It was pissing down from a dreary grey sky when I got up at 06:30 hrs. and packed up my gear. Richard changed $5 US dollars into Cruzados for my bus fare and I set off with the Danes to walk to the Rodoviária de Boa Vista.
They were unsure of the way despite having made the trip a couple of times before and we trudged through the puddles for much further than we needed to. Boa Vista is like a mini-Brasília with a lot of open space between buildings.
We got to the bus terminal at 07:40 hrs. which was twenty minutes before the bus to Santa Elena was due to leave. Santa Elena de Uairén is a small Venezuelan city in the state of Bolívar near the border with Brazil and Guyana. It was Founded by Lucas Fernandez Peña in 1923. The city's name originates from the first daughter of Lucas Fernandez Pena Elena, and Uairén by the river that crosses the city.
There were only standing tickets for the bus remaining, but we had no choice but to pay 1,550 Cruzados. I had to beg 50 Cruzados from the Danes. The bus had very high ground clearance to cope with the jungle roads and looked strangely perched on six wheels near the centre.
It was clearly custom made for the rutted muddy road ahead and an Australian had described the bus trip from Manaus to Boa Vista as “24 hours in a cement mixer”! This was a short taste of the same as it was only eight hours. Mud and spray leapt from the wheels as the bus jumped and bucked but made fast progress on the water-logged red earth road.
Your eyes jiggled too much to be able to read! The terrain was grassy plain with isolated hills, often cultivated and fenced into neat fields. It rained for a while and in places the road was barely above the submerged fields, so it was like a red dirt path across a lake. The top of fence posts protruded a couple of inches above the water.
We stopped twice and both times I had to visit the “hole in the ground” squatting toilets. Passengers ate at round wooden roofed restaurants. We arrived at the border with Venezuela at about 14:30 hrs. The Venezuelan Customs searched all of our bags but were true to their “Strict but Fair” logo on the wall above the desk.
Next stop was Immigration in Santa Elena for our entry stamps and we checked into the Hotel Auyantepuy (Canaima National Park) where a triple room was 280 Bolívares. The Venezuelan bolívar is the official currency of Venezuela. Named after the hero of Latin American independence Simón Bolívar, it was introduced following the monetary reform in 1879.
I shared the room with two Dutch girls which I met on the bus. They had had a miserable 40-hour bus trip from Manaus to Boa Vista and one had contracted malaria along the way. She had to spend four days in hospital and a further couple of days trying to get a visa from the inflexible Consul at Boa Vista.
The other girl said it was really boring in Boa Vista but her friend was lucky as she had malaria and was oblivious to their time spent there! “Our Guardian Angel has given up”, they complained. At the border the Customs Officers were most interested in the girls’ knickers in their rucksacks and had given me a conspiratorial wink as they rifled through their underwear.
I changed $10 US dollars at the bank at 29 Bs Bolívares per dollar, but heard that you could get 32 Bs for a $US dollar in big towns. I ate with the Dutch girls and an English couple. It made a change to get eggs again. I had my first Venezuelan beer, Polar, which is Venezuela’s most popular brand made by Empresas Polar, the largest brewery in the country, founded in Caracas by Lorenzo Alejandro Mendoza Fleury, Rafael Lujan and Karl Eggers in 1941. Since then, they have diversified into all kinds of industries, mainly in the food and drinks industry.
After a quick walk around the small, pleasant town and returned to the Hotel Auyantepuy to write my diary. The other guests gathered in the lobby drinking beer and chatting excitedly. Before I knew it was 20:00 hrs. I had a quick walk around the town. There was the inevitable statue of Simón Bolívar in the small town plaza.
Located in the middle of La Gran Sabana, Santa Elena is home to many travel agencies offering tours in Canaima National Park, flights over Angel Falls, and hiking tours to the famous Monte Roraima.
The town is notable for its influential presence of indigenous peoples; there is even a community called Manakrü (pronounced mah-nah-CREE) populated entirely by indigenous people. The schools in this neighbourhood use both Spanish and Pemon, an indigenous language. In Santa Elena de Uairén, it is also common to find that the vast majority of residents speak Portuguese, due to its proximity to Brazil.
Due to its proximity to the Brazilian state of Roraima, Santa Elena sees a busy exchange between the two countries of Brazilian consumer products from Brazil and Venezuelan oil and petrol. Other Brazilian cities that trade with Santa Elena de Uairen are Manaus, Santarém, Macapá, Belém.
Most of the locals were in various bars. I bought a can of lemonade and went back to the room where I had a long and amusing chat with the Dutch girls about our experiences in Latin America.
The tall Dutch girl (I still don’t know their names!) said that after a ridiculously huge breakfast in Columbia “I was like and exploding food bomb”! We eventually settled down to sleep at about 22:00 hrs.
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