Having had enough of Brazil we made a last minute decision to leave. Our lonely planet told us that we need a tourist card to get across the Venezuelan border. We decided to get the bus to the Venezuelan consulate. Amougst the free for all and with our luggage we admitted defeat and hailed a taxi. Finally getting to the street where the consulate is, we took a stroll. At one point Stevie pointed out a derelict building and joked that was the embassy. Only for us to look at the number... It was the Venezuelan consulate!!! Amougst the rubble was a builder who tried to give us directions. Luck behave it. Another builder who dropped off some material gave us a lift.

Finally at the Venezuelan embassy number 2 who claimed all we needed were are our passports and vaccinations!. No tourist card.

The bus we wanted no longer went straight to Venezuela.... So after a 5 hour wait....a 12 hour bus ride to Boa Vista and a 3.5 hour bus ride to the border town of Pacaraima, we were going to stroll across the border. Not before we have some Venezeulan currency. We changed up our Brazilian Real on the black market, the exchange rate is 4.4 double the official. Stamped out of Brazil....Check!

We were so very close to finally getting into Venezuela a few steps and some rubbish spainish we were stamped into Venezuela!!!!!

We already knew that to get to Santa Elena we had to get a taxi as there were no buses however there also seemed to be no taxi's!!!!....oh well we had walked from Brazil already we may as well keep going, 'it can't be far' we hoped!!!....after half an hour of walking in the midday sun with our slightly heavy backpacks we were about to give up when we heard a toot and a lady pulled up in her truck, we jumped in the back and had the cool breeze in our hair all the way to town, score!!!! Excitement building...this is what we needed! After driving about 5miles the lady stopped and we jumped out (like we could have walked that! Ha) and we showed a local our map of the area and pointed to the road we needed, 15 minute walk he says and points straight ahead..... Another half an hour later we finally found Hotel Michelle, dumped our bags, showered and grabbed our first venezuelan meal...spag bol!!!!

Now to find out about some tours and change up the rest of our Brazilian real on the black market...it's a much better rate and it makes us feel like hard nuts!