santa fe + caracas

after finally leaving merida, i embarked on a fancy super air-conditioned bus to caracas, slept super nicely, only to wake up to the mess and chaos that is the capital of venezuela. luckily it was still kinda early in the morning, so it wasn't too too bad,...yet, i had to catch 2 buses and 2 metros to switch bus terminals, and with all my crap it was quite the adventure...without mentioning what i saw on the street, as far as piles of trash and everything else...i finally made it on the bus to puerto la cruz, and then to santa fe, a little fishing town on the border of the mochima national park...it's a one-street town, with all the travelers staying by the beach...i had a nice and cheap room 5 meters from the water, it was awesome! well, yeah i also had to kill 3 cockroaches in 2 nights, but that's just part of the deal! i got to meet some travelers, although the place was not swamped with foreigners, which is always nice. it was actually pretty peaceful and enjoyable; the first night we had a crazy crazy sunset, and then the next day i went on a boat trip with some germans (which, besides spaniards, are all you can find as far as travelers) and it was fun. we snorkeled at this place between two islands called La Piscinita, because it does look like a pool: super clear water surrounded by coral reefs...and i'm definitely not an expert at that, but it was pretty nice...i also got my back sunburnt, but that's partly my fault...the rest of the day was spent at an isolated beach with the germans and 3 basque guys, and it was pretty enjoyable! nothing much but bathing, tanning and taking pictures of the iguanas that were coming to be fed by the tourists!
then i left santa fe and made it back to caracas, where i've been staying for the past 2 days...it is the most latin american place i've seen so far, which means the place where the contrast between stricken poverty and in-your-face wealth is the most evident...i walked into one of the several malls around town to discover a new kind of people i had never ever seen before in the streets! and tonight i went to this other mall that was just out of the ordinary!!! i also went and took pictures of miraflores, the palace where the army resides, famous for the coup in 1992, and got caught by some soldiers, since they were very alert because correa, the president of ecuador, is visiting at the moment...so i had the chance to go inside...
>(to be continued)<