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Diane's DiaryJune 11 Saturday We got a late start, as there was no hot water in the shower. Finally, they figured out the hot and cold faucets were reversed! They should have known this but I guess the owner was the only one who knew this! Anyway, the shower was freezing as they had an open window with no glass in the shower, which made the room cold. We had to walk the 2 long uphill blocks for breakfast in El Cafetin again. Unfortunately, she made eggs with tomatoes, onions ,green onions and cilantro in it. I do not eat tomatoes and there was no way I could pick them out. They did not ask what we wanted for breakfast so I didn't feel bad about telling her I don't eat tomatoes. She made me some fried eggs instead. Of course there was the usual arepas with jam (mora which is blackberry and was delicious) and smoked cheese. She also gave us hot chocolate and coffee but later told us this wasn't included in breakfast and we would have to pay for that. We thought it should have been included in the price- at least the coffee- but just paid it anyway. We left no tip at all under the circumstances. We didn't get started on our tour until after 10am. We had hired mules to take us to the same ranch that Andes Tropicales was going to take us. I had a mule but the guide brought a horse for Larry. The mule was definitely more surefooted but Larry had no problem with the horse. It took about 1.5 hours to get to the hacienda. We did walk part of the way as this portion was completely downhill. It is definitely much easier to ride uphill than downhill. The guide had suggested we walk at some of the steep parts so we did. The hiking sticks definitely came in very handy. The hacienda was interesting but ...! We could not believe Andes Tropicales was actually going to have us stay there - we would not have been happy at all. The bathroom was outside and I think was just an outhouse! They had no hot water at all. The elderly owner obviously had something wrong with his foot. I asked him about it but he said he had no medicine. I had some Advil back at the room so said I would give it to the guide for him. I also gave the kids there a small pack of cookies I had with me. The kids expression was unbelievable as it is obvious they don't get snacks very often. We thought it was very nice of the family to just allow us into their home. We certainly would not allow strangers into our home in the US! The kitchen had a huge amount of flies in it so we were glad we didn't eat there. They were shucking and removing the kernels from corn in the smokehouse when we arrived so we went to join them. The corn was what we consider cow corn in the US and is not eaten by people. But here the locals as well as the animals eat it. I remember once trying to eat it when I was in college as we didn't know the difference - the cow corn is hard and I definitely would not eat it. I don't know why they just don't grow sweet corn here but maybe it's the wrong climate or doesn't sell well. Anyway, the trip back went a lot quicker as we just rode the animals and didn't have any problems. It was actually a much easier ride than what we just had. We had lunch in El Cafetin but this didn't come included in our posada price so had to pay for it. We had arranged for lunch in advance. The lunch was actually very good- pisca andina soup, mora juice, and arepas with jam and cheese for 6,000B each or about $2.50 each. A little high priced but it wasn't outrageously priced considering we were up in the mountains with no other place to eat! We took another short horseback ride that afternoon down to the flourmill, which was extremely interesting as it was over 200 years old, hadn't changed a bit and was still in use. We used the regular "road" we had come up on so it was a very easy ride. It was fascinating to watch the mill in action. We thought both tours were very good and well worth going on. Most people don't do these as they have walked the 5 hours down from the teleferico so just rest in Los Nevados for the night and take the jeep back to Merida the following morning. We got back to the posada around 4:30pm and the owners had returned by then. They gave us a beer and said dinner wouldn't be until 7:30pm - late for us but we were OK about it. We rested and sat outside for a while. We went up for dinner at 7:30 but it wasn't ready until 8:15pm. We definitely don't eat that late as we usually are in bed no later than 10pm at night. On the boat we eat between 6-7pm. The dinner was horrible and we just ate it because we were hungry- boiled chicken that was tasteless. Larry got a leg and he hates dark meat. I would have switched with him but they had put a tomato type sauce on it and I didn't want that. They also had boiled potatoes, rice, slice of avocado and a small salad of potatoes, carrots and eggs. The juice included was also not to good but there was nothing else to drink. Larry asked for coffee and I got hot chocolate but it took a long time after dinner for her to bring it to us. We finally got back to the room around 9:30pm. The meals we had in El Cafetin were definitely a lot better. I didn't sleep well that night- perhaps due to the late hot chocolate and all that caffeine. June 12 Sunday I didn't wake up until 8am as I had a difficult time going to sleep last night. Since the bathroom was so cold with the open window we both decided not to take showers. We had asked for breakfast at 8:30am as we were getting a ride back at 9am but she didn't serve breakfast until nearly 9am. We had arepas again!- cheese, jam and another horrible juice. We were not impressed with her cooking at all! When Larry asked for milk for his coffee it took her nearly 5 minutes to get it. We went to get the taxi at 9am and fortunately he was there- we didn't want to spend another night here! All seats in this jeep had forward facing seats thankfully. At first there was only 4 of us in the car but than he picked up another man along the side of the road that had about 55lbs of potatoes with him that he strapped to the roof. We thought he was overloading the car at this point but didn't say anything. Then we stopped to pick up 2 more people so the jeep was now full. It had rained very hard 2 nights ago and the road was in bad shape- very muddy and dangerous since the jeep was sliding in the mud. We had to get out and walk on three different occasions- one when we passed another car and had to hug the cliff, one on a steep downhill section and one when we crossed a stream. We thought part of the problem was the jeep was overloaded- he should not have taken all those potatoes as they weighed too much with a full jeep load of passengers. The road was what I considered very dangerous now with the mud- the jeep was holding its own but it was sliding around so we both didn't feel safe. I was really glad when we finally got to the concrete section of the road. We had left Los Nevados at 9:30am and didn't arrive in Merida until 2:30pm. I would not recommend taking this road if it had rained in the past 48 hours as I don't