Day 3

Day 3: After a delicious breakfast we were off on our five mile hike up the mountain to see the Saito Kuyuwi, waterfalls. Along the way we heard howler monkeys, saw poison dart frogs, and an indigenous hut under construction by hand. This area has over 40 more villages occupied by the indigenous Yeyuana O Uaquiritare. While standing on the cliffs where the river branches off into 5 falls we are awestruck by the water dropping some ten stories into a roaring mist! No caution signs, fences, or personnel to protect us from ourselves. Jumel free climbs down the near vertical wall to a perch some 30’ below. We opt to frolic in the tub like pools of water along side the falls with a fabulous view of the water freefalling over the cliffs. At the village, we were offered and graciously “sampled” some yucca plant “moonshine”. The name alone and the clumpy, cloudy appearance in the bottom of the calabash cup says it all! Yuck!. The smoked fish, however, was delightful.

As we descended back down the trail we met up with several Senemas carrying gasoline up the mountain to fuel the outboards of the over 40 villages above the falls. These people are no more than 5’2” and weigh no more than 130#’s. For about $0.50 they carry 60 liter jugs in hand made whicker back pack frames with head straps barefoot up a mountain for 5 miles. This goes on for 3-4 months as the “richer” tribe exploits the poorer tribe.

Rio Caura-Day 2

Day 2: Admittedly, I thought we Westerners, with our capitalism, missionaries and diseases had annihilated these people and their culture. For the most part, the indigenous Indians of the VZ rain forest have maintained their traditional lifestyle. Their enormous environment is only accessible by foot or by boat. The dominant tribe of the region is the Yeyuana o Vaquiritare while the lesser tribe is the Sanema O Chirichanaos Ramificaton of Yanomano. The yucca plant is their primary food. A brown skinned tubor that weighs a couple of pounds, has a potato like center, and tastes awful no matter how we had it prepared. The yucca moonshine will turn your insides out.

In the first settlement we stopped, Las palmas “Sanema”, we were greeted by 20 nude children swimming in the river. As they emerged from the water, they ran off to “cover up” as was preached to them from Westerners before us. There are numerous “tribes” of Indians most often along the rivers and their tributaries. They export no goods or resources to the outside world and live a self sufficient life of fishing, hunting, farming, and family time. They are a peaceful people (until we distributed whistles to all the kids of one of the villages) that are very content and happy. Perhaps the “modern civilized world” could learn a bit? The facial features and stature of the people clearly suggest that their ancestors migrated from the Mongolian/Asian continent many years ago. Many of them had eyes that were a mystical crystal blue or crystal green making them even more extraordinary.

Off in the distance ,we could see a white sand beach backed by a forested mountain with exposed rock and mist rising up from the rapids at our final encampment. The village had built a couple of large circular huts and a commons area to accommodate what tourists they get here. We went for a swim in eddies at the base of the rapids and marveled at the roar of fresh water making its way down the mountain. Our guide said a German once tried rafting this 3 mile stretch but neither he nor any part of his raft ever made it out.

Young visitors such as Parker and Sabrina are an extremely rare sight for the children that gathered and stared. It didn’t take long for Sabrina to whip out her collection of caballos (horses) and enjoy hours of play with the local girls. Meanwhile, Parker took to whittling, reading, and game boy. Most of the Indians are quite shy and tend to keep to themselves in part because only a few speak even Spanish.

Hammocks.kewl!

Though I’ve lounged in a hammock sippin’ a coldly, I’ve never been relegated to spend the night in one. As I know some of you are wondering…hammocks are not conducive to romance. We each were assigned a hammock and a mosquito net (remarkably not as necessary as we thought). We woke up, refreshed and ache and pains free.

The hammocks became the reading spot and...I daresay Game-boy spot. “Hey kids look around, look at these leaf cutter ants. Wow, can you hear those incredible jungle sounds?”

“I’m almost done with the chapter….”

“I just beat the gym leader and caught a legendary Pokémon.” Oh well, their loss.

The deluxe camp site toilet facility consisted of a thatch walled platform with a 6” hole in to aim for while squatting. If you miss, quickly move your feet further from “the zone” to avoid collateral damage.

Somewhere Back in Time on the Rio Caura

The 5 day Rio Caura tour we booked with Adrenaline Tours, thanks to other cruisers and the Lonely Plant, costs us all of $500. For that we had our own tour guide, cook and boat driver. The owner picks us up promptly at the Ciudad Bolivar terminal and takes us to the Don Carlos posada, the nicest posada in Ciudad Bolivar. They have the 3 bed loft available, the nicest room in the place for $25. The 5 hour bus ride from hell is becoming a distant memory.

Day 1: Sadly, a freak accident involving downed power lines killed our driver’s two teen nephews. We strolled through the historic Spanish city along the Orinco River until another driver was found. In the market, we purchased some toothbrushes and whistles to destroy the indigenous children culture and introduce “civilization”. Ciudad Bolivar is a stepping off place for tours throughout the interior of VZ, so it has a backpacker vibe.

Did I say they like to drive fast in VZ? 80+ mph down a 2 lane highway is common. After 5 hours of riding on bench seats of a safari truck my bottom felt great. After fending off a macaw attack and hugging some newborn puppies, we are loaded up and ready to go up the river in a the 35’ long dug out canoe equipped with a 40hp Yamaha 2 stroke, the most popular engine around. The 100 meter wide river is loaded with underwater hazards (ROCKS), areas of rapids, and zero facilities. The fact that we carry no spares or first-aid kit is alarming to this former Boy Scout but laze faire to our hired help.

