Birthday in Santa Marta, Columbia

Scuba Diving

Scuba Lodge

Chillin´

A joker

Colonial Coro

Sand dunes

A church around the corner

Pelican sunset in Choroni, Venezuela

Well, we finally made good our glorious exit from Suriname and are both delighted to be on the move again. We were becoming increasingly twitchy after we decided to stay on for a bit longer than we really wanted to. But three weeks is three weeks. Aint so bad. With our flights paid for and some hard graft behind us, we flew to Port of Spain, Trinidad. An odd journey, but as I probably mentioned before, it’s easier to fly to Holland from Suriname than to the rest of Latin America. We managed to get a quick look at the mountains at dawn, standing outside the airport waiting for our connection. Very beautiful, but we had our hearts set on Venezuela and with good reason. Somewhat exhausted we arrived in Caracas the following day and were whisked through the concrete jungle that is Venezuela’s capital. Caracas turned out to be very expensive, relatively, so after a day or so of failing to find some much needed culture (the contemporary art gallery, supposed to be the best in the continent was closed for ten days – we ended up going to a kids museum!) we decided to head for the beach. We did manage a look at the Plaza Bolivar (and a chatted with some local old boys who were sipping thimbles of coffee while getting a shoe shine), but much of the colonial architecture and history of the city was demolished in the 70s oil boom in favour of concrete skyscrapers. That said, we had a great night at an English bar and the sounds of some classic Brit music (Beatles, Pink Floyd: We don’t need no education) – I ended up dancing arm in arm with a couple of really friendly Venezuelan lads and have to admit to being the drunken instigator of a sing-song rendition of Sting’s classic I’m an Englishman in… Venezuela. You can’t take me anywhere. The day before the beach we chanced our arm on the Swiss-run teleferico which soars 1,600 meters up the mountain that dominates the Caracas skyline. I’m not the biggest fan of cable cars, but it really was something else. Jaw-dropping, panoramic views of the huge, sprawling city combined with Caribbean ocean vistas and a path ambling down to a mountain village and the sea. The following day we were haring off to the coast after a two hour wait for our connection. In Latin America you need patience - we got chatting with a couple from Coventry. We got on to the diablo ride over the mountain and the bus broke down thirty seconds after pulled out of the station. But after a fiddle under the bonnet we were treated to a dramatic drive through cloud and rainforest, horns blaring at every turn with the sounds of salsa blasting from the speakers of the bus. Two hours later we arrived in Choroni and Puerto Columbia, where we are now. It’s paradise. Palm-lined, Caribbean beaches and aquamarine water with mountains looming in the distance. Needless to say we were slightly sunburnt after the first day. Mad dogs and Englishmen. Hiring a beach umbrella here is an absolute necessity. And the waves are hardcore. I have unwittingly managed to pull off several gymnastic somersaults in the sea. Well, that’s all so far. It looks like we might be making the trip to Columbia now after all. Two travellers have given us the low down on some wonderful beaches and the world’s ‘most inexpensive’ scuba diving. It’s something I have always wanted to try.

When the work is done...

We have finished most of the filming (more than 30 hours) we intend to do while we are in Latin America.
Further updates on this sites will be primarily for photographs.