Up before dawn. Shortly before 5 AM to be exact.

Immense thunderstorm passing through. The hotel echoes for several seconds after each thunderclap.

Showers and out the door before 6. Can’t find any working ATMs so finally drop Lethy off at the first municipal stop of the day around 6:15.

Hang around until 8 when Lethy sends me to pack up the room. Pack, nap until 10. At 10 I go to find Lethy, no luck. Noon I check out. 1PM Lethy back at the hotel, we have lunch.

2PM back at a different municipal building. Apparently we just got married again. 2:45 and we’re at a different building yet.

So much for the “arrive in Caracas before dark” plan.

The time spent finally pays off though, around 3:30 she gets a new Venezuelan national ID card. Hopefully that will help with the passport.

We say our goodbyes to Suegro y Suegra and quickly fill the gas tank and hit the road.

Smooth sailing all the way to Encrucijada as night falls. Really awesome clouds and color as the sun sets as we approach the mountains.

Bands of pink in the sunset sky

We enter the autopista and not 3KM down the road it starts to pour rain. I can’t see more than 20 feet. We crawl at maybe 20KM/hour for 10 minutes before it eases up.

Visibility sucks

Another 20 minutes and it’s down to a light drizzle. Thankfully, as we ascend the hills of Caracas the rain is gone altogether and the roadway is mostly dry. Of course there is the fog. And the cars with no lights. And the crazy curves and cliffs. And the lack of lines on the road or reflectors or guard rails… but hey… it stopped raining at least!

Fog and people w/ their brights on

Going up took a long time. Down was fast. We decended into the Caracas valley very easily, all the trucks had pulled off. Lethy shot video as we made the final descent:

Amazingly, only 1 wrong turn on the way to the hotel.

Checked in, in our room (pics in the album) and we’re heading off to a small bite to eat before bed.

Tomorrow the flight home!

Up early and packed up. Others not quite as used to the whole traveling on a schedule thing.

After breakfast and then what seems like lunch we’re on the road around noonish.

House @ Chichiriviche

Lethy w/ Parrots @ Chichiriviche

The drive back from Chichiriviche is lined with people selling various handmade wares and is quite scenic with various tidal and flood pools.

Vendors near Chichiriviche

Pools near Chichiriviche

The major port town an hour away is also a major refinery and military base area.

Refinery

Thankfully we still beat the traffic and make good time to Calabozo.

We had to cut beach time a day short to:

1) Drive Suegro and Suegra back to Calabozo

2) Attempt again to get more steps done in fixing Lethy’s passport to have her married surname!

It would have been awesome to have another day on the beach (especially if we’d gotten up early to go to one of the farther private islands) but I would have felt bad putting the in-laws on a bus home and getting Lethy’s passport fixed before August is very important for our next trip!

Just checked back in to the Best Western here.

Hitting the shower and then off to dinner.

Up late. Almost noon. Stomach still killing me. Others eat brunch.

We pick up food and beer on the way to the beach. But apparently the beach is not the beach. It’s just a pier and we take a boat to an island.

Here’s a video of our ride there:

Island is packed with people:

Mark and Ricardito in the water

but the water is nice and there is a slight overcast. Keeps things warm but not scorching. Lots of fun playing in the water with Nene.

Mark and Nene

Everyone has lots of fun.

Lethy @ beach

The sun saps the energy out of everyone. Nene falls asleep on the boat ride back:

Mark holding a sleeping Nene

After the beach we all get back to the house, shower, clean up, etc.

Ricardito and me make a pizza and beer run.

After dinner we head back to the pier where there is a street fair.

Chichiriviche Street Fair

Sadly it turns out I still should not have eaten and we have to cut the evening short.

Apparently our 6 AM wake up call never came.
Anyhow, we are off to the passport office here trying to get that all sorted out.
After that we will pile into the car and head to the coast.
Internet access in Chichiriviche is very unlikely.
The long awaited Venezuelan Drivers Ed video is up on youtube:

It was a very long day in the car and my stomach has decided to not treat me so well.

Very bad traffic on the autopista starting 80KM before Valencia stretching another 50KM beyond it.

We left Calabozo around noon and did not arrive at the house in Chichiriviche until 11:45 PM. We got lost / were misled with directions a few times along the way and tensions ran quite high.

Not many pictures from the ride as it was raining, etc. We stopped at a restaurant with a play area which let Nene burn off some of his energy!

Nene and Valesca

We spent the day in Calabozo mostly spending time with Suegra and her friends. Talking at her house, visiting her Internet Cafe, seeing her friend’s house, etc.

Suegra's God son Eric

Neighbor Jaxa and her daughter

Flowers from friends and neighbors.

We capped the the day off with dinner at the hotel with Mark, Lethy, Suegra, her god son Eric, Astrid and Nene.