These canoes, because of their narrow beam and long water line, move very fast through the water. We have 7 people, 80 gallons of fuel, all of our food, clothing, hammocks, and supplies and we are going over 20mph. Pretty impressive. At the second rapids we are maneuvering up hill, the motor stalls…hhmmm. We’re looking down at the rocks and rapids while scrambling for our lifejackets. The driver has the engine cover off and bleeding off water from the float bowl and pulling like crazy to geter’ goin’ again. At the last moment, the engine revs to life and we propel our way out of danger and up to our first nights camp!

Pimp my Ride

Angie looked into an inland tour while visiting this beautiful country. The popular tour was a trip to Angel Falls, the world’s tallest waterfalls. Getting there required flying on a small plane, one of which had crashed the week before. Having heard multiple stories of cruisers having to wake up their pilots while in the air, we were convinced to forgo that trip for now.

Masterpeaces’ Alex and Isabelle went to the bus terminal for an afternoon to do some “bus watching” prior to their travels.. We, on the other hand, were persuaded by the unanimous choice of the tour agency and our taxi driver to use “Bubbas bus service” (the real name escapes us). Here we are waiting with our bags at the bus terminal surrounded by the most luxurious motor coaches I have ever seen, with “in flight” beverage service, movies, etc. Alas, none of them were our bus. Where is our bus? In rolls our ride just like the opening to “Pimp My Ride”. They pull the battered behemoth in and the engine hood goes up because it’s overheating. A peak inside looks and smells like something out of a 1970’s bachelor pad. No problem, they do upgrade us to another bus which also has no in-flight services, a broken bathroom, and looks like a 1980’s bachelor pad. Better I guess. The kicker, literally, was that the suspension was shot. Every bump in the road was a nauseating thud and sway. At our first stop, Parker, who has never been seasick, proceeds to hurl starting at the curb and finally ending at the men’s room across the parking lot. Poor kid even had to venture into the bus “bathroom” during the trip for more cleaning. Angie’s Spanish got a bucket from the bathroom attendant who even offered medicine free of charge. You can read his version of the trip in the kid’s section of the blog, coming soon.

I Am Leo, Your Taxi Driver

The area outside of the marina quickly deteriorated into abject poverty with warnings of violent crime close by. Cruisers did not walk far and used one of the many taxi drivers who “resided” at the marina. Leo the taxi driver is an urban legend in Puerto La Cruz He learned his English from watching American cartoons and is constantly practicing! “How are you my friend?”, he would say to everyone. Every morning at 8 a.m., Leo would announce in a staccato tone “I am Leo, your taxi driver” and his services on the VHF cruisers net. There were times I had to drag him out of stores because he just liked to talk to everyone. “OK, we go.”, he conceded “Taxi drivers make almost as much as doctors”, we were told. Most all of them were former employees of the national oil company that were fired for not voting properly. At $5-6/ hour when they have a fare, they are highly paid by Venezuelan standards. When not taking a taxi, the “barrio bus” was the “experience” for under a quarter to go to the open air market.

Andre, Leo’s competition, arranged a city tour for all the families. Angie coordinated with five families take the trip to the privately funded museum of modern art and metal sculpture. We had the place to ourselves and Andre jazzed it up for the kids. At Andre’s suggestion, we saw the “world’s largest tree fort”. Unfortunately, it was a funky art deco building with pod apartments cantilevered out to give the look of a tree. Angie had to berate Andre for this false advertising; the kids were expecting a real tree fort they could climb on. Kid’s museums, libraries and non-school parks were non-existent in these under-developed countries. The ½ day tour was a welcome break from home-schooling and the confines of the marina.

Cruising Kids, Tooth Fairies, and Halloween in Puerto La Cruz (Port of the Cross)

We motored just 5 miles, though worlds apart from the desolation of the out islands, to arrive at Bahia Redondo Marina in Puerto La Cruz. What a surprise and relief, the place had cruising kids! Parker and Sabrina were free to go and explore, only to return moments later with a whole bunch of kids to play with on our boat. Children from England x 2, Brazil x 2, Canada x2 and America x2 descended on Side-by-Side. The marina was nice, security was tight and the price was right ($7/night).

Halloween, though not recognized in Latin countries, was celebrated at the North American dominated marina. The children helped decorate the marina bar/restaurant with spiders, cob webs and their craved pumpkins. Squash was purchased in the local market so pumpkin craving was not missed.

On the big night, the kids took turns whacking a piñata with a stick until finally candy was dispersed everywhere. After the kids party, the families joined the nearly a hundred party revelers for dancing, drinking, and costume judging. To our delight, one of the condo residents made a haunted house that was really creepy. All the kids bravely walked down the hallway to enter. When it came time to going in, over half (mostly the boys) dispersed saying, “I need to go to the bathroom”, or “I need to find my parents.”

Parker dressed as a pirate and Sabrina a vampire, complete with fangs that came from my office. Non of the kids could top Joshua’s (from Sea U Manana) Capt. Jack Sparrow outfit. It was excellent! Angie was a sexy cat…meow! As for me …well I was the Tooth Fairy! I had wings, a tutu, magic wand and black knee high rubber boots to express my man side. My skin tight shirt and minimal undergarments were quite popular with the ladies. In the end, I was runner up to the King and Queen of Beer. I was so happy, I just wanted to “prance about” having won a case of Polar beer.