We didn't care much for the room but thought that anything else in Coro wouldn't be much better and it was hassle changing for just one more night here.

Just as the decision was made a large cockroach ran across the floor in the bathroom. Insect killer in hand I nuked the hole it ran into, but was unsure of a kill. They never come out if you are chasing them so I had a shower whilst I waited. Sure enough it came out showing off it's wings. I had it in my sights in the bathroom when Liz in the bedroom screamed it's in here. A bit puzzled I thought she must have seen this one before it came into the bathroom, anyway I had it in my sights so let rip with the aerosol. I left it running around to investigate the commotion in the bedroom. Liz was on the bed pointing to where I was standing. An even larger cockroach ran out of it's spot hit my foot and went under the bed. Before you could think about how to flush it out, it came out of it's own accord. This time I was ready, scoring a direct hit which slowed it down sufficiently to give it a spray salvo. With two cripled roaches swirming around I felt like rambo the roach killer, however I thought there will be more.

I decided to get dressed before all else, I picked up my Tee shirt on the bed and felt the familiar thud of a roach on my back. Aargh and arm waving sent it falling to the ground before it dissapeared under the bed. "That's it we are going" exclaimed Liz. With only 30 minutes to check out I didn't bother trying to get it so went into the bathroom. I kid you not as I was brushing my teeth I watched another roach come out of the hole I nuked earlier - this place is infested. I just looked at it on the rim of the door without saying anything until Liz poped her head round. "Watch it" pointing at the door, which made Liz shreak and head straight back to standing on the bed.

Liz skipped shower and everything else apart from a tense pee. We just stuffed everything into our bags and headed out of the pasada to the street without even first deciding where to go.

The next pasada was a bit old and crumbling but it had character and I liked it. We dumped our bags off in search of a vegetarian restaurant the owner said existed but might be now closed. It was across the city so we headed out that way keeping a look out for possible alternatives. Lots of clothes and watch shops which were mostly still closed, however absolutely no where selling meat free food (inc crisps).

We didn't rate the chances of a vegy restaurant surviving here. I almost imagined seeing it burning with an angry mob of locals outside disgusted that someone dared to sell food without meat. We got there to find it closed down rather than burning however.

We carried on walking as the nearby place we ate last night wasn't there anymore. Eventually we hit a bakery, surely this must have something. Bread and even croisants had meat cooked into them. However just as we were giving up hope I spotted some cheese hidden in the meat counter and instantly also clocked some bread on the counter that looked like simple bread - an edible meal (or so we thought).

I ordered a coffee and sat down to eat -we were so hungry. Cheese in the bread we started eating, it wasn't long before Liz found something with wings in the bread. She picked it out and being so hungry carried on eating. She then saw another thing with wings in there but this time hesitated before commencing eating. I offered a swap which she accepted but we both knew that mine could also contain an insect. Liz started eating again but had that worried 'about to wretch' look on her face. The kind of look you see on the TV series 'im a celebrity get me out of here' when they have to eat insects.

Coro is UNESCO protected, it used to be the old capital of Venezuela you know. However we have seen so many old buildings we decided to have a look at the sand dunes on the edge of town instead. This is a semi arid area in the rain shadow by the Andes on both sides, however one thing we have learnt on this trip is not to trust the weather. Since we have been here it has been raining and last night was especially bad resulting in sections of road being under water.

We instinctively flagged down a taxi but wished that perhaps we had waited a bit longer. Yet another knackered old American taxi. As usual there is a picture of Christ and if room the virgin Mary, we had a quick pray that we would make it 10 minutes down the road. It wasn't the speed that was the issue it could barely get up enough speed to harm anyone. The issue was whether it would break down or gas us before we got there (a cloud of exhaust fumes accompanied us on the back seat). The taxi driver counted on us being gassed by the strong exhaust fumes as he overcharged by at least 40p worth (a fair amount here). I wasn't in the mood to have a protest, I was glad to get out.

I was wanting to get a nice picture of the dunes with the long chain of the Andes as the backdrop. It had stopped raining but the mountains were still under cloud. Amongst the dunes however were some photogenic dead trees, it wasn't Dead Viel in Namibia but it was worth paying the taxi fare for.

Having done something we headed back to watch TV and via the internet find somewhere to stay in Santiago de Chile. Even hostels are expensive in Chile, I spent 5 hours finding the cheapest hostel but with some social interest also.

If half starving, chasing cockroaches, being gassed and eating insects today wasn't enough we could also add being s*** on by geckos. Putting up the mosy net was the simple solution, however this didn't help Liz sleep - there was something making a scurrying noise above our heads (interesting day).