We are of course here to see Angel Falls the tallest water fall in the world just shy of 1km drop. This is in a remote part of the jungle that can only be reached via small plane, dugout canoe and then finally trecking.

The trecking part was going to be a problem for Liz who was still having difficulty walking even to the toilet. Getting desparate for a solution we headed out for some anti inflamitory cream on the hope that it may help.

The short route gave us the chance of seeing the mighty Orinoco river and more of the lovely historic brightly painted buildings and cathedral (currently being concidered for protection by UNESCO). Despite Liz's snail pace she was waiting for me as I photographed pretty much everything. When we got back I headed out alone to do it all again.

Discussing the trip with pasada owner Paul, he ruled Liz out of the trecking. He was a ex trials rider and had broken pretty much everything before. He didn't think Liz's toe was broken however and suggested seeing the doctor at the clinic in nearby San Pedro. Liz's protests were ignored and Paul kindly took us in his car.

The doctor didn't speak any English so Paul was invaluable in translating for us (the health section in our phrase book had never been read). Paul disappeared back to the pasada leaving Liz to have an X ray and an anti inflamitory drip.

The X Ray showed that there was no break and the doctor was confident of no pain in two days. Attention focused on the bill and the inevitable issues with communication. Luckily a local spoke English and the bill was not that scary.

What was supposed to be the easy bit -getting a taxi back proved to be the most problematic. The taxi driver didn't know or understand where we were staying. We initially thought we could direct him but we hadn't payed that much attention on the route coming.

Good old sharades came into being. The only thing I could think of was the cathedral so I started praying literally before him in the hope that he would understand church with a few grande's to indicate big church. He didn't seem that good at sharades so we switched to pictionary using the envelope Liz's X rays came in. I drew a big spire and covered the place with crosses. He still looked blank. With expectations lowered I just wrote down the town name and hoped for the best. That worked! He took us to the cathedral where he insisted on writting down the name with a lot of laughs (I wonder if they play sharades here).

By this time we were starving we had only eaten some fruit from the market in the two days here. We went across the road to a local eatery where you sat pretty much in the kitchen and tried to ignore the mouse/rat that was running around. These places don't have menus you have to ask for what they can prepare for you based on what they have. Vegetarian Plato was ordered and we sat down with a couple of beers to settle the nerves.

The Venezuelans are very variable some are aloof and short whilst others can be more friendly. We started a very limited conversation with the owner but due to our none existant Spanish it turned into a Spanish lesson with the few English words she knew.

A Venezuelan called Gustav was listening, he spent some time in England in the 70's and could just hold a conversation in English with us using the occasional Spanish word to help out. He loved London and told us an amusing story of how his friend illustrated the differences between the two countries by dancing round and pulling faces at a stern looking policeman. Gustav was amazed, in Venezuela you would have be thrown into jail.

We became friendly, we agreed to meet again the next day when he would give us some crystals.