That said, ever since we committed to the trip about two months ago, I've been getting a bit worried. Venezuela isn't the safest country in the world at the moment - so we're following C. and P.'s recommendations for places to stay and things to do. There will be a small Canadian/British contingent at this wedding, so I imagine we'll end up banding together and travelling around, both for frugality's and security's sake.
The itinerary at the moment is:
- arrive the evening of 30 June. We're all booked in at the Hotel Paseo Las Mercedes (which is apparently in a very good, safe neighbourhood).
- free time in Caracas, 1-2 July (P. is planning a couple of little excursions around the city, to keep us entertained)
- wedding no. 1 (civil ceremony), 3 July
- out-of-town trip (location to be determined - see below), 4-6 July
- wedding no. 2 (church ceremony - the 'real' wedding), 7 July
- free day in Caracas, 8 July. Less than a mile from our hotel is the Centro Sambil - the largest mall in South America. Heh heh.
- to the beach, 9-11 July. We're off to the Los Roques Archipelago.
- depart Venezuela evening of 11 July, for overnight flight back to Toronto.
The Los Roques islands look stunning. All the islands of the archipelago constitute a national marine park, so there is next to no development - no hotels, no restaurants, no shops. Only one island has accommodation, and this is all in 'posadas', which it seems are a bit like B&Bs (we're staying at one called 'La Gaviota', which has been fully booked by C. and P.). Days are to be spent visiting different islands by boat, sunbathing, snorkeling/scuba diving, fishing, kitesailing, etc. Sounds like heaven.
Still trying to decide what we'll do for the three days we have in-between wedding ceremonies. There's not really enough to keep us busy in Caracas for that time (not to mention that the city is probably the most dangerous place in the whole country, crime- and social unrest-wise), so we wanted to get out and explore a bit. Initially, I'd hoped we could visit Angel Falls; seemed silly to go all the way there and not see the world's highest waterfall. However, it's a long haul from Caracas, deep in the Amazon jungle. I then found out that vaccination against yellow fever is strongly recommended for travel everywhere in the country beyond the northern coastal areas. After doing some research, I decided for various medical reasons that I didn't want to be vaccinated for yellow fever...so this has put the kibosh on Angel Falls as a destination, unfortunately. It may be just as well, however. It seems that all but the most expensive organised tours to the Falls are very, very basic - involving a day-long boat trip each way from the nearest town, jungle trekking, and two nights of camping (in hammocks). Given that I don't deal with insect life very well, I can't say I was too thrilled at the thought of open-air jungle camping. I'm a bit too much of a princess for that sort of thing, I guess!
So, I've got the Lonely Planet guide and have been doing a little research into alternative destinations, on the northern coast. I was quite interested in the city of Coro, which is apparently very historic (and is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site). However, I think we may now look at spending some time in Henri Pittier National Park. It's only a few hours' drive from Caracas, and has quite a range of geographical zones - deciduous forest, rain forest, cloud forest, and Caribbean coastline. This lodge, located in the park, is apparently highly recommended - I've sent them an email today to see if they have vacancy for the time we'd like to visit. If they do, we'll probably book - ideally, we want our whole stay organised for us, so we don't need to be concerned about security issues. The fact that they have English-speaking staff is key, as our Spanish is non-existent.
So that is the plan. We depart four weeks from today!
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