feet under sold rock and fall a whopping 164 feet into a pool of water. This fall was discovered by accident as the explorer who was building a shaft elevator to the cave at the bottom of the mountain for tourist reasons came across a open pocket of rock when drilling so he explored the cave.
This took him 16 hours to get in and out of at the time. This water fall (named after his wife-Ruby) has now become so popular they actually have dug a path way for regular tours to be conducted to the falls.
This was a great experience and like most caves it stays a constant temperature inside the cave; nice and cool.

Georgia Aquarium- Some of the major highlights of the aquarium is the largest single aquarium in the place. Due to the volume of water in the tank and the size of the aquatic marine life in the tank they have 18 inch plex glass holding it all back. A major highlight of the tank is the walk under tunnel, and the 100 X 50 feet (approximate) viewing window. This tank has 4 whale sharks and it can hold up to 6 of them, plus numerous other shark species and hundreds of sting rays and fish.


Universal Studios- Another unplanned trip.
Brent wanted to take me as I loved Universal California and the last two times I have been my day got cut short.
Not near as great as California but many roller coasters and the 3D spider man show was great –exciting plus the comic strip part of the park was unique.
Finally they do have a pretty good City Walk and an excellent Hard Rock Café.

Off to Miami
One main thing to say about Miami is the beaches are is just that full of beaches. They are about 40 feet wide and go for miles.
We had an opportunity to stay both in North Beach and in South Beach; both uniquely different.
North Beach has a much more laid back feel with a more middle class working people. The area is great and the price of the hotel was excellent $59.00 on the beach (Ocean Surf with a coupon) with a continental breakfast and free wifi in the lobby and parking on the street is $6.50 a day. The community centre holds many different bands and events almost every weekend. The weekend we were there they had the 12th annual Brazilian film festival starting, great food, drink music and info on Brazil to which we took full advantage.
South Beach is much more about what you look like (are in the in) there also seems to be a more predominate gay scene in South Beach. The beaches down here are much cleaner, not as much sea weeds floating and although we were told it was topless we did not see any boobies. Another great thing is just off of Lincoln Street there are numerous vendors and restaurateurs that are set up in the middle of the street which makes for a great atmosphere, plus great shopping. We stayed at the Tropicana just off of 16th and across the street from the beach for $69 and it had free internet in the lobby plus a full communal kitchen for people to use and a pool, the only down side is no parking.


The KEYS
We drove the entire Keys, through Key Largo and all the way down to the most southern tip – Key West.
I must say not at all what I was expecting, quite busy and developed. There are basically no beaches. What little amount of beach there is is full of seaweed and I mean full so full you need to step over 3 feet of it to get to the water. The great and amazing part of the Keys is the beautiful views and the warm bath water that is the ocean. For the most part the sand under the water is soft and smooth; however there is quite a bit of coral and rock as well you need to navigate around.
Prior to going down to the Keys we had noticed that there was a KOA camp ground in Surgarland (closes stop to Key West) so we thought we would camp there. When we pulled in we were told the cost for the tent would be $69.00 a night, hence we left quickly.
Finally in the end we stayed at a camp ground just on the other side of the bridge going into Key West for $42 the best we could find as there is not much camping here.
Although we did not get a chance to stop in all parts of the Keys I would say the centre appears to be the prettiest and least populated, I would try this area if I ever went back.
Southern most point and the end of the USA.

See www.aquest.ca and photos for pictures of these sites