BUMMER OF THE DAY: 17 hours on Rosita is a little bit too long……
WORD OF THE DAY: Are we there yet?
DISTANCE TRAVELLED:
Today was always going to be a long travel day. We knew that and based on that we left Caracas as soon as we had all finished breakfast, as it didn’t start till 7.20am (weird start time) so we just worked on the basis once we were all done we would hit the road. Today was also the first day the newbies hit the truck and seats are assigned again for the next 28 days. I am in a fortunate position that Kate has a key to the truck and the truck was parked right out front of the hotel, so we got an early start and got our bags to Rosita before breakfast and claimed our seats. Mark hates it when we do this, but I really wanted to get the window seat I have had for the last few days and would handle the wrath of Mark later.
Driving out of Caracas you can see the city is security conscience. I guess with it being known as the murder capital of the world, I too would want to live in Fort Knox. Buildings are surrounded by high fences with barbed wire, security guards, armed security guards at that are on the streets and in front of office buildings and shops. It took us about an hour just to get out of the city limits, the city is massive. After 1.5 hours we stopped at a service station for a toilet stop when Mark came on to let us know that we missed the turn off we were supposed to take and would need to double back a little bit. As the freeways were literally a highway on stilts as it traversed the mountainside of the country, so there was no way to turn around till we got to an exit point. No worries, these things happen, so once we were all back on board we had travelled an hour and made the turn off when we hit traffic and then realized it was an accident once we noticed there were no cars heading into town and we saw 3 ambulances scream past us on the other side of the road. So with us stuck in the grid lock of Easter traffic and in an accident, I decided to use my computer for some blog catch ups and people played cards and other slept. In the end we were stuck there for 2 hours before the accident was cleared up and we started to move again. What a way to welcome the newbies.
Venezuelans seem to be impatient drivers and when we are driving along, there will be 2 lanes and a shoulder, well they use the shoulder to overtake, so you not only have traffic to worry about in the left lane, but random people taking us on the inside. Mind you how many times have you thought about using the shoulder to overtake, I have a few times back home, but certainly would never do it, here it seems that anything goes and not only cars but busses, bikes and trucks all do the same thing. What makes this more frustrating for Gray is that he is not allowed to use the left lane at all, not even for overtaking. He has to stay in the right lane and if he’s caught using the left lane it is a 500AUD fine.
We stopped at a service station for lunch that also just happened to have a Burger King attached to it. So with my apologies to Mark, I told him that I wouldn’t be doing another sandwich lunch today and went and stood in line for 45 minutes to get my Burger King meal and some chicken nuggets to have for later on in the day for a snack. I still have an upset tummy and this probably wasn’t the best food to be eating, but it was BK and far more tempting offer than sandwiches. There was no time to eat it at the stop so I bought it back to the truck to eat and I didn’t actually eat my whole burger anyways.
We hit around 5 checkpoints today which just adds extra drive time to our day. We didn’t get passport checked at all, they were more interested in Gray and Mark and checking the trucks papers every time. By the time the checks were done, there were smiles and handshakes; I think sometimes they are just interested in the truck and what we are doing than trying to nail us for something wrong.
So we kept on trucking on and after a few more toilet stops and darkness descended we saw the first road sign that had our destination on it at 7.15pm with it telling us we still had 241km to go. We are so not going to make it to Merida till after midnight. So far we had been on the road for 12 hours and we still had at least another 3 hours to go. Unfortunately the last 200km of the drive was windy as we climbed to 1600m, so it was probably even going to take longer than that. It is a shame that the newbies were subjected to such an intense truck day on their first day. We finally made it to Merida at 12.50am, 17 hours after leaving Caracas and we were all stuffed. I managed to sleep for the last 2 hours, but it was one of those sleeps where you just can’t find a comfortable spot and I kept shifting around. My IPod lasted the distance though which there was no way my old one could have made the distance, so after Mark telling us that we were leaving for Lightning Lake tomorrow at 8am, we had to check in, pack overnight bags and get some sleep before a 7am wake-up.
So that was our 17 hour day on the truck and it has been the longest day on the whole trip to date. Out of 134 days, this day takes the cake. The guys had a 15 hour day coming up from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires, thank goodness Kate and I had decided to fly that, but nothing beats today.
What a way to welcome the newbies.
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