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.

I think the ride to Barinas was quoted to us as taking three to four hours, but the way the drivers were going it seemed a lot less. Like two hours. Occasionally along the way I would see speed limits of 80 km/h posted, but the speedometer read 130 km/h most of the time. That is about 80 mph. The roads are very nice in Venezuela and people drive a lot there. With gas so cheap, buses, cars, and taxis are the preferred mode of transport. There are no trains and I saw no evidence of any sort of rail network at all.

The trip took us up into the mountains. We stopped at a shop along the way to take a break and it was cold and rainy. Quite a change from the heat and humidity of Maracaibo. There were some great views along the way. Closer to Barinas, we stopped at a restaurant with an open pit fire where they were roasting beef for lunch. This was probably one of the better meals I had on the trip, but it was only chunks of steak and boiled yucca. So far, the food had been plain like this.

After lunch, the driver dropped us off at the bus station so we could buy tickets for the trip from Barinas to Barquisimeto three days later. We would see the game in Barinas, then take a taxi to a small town called La Acequia where the Guamanchi drivers would pick us up again and take us to the rafting camp for two days. They would then drive us back to Barinas to catch the bus.

Dante located a bus company that was selling tickets for 60,000 Bs. There were other, nicer looking lines that had cheaper rates, but they appeared to be sold out. The guy selling the tickets told Dante that he would refund our money if the bus did not have AC.

I was out of money, and there were no ATMs in the area. I started borrowing money from Dante, who seemed to have an endless supply. I hate doing that, but finding sources of cash in Venezuela is difficult. As much as I did not want to have a lot of dollars on me for the trip, I was starting to wish I had brought more.

We got some taxis and had them take us to the ticket outlet in the center of the city. Along the way, we saw the red team buses for one of the teams parked outside of a hotel.

There was a long line outside the door of the ticket place, which appeared to be closed. People were milling about and driving through in cars and motorcycles offering tickets. There were about eight soldiers armed with AK-47s purporting to be controlling the crowd. They were all young guys, probably 18 or 19 years old. Dante started talking to someone who was offering a couple tickets for sale, but a solder came over and they broke off.

Everyone got in line to wait. There were people making hand gestures about ticket deals to each other from the line and across the parking lot. Dante, Andre, and Bryan walked across the lot to talk to some scalpers, and then they all disappeared around the corner. While we were waiting, I saw one of the soldiers pull a ticket out of his bag and sell it, trying to conceal what he was doing. So much for security. The soldiers were there to profit, just like everyone else.

After a long wait, Andre came back and told us, "I don't think we should wait any more." We got the picture and broke from the line. Dante had negotiated 60,000 Bs. for 15,000 Bs. cheap seats. $15 for $5 seats, but they were probably better than the crap we had in Maracaibo!

With tickets in hand, we had a couple hours to kill before going to the stadium.

USA-Paraguay -- please visit BlueSkySoccer.com for the report