After a very frustrating time at the ATM in the Santiago airport (it would only allow us to withdraw £20 worth of Chilean pesos at a time, and the bank had rather unhelpfully blocked Steves card AGAIN), we managed to exchange some money for USD at the exchange window (they wouldnt take cards only cash grrr), and then after a nail bitingly long security queue (bloody school children on tour), we JUST made our flight to Caracas with some USD in hand. We had read that you need to take USD's in to Venezuela, as you can exchange them for around 7 to 1 bolivares, instead of the 3 to 1 'official' rate you will get when withdrawing cash from a local ATM.
Then after a mad dash between the international and domestic terminals, all the while avoiding currency exchange touts that wanted our hard won USD at a bad rate, we made it to the Isla Margarita with about 50 venezuelan bolivares on us (after paying departure taxes). We had, perhaps naively thought that we would be able to exchange USD for bolivares on arrival on the Isla Margarita. However when we did land around 9pm at night, the only Cambio was closed, and there was a distinct lack of currency exchange touts in the smaller airport. So off we went looking for an ATM so that we could withdraw bolivares (bad rate but needs must), in order to get a taxi to our hostel (50 bolivares wasnt going to be enough). Mind you we only needed enough bolivares to get to the hostel, where they had promised to exchange more USD for us at a decent rate.
So we found a row of about 6 ATMs in the airport and thought, yippee, no problems here. However the first 2 ATMs were not working at all (black monitors). The third was a Venezuelan only bank, and the remaining ATMs all had signs saying they were temporarily out of order - oh bugger. So to sum up we are in the airport at around 9h30pm without enough local currency to get to the hostel, which is by no means close enough to hike it..slight panic. So off we went to the taxi rank to ask whether they would accept payment in USD, which thankfully they were more than happy to do.
So after an eventful journey we eventually arrived at the Hotel Patrick in Juan Griego and managed to get a late dinner (fish and chips of course) before retiring for the night, exhausted. The hostel was run by an Irish character who was very helpful and made us feel at home, and the hostel had a great living area with a bar, pool table and hammocks.
The following morning we got our first sight of Juan Griego, a small fishing village, with the beach full of fishing boats, and the odd fish head (it was a working fishing village, not just a couple of boats for the benefit of the tourists), and the water was full of hundreds of pelicans. An amazing sight, I dont think Id ever seen a real live pelican before, nevermind hundreds of them perching on fishing boats and bobbing around in the water / diving for fish. The only catch was that you couldnt really swim on that beach because of all the fishing boats, so we got a taxi 10 minutes away to the nearest swimming beach called Playa Caribe. Now its worth mentioning at this point that there are some interesting cars passing for taxis on this island. We have been in old Fords straight out of the 1970's with doors that only open on one side, and where the inside door panelling has all come away! Cuba eat your heart out!
Also, after the freezing cold of Chile, the heat of Venezuela was very welcome, and it has been 30 plus degrees here every day, and pretty humid to boot, apparently its the rainy season, although its hardly rained here at all.
We spent the next couple of days lying around on various nearby beaches, eating seafood for lunch and dinner (fresh prawns, calamari and fish all plentiful here), until it was time for us to move across to the East side of the island. Oh, and I should mention the sunsets as Juan Griego does have some stunners. We had pre booked in to another hostel (Villa Del Sol) in Playa El Agua, so that we could have a look at the East side of the island too.
This turned out to be a Godsend, the hostel was fantastic (well more like a hotel), with tv's, fridges and working air conditioning in the rooms, and a daily cleaning service, not to mention the free breakfasts and Wifi, and the private balcony with hammock, overlooking the pool! Playa El Agua is clearly the more touristy side of the island and is more developed with hotels, and lots of other gringos! The beaches on the Juan Griego (West) side of the island were full of local Venezuelan families on holiday that kept looking at me as though I was the whitest human they had ever seen. It was only after leaving the Juan Griego side of the island that we realised how different Playa El Agua is.
Playa El Agua was a long white sandy beach that was only a five minute walk from the hostel, and the hostel provided us with free tordo's (sun shade with loungers) - score! Que another 4 days lying around on the beach and catching a few rays. Steve is currently a lovely golden bronze colour and I am a lovely lobster red, which is now starting to peel (well no change since the last time I hit the sun then).
