Chi Chi's birthday party, the owner of the hostel we stayed. If you looked up "Colombian" in the dictionary, you would see a picture of Chi Chi. Floral shirt, no shoes, happy beer belly, and a permanent scowl that always had a faint trace of a smirk. The hostel was full of artisaños, had a nice kitchen and a place to wash and dry clothes. It was probably my favorite hostel I've stayed in yet. There was always music and food cooking and lots of people to talk with and tell stories.
Australian guy who's been travelling for about a year now. He has plans to sail back to New Zealand from Panamà when he's done travelling.
Maurcilito, playing the harmonica. He and his french girlfriend and her son had been living in the hostel for several months and were like the gaurdians.
One of the many Argentiñians in Taganga with the french ladies son and a neighbor, playing Truca, an Argentinian card game.
Riding in the back of a pickup truck to Maicaibo, Venezuela, Rubén, Nicole and me.
I'm in venezuala. Home to Chavez. Geez. There's Chavez propaganda on every corner. Billboards. Flyers. Signs. Protestors. Everywhere. Our time in Colombia ran out, so we crossed the border to get some more time in Colombia, when we return. We're in Maicaibo right now. A huge, dirty, kinda scary city. Venezualuans are very different. Not as friendly as colombians. But everything is good.
Crossing the border was an adventure. We arrived at dark, on the night of our last day allowed in colombia. We slept in an expensive hotel in between Colombia and Venezuela and in the morning hitched a ride in the back of a pickup truck for about 3 hours into the heart of filthy Maicaibo. The drivers let us out in the middle of a huge street, filled with old hoop-de cadillacs. Gas is super cheap here and everybody and their mother has an old 1970s cadillac, with dusty bench seats that sag into the rust underneath. They all look like they're about to rust into the ground, but still manage to zoom through the traffic. Instead of buses in Maicaibo, there are old Cadi's, kind of like taxis, but they have specific routes they go on and don't charge as much as taxis and stuff as many people possible into their dusty rusty hunks. Most of the Cadi's don't have keys in the ignition. They hot-wire them, I guess. We were in one yesterday and when the driver wanted to blow his horn, he connected two wires; when he wants to turn on the car, he connects two wires. The only things that really work in these cars are the engines and the steering wheels (gracias a Dios).
Rubèn and I met up with Gato and his Chicagan girlfriend Nicole in Taganga, colombia and are travelling together for the moment.
Venezuela is expensive. Food is very expensive and we're still searching for a hotel in our price range. I don't like this city much at all, but I don't want to go too far into Venezuela because i want to return to Colombia. I really like Colombia. I was ready to go back as soon as we walked across the border into Venezuela and the border guy who stamped my passport asked me, very confrontationally, "Where are you going?" "Venezuela," I said. "Where?" "Maracaibo." "Si, pero donde?" he insisted. "what hotel?" "I have no idea. I've never been to Venezuela before," I said. "Well, you can't just enter a country and not know where you're going. I can't go to the United States and tell the police i have no idea where I'm going. They wouldn't just stamp my passport and let me in. Do you understand?" "Si, señor." i sensed a little "I hate the United States" energy from him.On the road, in the back of the pickup truck, we were stopped every 30 minutes by road blocks. Police men in their red Chavez hats asked us where we were from, what we were doing in the back of a pickup truck, searched our bags, and ran them through their portable x-ray machines. Their tanks were parked on the side of the road next to us. There are a lot of police about in Colombia, but it's different here. There signs that read "Socialismo o muerte!" Socialism or death! And everyone here has an interest in politics and Chavez that I didn't encounter in Colombia, Ecuador or Peru.
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