Schiphol

Tuesday 21st June 1988

I got up at 07:00 hrs. and showered before trying to cram all of my gear and my new purchases into my Karrimor rucksack. I discovered in my notebook that I had jotted down some information about Caracas from the Lonely Planet South America on a Shoestring guide book.

It said that Por Puestos minibuses to the airport left from Avenida 17 Sur between Avenida Mexico and Avenida Lecuna. Thus, I shouldered my pack and hopefully set off hiking across town. It was quite a long walk. It was 09:00 hrs. and the locals were preparing for another busy day. Men pushed sack barrows loaded with boxes along the sidewalks.

Traffic jostled for position in the roads and motorcycles ignored the traffic signals, seemingly a law unto theirselves. Youths, whose job it was to lure potential customers into fashion boutiques made cheeky suggestions to passing beautiful black girls.

I found the Por Puestos Minibus Terminal hidden in an underpass at the location given. Minibuses left as soon as they were full, and I got one almost immediately. We sped through the rambling slums which perched on the hillsides surrounding Caracas, with the radio blaring.

At the International Air Terminal I was delighted to find a Burger King. It only served breakfast until 10:30 hrs. so I would have to wait half an hour for a Double-Whopper. I paid my 105 Bs bolivianos departure tax and filled in the tax form before steaming in to a Double-Whopper with cheese, French fries and a Pepsi Cola.

I started to read “It” by Stephen King, having discarded “The Dharma Bums” as tedious hippy shit! “It” is a 1986 horror novel by American author Stephen King. The story follows the experiences of seven children as they are terrorized by an evil entity that exploits the fears of its victims to disguise itself while hunting its prey. "It" primarily appears in the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown to attract its preferred prey of young children.

There was an open-air lounge overlooking the runway, so I took the opportunity to lay out in the sun for the last time on this trip to Latin America. Inquisitive schoolkids came around enquiring what countries the waiting passengers were coming from.

At 14:30 hrs. I went to the KLM Check-In hoping that they wouldn’t consider my “Pro-Bears” holdall bag too big for hand luggage. I got through OK and passed quickly through the security bag search and Immigration. I went upstairs to the restaurant for a couple of drinks before departure.

We finally took off at 16:00 hrs. The KLM flight team kept us stocked up with food and drinks and the in-flight video programme bombarded us with about a thousand cartoons. These finally gave way to the feature movie “Spaceballs”, a pretty wanky satire of Star Wars.

It was impossible to sleep. We got breakfast at midnight Venezuelan Time and arrived at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol at 07:00 hrs. Dutch time after a nine-hour flight. I then transferred to a flight to London Heathrow Airport and home on the London Underground Piccadilly Line to Hounslow East and then, finally on foot to Woodland Gardens in Isleworth.