Lepricons... Lepricons everywhere! That's how the Venezuelan spoon woke up this morning... but anyway, traveling through time failed miserably. Apparently such a thing as a time-machine doesn't exist, which we were totally unaware of. Outrageous!

As the lonely spoon has no idea what the Panama spoon has been up to lately, this blog entry will be all about me, myself and I, the amazing spoon. But first we're gonna talk about how corrupt Venezuela actually is. To give u a clue... When I arrived Caracas, the first person who approached me was a police-officer. Bloody hell, already trouble? But no no, the police-officer wanted to change my dollars on the black market. U see, in Venezuela there has been a thriving black market ever since Chavez set a fixed exchange rate $ 1 to 4,3 Bolivares. On the black market however u can get 1 to 8, even 1 to 11 depending on how much u wanna change. Basically u should avoid using your creditcard all together as you will get much better value for your money if you bring dollars or euros for the whole stay, and then change it on the black market. The stupid spoon of course, did not bring enough dollars, but that's another story. Anyhow, the police-officer called his pal, and I had soon doubled my dollars at a 1 to 8 rate. Smooth... and even better, the policedude provided me with transport to the busterminal in Caracas as he wanted the traveling spoon to be safe... Corrupt police escort in Venezuela, excellent!

Is Venezuela safe? Yes, yes it is... As long as you take the usual precautions like anywhere else in the world, and try to avoid hanging out in Caracas all together, then yes, Venezuela is safe. More or less... The country still has the highest murderrate in the world, but that's just details... You do get slighty worried when they do a full bodyscan before entering a nightbus, but then again, it's prolly all for the best. The nightbussing spoon was told never to take nightbuses in Venezuela, but traveling overland doesn't leave u to many other options now does it?

So... I was heading down to Ciudad Bolivar to get on a tour to Angel Falls. Arrived at 4 AM, stumbled off the bus and really had no plan whatsoever. Didn't get much sleep either coz even tho I've gotten rid of the snoring spoon, I still were lucky enough to have a walrus sitting next to me. In the end u know, u just gotta trust people... U can't be overall suspicious coz basically, most people are just being friendly. Traveling is all about trusting people. Luckily I put my trust in the right guy, who took the sleepy spoon to an amazing Pousada. There they provided me with both food, shelter and free beer. The pousada is run by an extremly friendly family, also operating a small tour agency called Conexion Tours. They hooked the satisfied spoon up with a tour to Canaima and Angel Falls the next day and they threw in a free bottle of rum for the trip as well.

Angel Falls is unreachable by car, u gotta fly to Canaima, an indigenous village inside the national park. From there it's a 4,5 terribly uncomfortable hours ride upstreams in a wooden motorized canoe. When you're finally there it's still a 2 hours trek to the viewing point. As much as it's not a very comfy ride, it's still amazing. The canoe bursts up the river, and somehow manages to wriggle itself through places u wouldn't ever imagine u could take a boat... Thick rainforest surrounds the river, with massive tepuis dominating the landscape all around. When u finally arrive at spot, and gaze upon the majestic falls, it's a pretty damn good reward for the hassle you've just gone through to get there. The scenery is beautiful. Awestrucken...

The explordinary spoon spent the night at the bottom of the falls, in a hammock without a mosquito net and woke up with some horrible bites, but is still going strong. On the way back the spoon was walking barefooted through the jungle, whistling a beautiful song, breathing in the nature when it happened again! SNAKEATTACK! The deadly, very uncoordinated snake came out of nowhere, but the highly anticipated and fatal strike never hit home. The frightened spoon didn't even have the time to get his camera out before the snake was fleeing. Possibly, the intimidating spoon scared the snake so much that it suffered a sever heart attack and died instantly under the nearest bush. I can assure u that no snakes nor spoons was harmed during the encounter and both spoon and snake lived happily ever after. The second day in Canaima was spent visiting other amazing waterfalls, some where the waterlevel was so low that the wet spoon were able to walk under them. And swimming, lots of swimming... But no peeing in the water, even tho I pee in pools, as we really don't want any bugs to crawl up our penis now do we!?

The friendly spoon met a lot of people on the tour, two really cool guys, one english and one aussie, various russians, some other species and a little group of Italian mafias. One Italian girl looked like Penelope Cruz... Rrrrrrrr, if u know what I mean... Back in Ciudad Bolivar now after a return flight in a small 6 seat Cessna, I was scared to death... Will prolly continue onwards with the Aussie and the Brit down to Santa Elena de Uairen and trek Roraima. Google it and be jealous!

Buuuut, regarding the issue of not having anymore money, the borderjumping (yes it's a real word) spoon gotta enter Brazil to withdraw some Reais only to exchange it again in Venezuela. Gotta work that black market.

Long blog, short night, cool spoon!