Venezuela
Today you are going to get the “Bum’s Rush.” The abbreviated, streamlined version of events in this maddening place, for I am way behind on posts, have taken very few pix of late, my internet access has been limited since Rio, and am off shortly on another Grand Adventure. To Angel Falls. Yes, I survived Caracas (thanks for all the well intended notes of concern coming in from North and South America) and found a way in.
When you land in Caracas, one is immediately best by what feels like thousands of voracious handlers. Like the “guides” and beggars in Tangiers, they literally will not let go until you select one of them. Sometimes, they select you. Mainly by grabbing your bags, putting them on a cart, and saying: “What you want to do? Where you want to go?” Unfortunately, for most, that is about the best of their English. After that, it becomes a committee exercise, fathoming your intentions, as they consult their friends, security people, ticket sales personnel, and whoever else might help in understanding where and when you need to get somewhere. For me, it was simple. Get to Islas Margaritas, a noted scuba diving reserve off the coast, or get to Angel Falls. Other higher order “consultants” come and go. These are the guys sporting the gold watches, the tight jeans, the Gucci moccasins, and the crisp white shirts. They are the “dealmakers.” They come, when they are under the impression they can guide you to one of their packaged deals. They leave, when they realize (1) you don’t have Yankee greenbacks, or (2) you don’t have the burning desire to be someplace in particular that they can take advantage of to assure you what an incredible deal they have put together for you … only you … and only for today.
Funny to watch them operate. Everybody is under their wing, and assists their machinations. Ticket personnel (you go to the front of the line immediately), security folks (protection, no hassling about your papers), army and police officers (God only knows what part they play in this whole cabal) and all the waters part when one of these ordained creatures passes by.
The American dollar (despite President Hugo Chavez’s antipathy to the United States) reigns supreme here. With greenbacks in your pocket, you can do almost anything, and for a reasonable price. Use a credit card, and you may as well paint a big red x on your backside with an arrow saying “begin the abuse here.” I ask about Angel Falls. $300 cash (but only in greenbacks). All inclusive package. Airfare, lodge, meals, boat upriver, upriver camp, guide, the whole kit. Everything needed for three days worth of mini-expedition to see the world’s highest waterfall. I tell them no cash. Left Brazil with just enough for a coffee. “Oh, then it will be 3200 Bolivars on the credit card.” That is over $800 at the official conversion rate of 4 to 1, bolivars to dollars. Black market rate is easily 7 to 1, sometimes 8, and if a vendor is really hungry, 9 to 1. Even army and police officers brisk their hands at hearing greenbacks.
“Too much, way too much,” I explain. “Okay how about Islas Margaritas?” It is only a 45 minute flight offshore. All inclusive package, again for three days.” Coincidentally, that too was just about $300. But greenbacks only again. Or 2800 Bolivars if a credit card is used. Then I inquired about flights only. They are reluctaqnt to discuss this. They do not want to talk schedules or prices, only packages. You are misdirected by the long list of things included in the package. Finally, for a flight only to Las Margaritas, about $400. Then I simply inquired about just getting out of Venezuela, so I could visit French Guiana, Suriname, and Guyana. About $500. You have to go through Trinidad & Tobago, I am told. Just offshore. About a half hour flight. But still $500. Despite the very limited distance. It became clear, without greenbacks, they were going to Pork you coming and going, and get as much cash out of you before you went anywhere. Venezuela as a transit point, is a very bad idea (Note: I am not sure how much of this applies if you have time or means to access the internet, where I am told deals are slightly better). So after two hours of this wrangling and my incompetent handler getting nowhere checking on airline costs to just about anywhere, I decide to take a bus (10 hours overnight) to Porto Ordaz, very close to Guyana for 95 Bolivars. Supposedly a portal for private drivers to get into the adjacent country. This is what they tell me, anyway. I suspect it has more to do with getting rid of me, since I wasn’t a willing victim for one of their “Packages.” But I had to do something. These handlers and endless spin about going anywhere, in or out of country, costing $500 was giving me a migraine.
While on the bus, I meet Craig, a Brit from London who is just starting off his five month adventure in South America. He tells me he is going to Angel Falls. And that by taking a bus to Porto Ordaz, it cuts down on the airfare remarkably, and then you can take a short haul puddle jumper locally to Canaima – the jumping off place for all trips to Angel Falls, which is accessible only by air – for a pittance and just negotiate your own room and board once in Canaima. He quotes me prices of $40 to $70 for a flight once in Porto Ordaz. Says so right there in Lonely Planet, the Bible of South American travelers. Never one to miss an opportunity, I shift gears immediately. Was headed to Porto Ordaz anyway, but now I’ll just fly up to Canaima and reinstate Angel Falls on the list. It now looks affordable.
Making a short story long, once we arrive at the bus station at Porto Ordaz at 6 AM and the airport shortly thereafter, Craig reconsiders. He wants to take a day to “sort things out” and see all his options, especially on pricing. He wants to visit the local internet café to check the web. I on the other hand don’t have a spare day. Am at the tail end of the trip, the northern tier, and must make every day count. Either I go to Guyana, or find a way to Angel Falls. So I circle the small airport – alone – and circle it some more, and prices are … guess what? Not $40 to $70. $350 minimum for flight only, and the proverbial $800 for the package described earlier. If you are using a credit card. How I wish somebody had told me to bring greenbacks into Venezuela from Brazil ! And what about going to Guyana? It is waterlogged on the western boundary, and there are no roads. There was no way in from Porto Ordaz afterall, only by river. Somebody who didn’t get a sale was trying to stick it to me. You can only come in to Guyana by road from Brazil, or fly out to Trinidad & Tobago (again, $500, despite the 45 minute flight) and enter internationally – with a big export tax to Venezuela, of course – or return to Caracas and make moot the overnight travel, for about $125. So, I simply decide I am here, negotiate my best package deal (down to $500) and bite the bullet for Angel Falls. This is what I came here for. It is only money. And I’ll forego Islas Margaritas to balance things out.
The flight in to Canaima is beautiful. We fly over a huge lake, Emb. De Guru, that has more islands on it than Ipanema has sand grains. Follow the river Carao south (there are a plethora of them) up until we approach the small local airport at Taraipa. Get a chance to photograph the large, flat topped jungle mesas (called Tepuys) which have served as the basis for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fantasy novel about dinosaurs revisited in “The Lost World.” These table top mountains also serve as the genesis for Angel Falls. We land. The village looks faintly Polynesian. The power is out. It is only turned on in the early morning, while still dark, and after 5 pm at night. There is nothing to do here. I mean … nothing. For the first time on my journey, I am forced to read and study my notes on cinema script writing during the long afternoon hours between meals. Hmmnnn … maybe somebody is trying to tell me something? Uncharacteristically however, this time I am paying attention. And since I have either the beginning of pneumonia or strep throat, I cash in early for the first time on the trip as well, about 10:30 PM. But I am going to Angel Falls in the morning !
Next: Angel Falls
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