The only other thing worth mentioning about the Isla Margarita is that there are people walking along the beach with armfuls of freshwater pearls, which they sell at the price of a string of fake pearls in London. So of course, I had to get some of those. We also took a taxi through to Polymar on one day, for a look around their shopping centre. I was pleased to find another Subway and a McDonalds (Subway are everywhere Jemma, but not as good as Fenchurch street as they didnt have a toaster, and I didnt understand what salads they were offering in Spanish). They also had a pearl shop, again selling freshwater pearls on the cheap, so I bought a bracelet...I am now officially all pearled up- hooray! I remember Julie saying that Venezuela was great for buying pearls and now I know why! We also spent some time walking around that shopping centre trying to find some Havianas (flip flops) but alas they dont seem to import them from Brazil, so we ended up with Ipanemas instead (pretty much the same only made of recycled rubber).
The Monday before we left we were booked in for a snorkelling trip with Magic Tours. So we got up early and although it was raining we trundled down to the beach to the Magic tours office at 08h30. However when we got there, there was no one around, so we waited about 10 minutes, and true to South American time, eventually a woman slowly gets out of a stopped car and makes her way over to the door. She seemed surprised to see us waiting there in the rain (despite our previous booking), and when we said 'snorkelling', quickly made a call on her mobile, and then told us it was postponed until 'Manana' due to the rain. Anyway we made good use of the time later that day booking the next leg of our journey (a lodge in the Amazon for a week, and later a nightbus from Lima to Cusco).
Yesterday morning we headed back down to Magic tours for the snorkelling trip, and this time a mini bus arrived to collect us. Despite us choosing 'English' as our preferred language on the tour sheet, the driver didnt speak one word of English and ushered us in to the waiting mini bus for the transfer with a hand signal. There were 3 other english speaking tourists in the bus so we got talking to them. Then when we got to the beach, the bus driver split us up (the three of them on one boat) and then took Steve and I over to another boat and had a conversation with a boat guy in spanish, and then walked away and left us there without a word - lovely. I was just starting to wonder if we'd been sold to the highest bidder when a bus load of other tourists arrived to join our party. We then got ushered on to a boat (still not a word of English), which required us to walk out till we were waist deep in the water.
Once on the boat, we were relieved to find someone that at last spoke some english, that turned out to be a dive instructor. The majority of the boat were actually going diving and 5 of us were going snorkelling. So off we went to the nearby Coche Islands (thankfully no BFH breakdown), where we got off at a sort of house, and they fed the pelicans to give us a bit of a show, while the divers got in to their gear. Then we were ready to set off again and the boat took us to the first snorkelling spot just around the corner. We saw a load of fish, although the coral wasnt great there, including some cuttlefish (changing to a blue colour). Then after the snorkelling, back to the house where they had been barbequeing (braaing) for our lunch.
I could have sworn it was chicken, but when we asked the guide he said we were eating braaied pelican and promised he wasnt pulling our leg. So pelican pretty much tastes like chicken. After a tasty lunch we went on to the second dive spot were we saw loads more fish and some big coral moving with the sea. I also spotted a black eel and an orange starfish, so was pleased with that. So all in all it made for a good day out, although the english speaking guide was really for the divers, so we didnt have anyone on the boat talking to us snorkellers after all - bit odd. Was great to do a bit of snorkelling again, as we hadn't done that in a while, and the water was very clear and warm, so we just floated along most of the time.
Anyhow tonight is our last night on the island, so we went for a big steak dinner at one of the few restaurants (the beach shuts down at night, strangely, all the tourists seem to eat in their own hotels from what we can gather). Tomorrow we head for the airport, and 2 flights later we should be in Lima. Then we've got 2 nights in Lima before we fly up to Iquitos for our one week Amazon trip. Ive just looked at the weather in Iquitos and it varies between around 21 degrees and 33 degrees year round, so its going to be another scorcher. We start taking the Malarone tablets tomorrow for the Malaria too.
I am looking forward to the boat ride down the Amazon and the excursions they have planned from the lodge, as it is sure to be one of the highlights of our trip. With any luck we will see some of the famous pink river dolphins, fingers crossed. I think thats about all for now.
Take care and love to all at home.
Kirst x
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