Monday 27 November 2006

Well what a carry on. I can't believe that it's been the best 8 months since the blog was updated. I've got rakes of excuses but I don't think I should go into that here. Just get started again and try to get some continuity back into the posts. I kept all the photographs of the travels, luckily enough but apart from the odd hand jotted note I don't have a lot of consecutive text. Ahh but what the feck. I'll just tag some stuff onto the photos untill I get up to date. I'm back in Holland at the moment but that won't last for long. It's colder than a gravediggers arse and the old joints are seizing up and heeding the call of warmer climes. I hope to be out before Christmas. Health issues have clouded my southern skies for the past few months. But those are other stories. Part of catching up. If you have the time and inclination to stick with me then we'll be back on track in no time. So where should we start. Probably at the point of departure. I boarded a plane for Curacao at the beginning of May as I remember it. This with the lively intention of connecting with an Avior flight to Valencia in Venezuela. Ahhhhhh. The best laid plans of mice and men. Missed the transfer. Curacao airport dies as soon as the last flight leaves and of course no one takes euros. Churlish of me to expect that an ex-dutch colony would prefer euros to dollars. You might as well try paying in conch shells. No taxi. No sympathy. The only place to change euros was the nearest hotel...bar...casino...shit-hole. They call it the airport hotel but only because it corresponds approximately with the end of the longest runway. That shit I wrote about packing a small bag was actually just that. Shit. The bag I had was something akin to the rock of Sisyphus. I think all my problems later in the journey were probably due to dragging that burden along miles of featureless road. But I made it. Checked into the hotel, hit the bar and tried to stay sober enough to get back to the airport by eight the next morning. Didn't manage to say sober but did manage the early start, thanks be to the lord for those tap-dancing cockroaches.Anyway no alternative flight to Valencia. Got ripped on a small 15 minute flight to Punto Figo. At least I got onto the mainland. Next post Venezuela.