Reaching Venezuela wasn´t too hard. Took a ferry from Tobago to Trinidad, stayed overnight at Port of Spain, and then headed to the docks in the morning to catch the ferry back to Venezuela. It left a bit late, so had to hang around the docks for a long time.
It was far more crowded this time and I met 2 backpackers from New Zealand who were in the Caribbean for the World Cup. They also found it a bit too expensive to stay for the whole thing, so were heading off to Colombia via Venezuela. One of them was on his first overseas trip, while the other had travelled all over the place, so it was funny to see the two of them. The novice studied his Lonely Planet like his bible, while the other guy just asked a few other people about how to get to Columbia, and what was interesting along the way. Since it´s cheaper to travel in a group, the three of us decided to head out from Guiria together, after a long customs check. Hopped on a bus to Cumana and stayed there for the night.
Cumana is the oldest existing town in South America, and also the hometown of a close friend. But it´s hot, and had nothing too interesting. Most of it was destroyed in a couple of earthquakes, so it seemed quite drab architecturally. I emailed my friend, and he couldn´t think of too many things to do, apart from heading to the beaches. So that´s what we did.
Ended up in Santa Fe, which is a sleepy fishing village about an hour outside Cumana. Unlike Tobago, the beaches weren´t as pristine and the accomodation wasn´t as luxurious, but it was cheap and right on the beach. There were also hardly any tourists around, so it was a nice place to spend 3 days doing pretty much nothing. Have been carrying only one book with me (apart from the Spanish phrasebook), so I managed to finally get around to reading it in peace. The only internet cafe in the village was very, very slow - a lot like the pace of life here - so all I did was sit in a cheap cafe, drinking some lovely fruit juices, eat fresh fish, and read.
Anyway, after almost 3 weeks of beaches (and some cricket), I´m a bit beached out, so will head off towards the south in the direction of Brazil. The two Kiwis are off towards Columbia, so we´ll split ways tomorrow.
