GOING CARACAS IN VENEZUELA

Well after the pleasant familiarity of the US, heading straight to Venezuela was definitely jumping in at the deep end. A fantastic country, but God it has its problems. Not least the fact that everyone you meet tells you how bad/expensive/dangerous/run into the ground by Hugo Chavez the country is and how they really want to go and live in Europe. They were right that it is very expensive, and Chavez hasn't exactly done a great job with the economy, but we didn't have any nasty run-ins - although the constant warnings did make us nervous and perhaps a little too cautious in our explorings.

The first night we arrived we went out to a traditional 'areperia' with a work acquaintance of a friend, which was a great intro to the country but as an ardent Chavez-hater she presented one side of the story with vigour, and although many people we met later echoed her sentiments, albeit to a less extreme extent, others were more prepared to acknowledge that he has done some good too. The food was great though - arepas are traditional Venezuelan maize flour pancakes stuffed with ham, cheese, chicken etc and were much welcomed after a day of travel.

After a day of faffing about getting bits and bobs done in Caracas, which is a lively and modern city, we headed to the coast and ended up on a pretty beach called Playa Colorada - so-called because its sand is supposed to be red (but looked sand-coloured to us). Stayed with a Canadian chap called Jack, and his 7 dogs whose fleas proceeded to tuck into Duncan's legs with much gusto. Whiled away a pleasant couple of days here - where there were loads of great photo opportunities but we were uneasy about getting our cameras out to take advantage (hence the lack of photos for this part of our blog).

Then we headed to Isla Margarita on a ferry in search of pizza and cocktails (although we were left wondering by the end if we'd got the right place). Although this island is supposed to be a tourist haven, we didn't find too much to recommend it - it's a bit past its prime - but had a great time there nonetheless.

On returning to the mainland we spent a night in a hotel which the guidebook described as 'large rooms, a bit tatty, AC, TV'. Sounds like a pretty good standard of budget accommodation, we figured, but turned out to be more suited to a 20 year prison sentence - or, as we realised when we enquired about the prices, the kind of establishment that rents rooms by the hour. Emma said it was always like this in Togo. Thank God we're not going there, Duncan thought. Sadly neither the air con nor the water worked and by the next morning we'd lost half our body weight in a sauna that Finland would be proud of.

Oh well, onwards and upwards. We returned to Caracas for a final night of fun - and a great hot shower! - before heading off to Colombia. We don't mean to sound miserable - we had a really great time in Venezuela, but that was probably despite rather than because of the country's characteristics. It is an exceptionally beautiful place, but not an easy one to negotiate as a budget traveller, and presented us with a fair few challenges.

Re Beard Watch: Not impressed by disparaging 'bumfluff' and 'tache' comments from some quarters. Admittedly early growth is disappointing and patchy in some areas, but it's early days and have high hopes for future cultivation. It's coming along slowly and we'll put up new, more impressive photos soon…