Rio Orinoco Ciudad Bolivar

Chaser 2
Yvonne Chapman
Sun 27 Mar 2011 23:00
We are in Ciudad Bolivar which is 08.08.35N 63.33.09W 8 degrees north is 480
miles north of the equator. Ciudad Bolivar or Bolivar City in English is now
quite a big city, but nestling at is edge is the old historic town looking
above the Orinoco River.

We left Chaser2 in Marina, Tech Marine Oriente (TMO) in Puerto La Cruz, when
we come this way and have to leave the boat, this marina is our favourite.
The staff are friendly and the atmosphere more appealing to us than the
other marinas here. Having said that all the marinas here are very good. We
currently pay around 5.5 euros per day for Chaser2 to stay here, including
electric and water, that's a very good deal. A meal in the restaurant about
3 euros 50 cents. Beer's 80 cents.

>From here we drove to Cachicatos to deposit Captain Ron with some friends
and next day we departed for Maturin a 4 hour drive. We decided to spend the
night there in a hotel, I use the term hotel loosely! Hotel Mallorca is
apparently the oldest hotel in Maturin. It would appear it has never been
painted, modernised or cleaned since the initial inauguration. We had been
to the restaurant and bar once before, that was the reason for booking in
here so confidently. The price for the room was 110 Bolivares about 10 euros
for the room. That I must admit did have me a little worried, Hotels are not
normally that cheap, this was cheap. However it was only one night, the
restaurant is excellent, the waiters and food very good with prices to
match. We took a bottle of wine with our meal of Serrano ham and Manchego
cheese as a first course, and an excellent fillet steak for me and a mixed
seafood platter for Yvonne. Before retiring to our hovel we took a couple of
shots of rum in order to summon up the bravery to live amongst the other
inhabitants of our room.

Next day, early, we left for Ciudad Bolivar, the drive was interesting and
the roads were unusually good. We crossed a couple of rivers with local
Indian communities living in their houses built on stilts out of the river
bed. Overlooking them was a lovely looking little bar, great place for a
beer, shame is was only 9am. We continued on to arrive 2 hours later at the
new bridge that crosses the Orinoco. This bridge was opened in 2006, prior
to that the only other crossing of the Orinoco was the Angostura bridge
100km further upstream.

On the internet we found a Posada (guest house) called Posada Don Carlos, it
is also one of many mentioned in our Lonely Planet guide book. We drove up
the steep old cobbled streets, then down a little and found the Posada, and
parked outside. It looked a little scruffy on the outside and we knocked
with a little in trepidation remembering the night before. This isn't a
hotel, it's a backpackers type hostel. The door opened and we were invited
in to a beautiful courtyard. Paul the manager (from Belgium) spoke excellent
English and I believe 4 or 5 other languages fluently. He sat us down at his
reception desk and explained about the rooms, prices etc. Basically 5 rooms
had air conditioning, 5 had fans. The kitchen area and bar was available for
us to use or we can pay for a meal or breakfast, which is what we decided
on, we are on holiday after all. Paul showed us to our room, a beautiful
high ceiling old colonial type room with beamed ceilings, 10 foot high doors
to the courtyard and to the ensuite shower room. This room was 200 Bolivares
(20 euros) per night, excellent. A room without air con was 160 Bolivares or
we could have slept in a hammock, a couple of which were occupied for 50
Bolivares per night.

Paul advised us not to walk the streets or promenade after dark, around 6pm,
knowing Venezuela as we do I asked him if that was really necessary, i.e.
was it so we bought our meals in the Posada, or perhaps he didn't want to
feel any responsibility for any muggings that can occur. Having walked the
streets during the day, and bearing in mind it is low season, so not too
many people around, I believe it is sound advice not to walk the streets
unless in a crowd in the evenings, which is a shame. The posadas are up
narrow side streets off the promenade, there are many streets and alleys
with little lighting. So at night we either ate in the posada or the small
restaurant opposite. Nevertheless the daytime walking was quite strenuous,
leaving little energy for nightime activities apart from lifting the beer
and rum arm.

The old Colonial buildings had been well preserved and maintained and many
were open to the public, free of charge of course. We entered 2 or 3 of
these old government buildings, old being a relative term because like all
of the Americas history only started 4 maybe 5 hundred years ago by Columbus
the Portuguese explorer and by the Spanish. The square had a beautiful
looking cathedral but churches aren't our thing, but we took a photo of
where one of the Liberating Generals was shot against the Cathedral wall.

The old town is full of shops in the mains streets and side alleys, some
selling gold and jewellery, this being a big gold mining area. Shoe shop
seemed to be everywhere and many at excellent prices, as you can imagine we
visited many and bought even more.

The following day our host Paul explained what tours of the area he could
arrange, another reason for coming here because later in the year we want to
explore further. One tour was especially interesting, 5 day 4 nights up the
River Caura. Everything is provided, hammocks 3 meals per day, transport by
either, road or canoe to visit Indian communities, and explore the real
jungle. This tour is 2000 bolivares per person (200 euros) gotta do it! Next
time. Paul is an interesting man, having lived in the Jungle of Brazil for
more than two years, I believe dealing in diamonds and gold. The business
there at the time being quite organised if a little dangerous. Here in
Venezuela it goes on too, but not organised, a bit like drug dealing, one
guy with a case of money and another with a bag of diamonds, normally one
guy ends up with both, Paul has retired from the diamond business, now
enjoying the fruits of tourism, and avoiding the craving for money.

We travelled a little more by car, we saw the plane of adventurer Jimmy
Angel that he crashed while trying to discover more gold mines back in 1937.
The plane has been restored and is on display at Ciudad Bolivar airport.

Our journey back was direct to Puerto La Cruz, a much shorter drive on good
roads if a little boring.

Soon our son James arrives in Isla Margarita having helped deliver a 35
metre schooner from Rio De Janiero to Antigua. We'll go over to the island
for a few days to see him before his return. Then time for more sailing.


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