Since I was unable to post much from Venezuela, I am going to post daily journals here starting from my departure on June 27 and ending on my return on July 6. Some of this I wrote while in Venezuela, but most of it is just recollection of things after the fact.
The first few entries are really long and detailed. I abridged the later ones.
In Germany in 2006, I brought my RAZR phone with me and bought a SIM card from the European operator O2 for it. It is simple to switch them out and you pay by the minute, adding more minutes as you go. I had a German phone number too. It was a great way to stay in touch with people, and I am hoping to do the same thing in South Africa.
This is a bit old, but I wanted to post something to get myself thinking about planning. FIFA and the South Africa 2010 organizing committee released the official logo a few months back.
We checked things out in the airport to get our bearings, and then walked up to the third floor. There was a TGI Friday's, a Subway, and a Church's Chicken up there. We hadn't eaten in a while, so we sat down at Friday's and had some beers and appetizers. The restaurant was decorated like any Friday's around the world, with bullshit "Americana" junk hanging around the bar. It was big and open and it overlooked the arrivals area down on the second floor.
We spent a lazy morning relaxing and deciding what we were going to do. This was to be the last day that the original group of four of us, me, Andre, Patrick, and Wes, would be together. Juan, Wes, and Patrick were staying in South America for a while longer; I think Wes had at least another month set aside, while Patrick and Juan had a couple of weeks to spend. On this day, they were trying to decide if they should stay a while longer in Barquisimeto, go to one of the resort islands on the Caribbean coast, or split up and head for destinations such as Colombia or Peru.
We did not have tickets for the USA-Colombia match that was to be played in the evening, but the first order of business was to find an ATM that would dispense cash to us. The problem was complicated by the fact that it was July 5, the day that Venezuelans celebrate their independence from Spain. Most of the businesses were closed. We found several banks with ATMs that were open, but getting them to give us cash was another story. After visiting several locations, I think all of us managed to get money.
The plan for the day was similar to the previous day, but we would be rafting a class four section of the river and it would be a slightly longer trip. So we had our breakfast and this time we dropped the rafts in the river off a foot bridge right by the camp.
The rafting camp was a half hour drive back on a dirt road from the small town of La Acequia. After the USA-Paraguay match the night before, we had located two taxis that would drive us from Barinas to La Acequia, where one of the Guamanchi guys would meet us and take us to the camp.
Everyone got up at 7:00 for the ride to Barinas. There was a bakery next door that was open, so we got coffees and breakfast there.
At 6:00 AM, we buzzed the caretaker of the Guamanchi Posada to let us in. They were expecting us early, and they had rooms set aside. Wes and Andre each got their own rooms, while Patrick and I were escorted to the last available room in the place. It had a single full-sized bed and a big window that opened out to the city. Tropical birds were singing in the trees and in the dim morning light it looked like we were in a hilly paradise.