consider the road safe. The locals know the road well and don't have too many accidents but one is to many for me! We got back to our posada and were just going to rest the remainder of the day. We did meet another boater in our posada that had just come back from Los Llanos and we wanted to hear about that as we also were interested in that trip. He advised us not to take the trip in rainy season as they didn't see much wildlife. We went for an ice cream and later went to our pizza restaurant for dinner when the boaters from our posada came in also so we all ate together. June 13 Monday The posada called for the bus schedule for us- the bus to Caracas is at 7pm and 8pm tonight. We called Giulio and he said yes, please stop in Caracas so we can see them. We asked him to call the usual hotel we stay at in Caracas, La Floresta, but when he called they said they were full. Since it was already late in the day and we were going to take our bus in a few hours, I decided to call myself and managed to get a reservation. We couldn't imagine arriving in Caracas after an all night bus ride and have to find a cheap hotel. So we'll leave on the 7pm bus tonight. Checkout time was at 11am but since our bus wasn't until 7pm we just paid for a half day in the hotel- around $6US so we would have someplace to hang out in and rest- it's going to be a long night tonight. We took it easy, packed, went to La Mama restaurant for dinner. We got to the bus station around 6pm but the posada got the time wrong- the bus was at 7:30 not 7pm. We should have come to the station earlier in the day to buy the tickets as we got stuck with the last seats in the bus- there weres no two seats for two together left on the bus, even though it was only about half full. The bus cama or bed bus was great - clean, and wide seats that reclined much more than a normal bus. The only problem was the AC unit was right over our heads so this made a very loud sound all night long. They did have only one movie (more would have been to much as it was getting late and people wanted to sleep). However, the movie, "Man on Fire" was in Spanish only- not even any English subtitles so even though we had seen it, it was difficult to watch. The bus ride went very smoothly and we only stopped once for a rest stop. We hit some rush hour traffic in Caracas so didn't get to the bus terminal until around 8:30am - only one hour late. We specifically chose this bus line- Flamingo- as they had a private bus terminal, which is generally much safer than the public terminal. June 14 Tuesday We went to our hotel about 9am but at that hour our room wasn't ready yet- we really didn't expect it to be. But last time we had arrived at that hour, they quickly made up the room for us. We went to the American deli for a good old American breakfast and got back to the hotel at 11am. They had made up a room for us so we were glad to go rest for a while. We both lay down but just couldn't sleep so just watched some TV. We called Giulio and he'll come pick us up later tonight so we can get together. We walked over to the bus station to get our tickets for tomorrow and to Sambil mall to go to Chili's for lunch. We were both still tired though so didn't walk around the mall much. We went to Giulio's house for dinner and it was nice seeing them all again. Lucas is 4 now and has really grown a lot. Last time we saw him, he was too shy to talk but now he was chatting up a storm. It was really nice catching up with all of them again. We didn't get back to the hotel till 10:30, watched some TV until 11 and both fell promptly asleep. June 15 Wednesday We left on the 10am bus for PLC. All went well until we reached the bridge near Piritu where the bus just stopped. This is the bridge that was heavily damaged in February and had been closed since then. After 3 weeks, they finally constructed a low-lying temporary bridge. Now this bridge was also closed because the river was flowing onto the bridge making it impassable due to the water level and swift current. We sat on the bus for over an hour while the driver borrowed several cell phones- we knew he had his own but didn't use it. Finally, he said to just walk over the bridge and get our own transportation on the other side. It was a difficult walk for us as we had very heavy bags so the walk wasn't easy. We got a taxi on the other side, which we split we one other person and paid an outrageous sum of 15,000B each- half the bus cost for about a half hour ride but at least we got back. When we got back to the marina, we found our friends on Aryl were right across the dock from us so we really enjoyed catching up with them- it had been almost a year since we had seen them. Elias had finished the varnish while we were gone and the boat looked great. But now Larry has to put the boat back together again. We had to sleep in the forward cabin, as there was no room to sleep in the aft cabin with all the stuff he put back there. We had a light dinner as we didn't have much food on the boat and were in bed before 9am. June 16 Thursday I brought the laundry in, as there is a lot to do. I also have a lot of hand wash, as I don't give any of the 100% cotton clothes to the laundry as they dry everything on high and shrink them. Also, the jeans are muddy in spots and I know she won't preclean those spots like I do at home. So there was a huge pile of hand laundry for me to do. Larry spent the day putting the boat together again- he had to put all the doors and all back on and it was a lot of work for him. Just as I finished putting a bunch of laundry out to dry, it started to rain so no more work for me today! We are actually still tired from the trip so didn't want to go crazy with all the things we had to do. We continued watching the forth season of the West Wing that Cynthia gave us- what a terrific show! I made my wonderful carrot soup and some lomito for dinner. June 17 Friday I went shopping with Arnaldo's taxi service today with Vivian from Autumn Wind. The store was super crowded as the locals get paid on the 15th and 30th of the month so it was difficult to shop. The line to get meat was ridiculous so I didn't get any. We didn't get back to the boat until after noon. By the time we ate lunch and I put away all the food we didn't do much the rest of the day. June 18 Saturday We had a flea market this morning but since many of the cruisers have gone home, it wasn't very crowded with not much to buy. I did some more hand laundry when I got back- it sure takes a long time to do. I helped Larry run a wire so he can put a cockpit speaker for the VHF in the cockpit. We always have problems hearing the VHF radio when the engine is turned on so maybe this will help. Anyway, it took 3 hours to do and by the time we finished it was 5:30pm. By the time I took a quick swim and a shower I didn't get back to the boat until almost 7pm so we had a late dinner. Naturally, when I started to cook the propane went out so Larry had to go switch to the other tank and this took time so we really had a late dinner.
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