testmeat photoblog

on saturday i went to visit venezuela's biggest cave... well i tried to. i was told it involved taking a bus from cumuna to cunamacoa (2hrs) and then a shared taxi to the cave (20mins). after getting off the first bus i was then informed that i'd have to go through san antonio instead. so i waited for the taxi to fill up, got to san antonio and then switched to a different bus. this bus then took me to a crossroads where i had to wait for another bus, which dropped me off 3 kilometres from the cave. it was an uphill walk (of course) and i arrived at the cave just before 4pm - luckily just in time for the final tour inside. before going inside i thought it best to inquire about the return journey, at which point i was told that if i wanted to get back to cumana i should leave right away. this time the route would take me from the cave to caripe, then to santa maria, then to cariaco and then a final trip to cumana. i didn't really have enough money to stay the night so i took a taxi to the terminal in caripe and squeezed in the back of a camionetta (shared mini truck) bound for santa maria. we got a few kilometres out of town before the driver stopped for some bread, saw me squeezed in the end and said that it was too unsafe and i'd have to get out. so i walked back in town and assessed my options. it was now close to 6pm and most people said that a journey back that night would be close to impossible. the money in my pocket would now have to pay for a nights accommodation and the journey back the next morning, a feat i only just achieved through haggling and starvation. all in all it took a lot of time, a lot of kilometres and a significant amount of money and an insignificant amount of food to glance at the mouth of the cave. after all these months travelling i should be good at this kind of thing dammit.

here's the original