Heading off to Los Llanos

So we're heading out tomorrow morning - at 5 am! which means getting up at 4 to drive for 10-11 hours so i am excited.. not for the drive but i cannot wait to get there. it's gonna be wicked! we're going to be finding/hunting/holding anacondas and caimans (crocs). so it will most definately be overwhelming and pushing some personal boundaries for me, as I am dead scared of snakes. But I figure I held a shark last summer, I hold a snake this summer. And I have been spending the past 6 months getting ready for this! It's gonna be great!

Like I said on Thursday (or was it Wednesday?) we were going on a 7 hour trek Friday. It was so absolutely gorgeous. One of the only places in Venezuela with true Venezuelan rainforrest. So so pretty. but boy did I think I was gonna die a time or five. It was so hard, but I made it to the freaking top (app. 975 meters above sea level) and I am so proud of myself! I did take a few pictures, and I will be posting some, but honestly I was more focused on getting to the top and down again enjoying the trip and just really trying to appreciate what little "pure" nature we've got left. not to turn all hippie on you, but I was amazed :) Going down was a lot easier, but we had to move so fast to get to town before dark. it was crazy. When we made it almost to the bottom of the mountain we had to cross some rivers, which meant getting your feet and boots soaked. However, it was quite nice considering the super hot condition your feet were in ;) when we finally got across the river the group had been seperated in two, and the guide in our part had never been there before. So what to do? We started walking in what we thought was the most likely direction, no what looked like the bigger trail (at times it was so hard to tell the trails from the forrest that we had to look for footprints) but we found the wrong one. So we went back to where we crossed the river and tried another path. After having gone back and forth 4 times, trying all four trails we sat down while our guide ran (!!!!!) in one direction to try and find the others. I have absolutely no idea how he was able to do that, but he did. mean while we started discussing how to make our society in the forrest. Maria quite quickly elected herself chief of the "tribe" and then came the harder choice. Who should we eat first? We didn't really get to decide cause just then both Martin (the running guide) and the other group came back (quite fortunately if you ask me). I know it sounds hard, but when you get lost and you've been on the move for a good 6 hours maybe more and you've climbed a mountain, you really need to keep the spirit in the group. And we did cause we all had fun imagining and planning the different scenarios. But we made it to the hostel where the women who owned it had prepared a super great meal, and dessert! It was so great! At night we had a few beers and sang a few birthday songs as it was Martin's birthday.

The next morning we woke up at 7.30 am and went to have a quick glance and a very short presentation on how to make cacao. Quite interesting if you ask me. The cacao beasn are taken out of the fruit and put in big tubs in the shade. They stay there for a week and most of the juices in the seeds leave the seeds and add more flavor to them as some of the juices stay in the tub. Then they are taken out in the sun to dry in big cirkels (i've got pictures coming up) and then when they are all dry (this process takes 7-1 days) the beans are "brushed" with a certain tool to get the shells off. Finally they go into a machine which take of the rest of the shells. I kid you not when I tell you that the machines they still used in Chuao, the village, was more than 400 years old!!! Amazing. I cannot imagine how the maching can possibly still work after four hundred years of being used. Must be some really good stuff. When the beans with out shells come out of the machine they are bagged and shipped off to Europe. Currently some Italian and some German country where the buyers. I don't remember they're names, but the chocolate is of such good quality that it is only used in fancy restaurant with real expensive food. After the short explanation we went to find la playa which was a little hour away. Believe it or not, we got seperated and lost again. The road split in two and we didn't know which road to pick, so once again we went down the bigger road. I asked a girl (I am guessing she was like 9, 10 tops, but she seemed to know her way around), but for whatever reason the group decided to try to go back and try the other way. So we did and Martin ended up running ahead again. This time to find that the road we were currently on ended in a village. So we turned around and headed back to the bigger road to try our luck there once again. This time we walked further and and elderly man came out of the woods so I asked him which way the beach and harbor was, and he replied - like the girl - that it was down this road. So we trut on and came to what looked like a village, and curiously enough the girl was sitting right out side the house where the road parted in two. She just laughed and pointed to the beach when I asked her for directions yet again. So after 5 more minutes of walking up hill a very little we found it. It was so relaxing and such a great day! And I finally found a fish I like! I have no clue what it is called but it is HUGE and the head is red and maybe it's some sort of bass. I don't know. it was good ! :b
Today we've been packing for tomorrow and spending a little time on the beach. Very relaxing! Well, I better head to bed cause like I said we're getting up early tomorrow!
buenas noches!