The past weekend, we went to los llanos, which is a kind of rural grassland tropical forest. Like the savanna in Africa. Friday started out with a 12 hour drive to the place. We stopped at a restaurant for lunch, where I discovered that my camera no longer likes memory cards or shooting videos or changing the flash setting. Luckily my roommate's camera cord is compatible with my camera. We then stopped in the city Barinas to pick up an Australian and two Germans, who would spend the weekend with us as well. When we reached the border to Apure State, our passports were checked by the security guards. Apure is close to the border of Colombia, so it is very important to have your original passports. Copies are not accepted. Unfortunately the Germans did not know this, and only had copies. Because of this, our travel guide bribed the guards 300 bolivares to let us through. This happens routinely.
We reached our destination after about 13 hours of sitting in the back of a cramped Toyota Landcruiser. Our accommodations were essentially 3 cabins with hammocks in them, a kitchen, a porch, and a farm. It was outdoors. We ate dinner and went to sleep. I was lucky because in one of the cabins there was a bat that was trapped. I was not in that cabin. There were bats everywhere all night.
When we woke up, we had arepas with eggs and ketchup for breakfast. I MISS KETCHUP. It was so good. Afterward, we were to split up into two groups. One group would go fishing for piranhas first, and the other would go horseback riding first. I chose the group to go horseback riding first. This wasn't like at the zoo where all the horses have memorized where to go and follow the leader. We were literally set loose on the wide open plane (which was actually a gigantic pool of water with grass in it. Yay wet season) and we had a guide to show us the general direction. We were allowed to go as fast as we wanted!! I went fast.
After lunch, we went on a boat safari through the canals. We saw a lot of animals, like caiman crocodiles, capybaras, snakes, lots of birds, and a couple people went swimming in the piranha-crocodile-anaconda infested waters. I did not.
After this, we had dinner, which consisted of the piranhas we had caught! It seemed like what they did was clean out the organs of the fish and then fried them, cause the head, skin, and fins were still attached. I liked it. Some people cleaned the jaw of the piranha to the bone and kept it as a souvenir. I wish I had done that.
After dinner, we went on a night safari. The guy walked out into the water and caught a small crocodile with his bare hands!
Then we all went to sleep. It was an exhausting day. Next comes the fun part.
We planned to take the whole day Sunday to get home, since it took us the whole day to get there. When we got up and were getting ready to leave, the guys who worked there were pushing one of the cars to get it to start, because they had played music all night and the battery had died. Eventually they got it started and we were off. About an hour into our trip, the car that I was in completely died. We pulled over in the middle of nowhere near this tiny farm, and assessed the situation. We had no oil, which was strange because when we left the oil was fine. A guy who lived nearby took one of our drivers to the nearest store on his motorcycle to get some more oil. Our guide tried calling the company to see if they could send another car, but signal was bad in the middle of nowhere. Eventually we got a hold of the other car, and the turned around to come get us. Since we had to get to Barinas to drop the Germans off in time for their bus, they had the bright idea to attach our car behind theirs and pull it along. The brakes still worked, so we could use them and not crash into the other car. We had about 5% confidence in our solution:
I'm surprised it lasted the two hours into Barinas. But, before we got there, the battery in the other car, which was the one that had troubles earlier, completely gave out, so we had to pull over in another middle of nowhere to switch batteries with our now completely dead car. But anyway, eventually we make it to Barinas, the Germans leave, and we find out that the company cannot send another car. There is no room for us in the other. So we go to the nearest bus station and find that there is one bus left heading toward Merida. There is one spot left in the other car, so I take it. Everyone else pays to take a bus back. We drag the car to a restaurant to eat, where we find that the car has run over its own rope and frayed it. When we get going again, the rope snapped. They got out and tied a knot in it, and we drag it for another half hour or so, until the guy who is sent to pick it up arrives on a deserted road with no lights in a winding hilly area. We don't care anymore. So our guide and driver bid us farewell, and the other driver takes everyone back to Merida and drops us off at our houses. We got back at 11 PM. Considering how long we were betting on this ordeal taking, we actually got home early. Our guide was furious because this had never happened in four years. I would guess the leaking oil had something to do with the fact that there were seven people riding on top of the car and we deliberately drove through as many muddy gigantic potholes as possible. But what do I know.
Some people are going to get some money back because of the thing. I'm not sure if I care enough yet. you have to have a sense of humor here. It was the world's biggest accident. I just laugh it off now.
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