SANTA ELENA (12/04/09 & 13/04/09)
After our nightmare journey we decided to take a couple of days off in the tiny border town of Santa Elena before crossing into Brazil. As with every Venezuelan town we have been to the main square, or Plaza, has a statue of Simon Bolivar. The legendary Venezuelan made his name by a forming an army and sweeping through the Americas liberating country after country from Spanish colonialism. He is immortalised in the names of streets, towns and squares across Central and South America as well as providing the name of Venezuela´s currency (the Bolivar) and even the name of the entire country of Bolivia.
The sign pointing to Brazil and hopefully freedom from confusing bus stations and even more confusing exchange rate system (Venezuela has two exchange rates, the official one set by the banks and the black market rate apparently set by the government who do not agree with the banks. To put this into perspective on the official we can get about 3 Bolivars to the Pound, on the black market we can get nearly 8. Crazy...). Despite this we will both miss the landscape of Venezuela, which was way more impressive than either of us had ever imagined.
1 comment:
We are enjoying your pictures and comments on your trip. You will doubtless be doing a Bill Bryson on your return! You are certainly intrepid travellers.
Love Diana & David
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