VENEZUELA and T&T 2009

Yesterday we had a packed day filled with exploration. We started the day by taking the cable car up to the El Avila mountain that stands over Caracas. Although slightly cloudy, we got a spectacular view of the city on one side and the Caribbean sea on the other. In spite of a slight panic as we ascended and a long discussion about at which point we´d be most likely to survive if we fell on the way back down, we were every excited to be so high up and to see an aerial view of the tropical vegetation. We ate our squashed sandwiches at the peak close to the currently closed Humbolt Hotel, accompanied by the most amazing churro ever.

After we returned to the main city, we decided to reattempt a visit to the Museum of Contemporary Art that had eluded us the day before. Once we had finally reached the museum, Hannah literally had a nervous breakdown with the joy of finally entering and the love she felt for it, deciding to write a book entitled `Parque Central changed my life`. This decision was promptly followed by continuous comments along the lines of: "I LOVE these places" and "Do you know what? I REALLY like this" and "I think England should have more of these". The guidebook describes the entire place as "apocalyptic". A further spaz occurred over the Oscar Neimeyer exhibition.

After she had regained control of herself and limited her expressions of love for these complexes to an hourly basis, we visited the local supermarket to buy food for dinner accompanied by more Harry Potter.

Today we have visited the Museo de Bellas Artes, back close to Parque Central with Nelson`s niece Allie, and we are currently marvelling at South America`s largest shopping mall. It´s pretty big.

This will be the last blog for a few days as we are getting the night bus to Ciudad Bolivar from where we will visit Angel Falls and Canaima for three days before moving on to Merida. Love Alice and Hannah.