We have just had the most incredible few days! Our trip into the rainforest started with a flight in a tiny six seater plane, where Alice got to live out her Indiana Jones fantasies by sitting in front with the pilot. Flying over this largely uninhabited landscape, we could already see the surreal tepuis - enormous, flat-topped rocky mountains - which would be our backdrop for the next three days. We arrived at our camp in Canaima, a little village where the Pemon, an indigenous tribe, live and met our guide, Toni (the strong and silent type...) and lovely fellow tourists who would be keeping us company. After lunch (the chefs were great, by the way!) we were taken in a canoe across the huge Laguna, where the water is pink from all the tanins and the sand is white, to a series of wide waterfalls. We were able to walk behind the waterfalls and get completely drenched - a very awe-inspiring experience! The noise of all the water roaring over you, with foam thundering down, really like a stampede of white horses - it definitely whet our appetite for Angel Falls the next day...

To reach Angel Falls, or Salto Angel, we left very early the next morning and journeyed down the Rio Churun in a motorised canoe for about three hours. Later that night we would compare the experience of speeing down this wide expanse of water deeper and deeper into the jungle to Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness'. Once the boat had moored at a rocky island, we waded through the water to start our trek up through the rainforest. Apparently we climbed about 300m upwards, although we couldn't tell whilst we were in the gloom of the forest, but we came out at an amazing viewpoint on the side of a mountain where we could finally see Angel Falls! We were really lucky in that the clouds actually cleared for us so that we could see all 980m of the waterfall! It really is impressive, cascading narrowly down a sheer rock face and creating a cauldron of mist and spray at the bottom. I kept saying how much the Victorians would have loved it if only it had been discovered before the 1930s! It was textbook sublime - completely overwhelming and very much worth the journey! We also went to paddle in once of the smaller waterfalls just below it.

That night we stayed in a very rustic camp a few minutes from the Falls where the generator cut out at about 7 so we had to use candles. We played games with our new Venezuelan, Pemon and Danish friends, each improving our own language skills! We fell asleep, exhausted and satisfied, in hammocks, listening to the sounds of the rainsforest and the very distant but omnipresent roaring of the Falls.

Today we have taken the boat and then the plane back to Ciudad Bolivar, stopping for Alice to swim and soothe her ridiculous sunburn and blisters in the 'Pool of Happiness'. Ciudad Bolivar is a gorgeous town right on the Rio Orinoco. We have found a really lovely Posada here and will stay a night whilst we plan our epic journey on to Merida...

Lots of love, Hannah and Alice

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.

Well, contrary to popular opinion, we are safe and happy in Caracas. We have probably never been more nervous about visiting anywhere, but as soon as we met the lovely Nelson, who we are staying with, we knew we would be ok! The apartment he has provided is far more luxurious than we expected for the price, and he welcomed us by taking us for a night time drive around the city with his niece and girlfriend. It was great to get some idea of the layout of ths huge city, and he took us to get traditional cachapas, a corn pancake stuffed with a Venezuelan cheese called queso de mano, delicious... He also drove us up out of the city to where there are million dollar mansions, and a brilliant view of Caracas glittering amongst the hlls. It is also so interesting to hear Nelson´s refreshingly non-polemical views on Chavez (he explained that the reason we had unexpectedly entered a new time zone is because live on air, Chavez decided on the spur of the moment to change Venezuela´s time zone by half an hour so it would be sunny when he got up...)

This morning we got up eager to explore, and set ourselves up with a breakfast of arepas - a slightly different kind of stuffed pancake! Then we got the very efficient Metro to Capitolio, the old centre of the city, where we sat in the Plaza Bolivar surrounded by religious visonaries and socialist demonstrations amongst the fountains and tall trees. We also went into the Catedral, a fascinating sort of caricature of a Spanish church, with everything made slightly more melodamatic. Alice also endured McFlurrygate.

Then we walked towards Parque Central - I am really enjoying all the srt of conrete, brutalist architecture interspersed with tropical plants, which I´m sure many people hate but I love. Lots of places seem to have a suitably socialist Barbican-style setup, with galleries, museums, theatres, shops, restauants and homes all in the same building. We have also enjoyed finding litte parks and plazas, sudden moments of calm in an incredibly busy and exciting city.

We also managed to get a Venezuelan sim card! So if you want to phone or text us, the new number is (0412) 9358453

We will write again soon - we have two more nights in Caracas before we head off to Ciudad Bolivar and Angel Falls. But, just to reassure you, we have not found Caracas frightening in the least so far! Love Hannah and Alice

So we left you as we were just about to leave for a lime with Mary and Peter and some of their friends. The house we went to was INCREDIBLE. It was at the very top of a high hill - Chancellor's Hill, overlooking Port of Spain and sheltered by a huge tree. The house was spacious and immaculately decorated, with the majority of the party taking place in the raised garden with a view over the whole of the city lights. There were two permenant sheltered areas with comfy sofas and chairs on either side of the garden and swimming pool, lit up with decorative lanterns and coloured lights hidden in the bushes. Inside the house, in the cool dining room, was an AMAZING buffet laid out consisting of samosas, cheese and spinach pastries, smoked salmon, olives, ham, mango chow, soft rolls, fish cakes and a cheeseboard (always the way to our hearts...). After spending several hours at the house, Hannah and I alternating between the buffet and the sofas under the gazebo, we drove home with no mosquito bites in sight and went to bed immediately with a very early morning looming.

The next morning we were woken by my irritating phone alarm at 5.45. We were going to set a hash with Mary and Peter - a cross country run lasting between 45 minutes and 1 hour 20 minutes followed by copious amounts of beer. We had previously refused to actually run it, on account of my recovering ankle, but were going to walk the route laying out the directions (as well as many 'false trails'). We left at 7am, drove a short distance to meet Mary's friends who had bought us doubles - roti skins stuffed with curried chickpeas, best breakfast EVER - before continuing the drive to the start site. We set off walking, me coated in suncream, and before long had encountered our first goat of the day. We walked for several hours through forest seeing spectacular massive bamboos resembling gothic arches with the shapes they created as well as twisting vines, banana trees and branches covered in spikes tipped with poison. We came out in farmland (filled with over excitable and hungry goats and over protective dogs) and eventually reached the top of a hill that was entirely different from all other landscape we had seen that day. The site of the mud volcano was flat and virtually barren, with patches of dry grass and the occasional purple flower. In spite of the rain that had occurred briefly earlier in the day, the ground was still fairly cracked and in the centre of this plain was three shoulder high mounds that burped cool mud from time to time. After spending a short time taking photos we set off down the hill to wait in someone's house for the rest of the people setting the hash before walking a short distance back to the base.

When we reached the base we sat in the large, water filled 'copper' for a short time (originally used for boiling sugar but now seemingly reincarnated as a paddling pool for adults) before changing and eating a quick lunch of pasta and salad. Hannah and I promptly fell asleep in the hammock and chairs in the shade after single handedly devouring half a pack of chocolate digestives. We were woken by a deafening rendition of Queen blasting from a car that had just arrived, its occupants joining the rest of what had now become a crowd waiting to begin the hash. Shortly after they set off, leaving Hannah and I behind to entertain ourselves by reading Harry Potter aloud in silly voices. Just over an hour later, people began to return, curry was served in polystyrene boxes and we spent a few relaxing hours lying in the grass watching the sun set and the stars come out. After being informed that I wouldn't get a tan by sitting in the moonlight, we helped to pack up the area and headed for home.

Today we have had a relaxed day consisting of Mass and omlettes for breakfast, whilst slowly preparing for our flight to Caracas at 5.30 today. We will write soon, love Alice and Hannah.