What’s Good:
Unique view of local life, Good Deals, Good Spot for Lunch
What’s Bad:
Can be Crowded, Products are Mostly Imitation
The Conejeros Market is a local market located on the north-western outskirts of Porlamar. It is a huge market consisting of three different buildings: one selling local produce, one containing restaurants, and one containing hundreds upon hundreds of vendors selling different types of goods.
The clothing/goods market is frequently very busy and is filled to the brim with many locals selling everything from clothing, shoes, sunglasses and jewelery to art, souvenirs and hammocks. Prices seemed to be quite reasonable although bargaining certainly didn’t seen to be as popular as it was in Peru. Our one complaint was that most to the stalls seemed to be selling the exact same things. Although we found the occasional gem of original local hand painted art, most stores were close to identical. There is an abundance of cheap (albeit quite good) imitations of every brand imaginable (Channel, Guchi, Oscar de la Renta, Lacoste, Louis Vatton etc). The vendors that we came across were all very friendly an helpful, and although most did not speak any English a few surprised us.
It was Peter’s trip to France that sparked the idea: go somewhere and actually live there. Don’t pass through a place, live in it. Live in a community for an extended period of time. Instead of touring an entire country in five days, stay a few weeks in the same town and saunter around. Take time to: visit the local bakery, meet people, experience life outside of the North American way. This can be difficult as most travel infrastructure is simply an extension of our North America culture (Hiltons, All inclusives, etc). It takes a concentrated effort to not be tourists.
Having spent the last five weeks in one place, with over two more weeks left to go, we are now slow travel converts. It is relaxing to have a flexible schedule. It is nice to be able to let your mood, the weather, and the local environment affect what you do and when you do it. This mode of travel is in complete opposition to conventional vacations. In conventional vacations you project your schedule onto the place you are staying. In slow travel the place you are staying projects its schedule onto you.
What’s Good:
Close to the airport, Clean, English speaking staff, Free Airport shuttle
What’s Bad:
Price, Surrounding Area
Hotel website: Hotel Eurobuilding Express
Due to the late night arrival of Air Canada’s flight from Toronto to Caracas, Venezuela, we found ourselves stuck looking for a place to stay near the Caracas (CCS) airport so we could catch a domestic flight to Margarita Island the following day. It is no longer practical to find a hotel in Caracas as the collapse of the main bridge between the airport (in Maiquetía, Venezuela) and Caracas has made the drive long and difficult. Luckily, Hotel Eurobuilding Express provides a nice stopover option.
While the Caracas airport can be slightly intimidating, the direct transfer from the airport makes things nice and simple. The transfer bus is located on the lower level of the international airport. To get there take a left when exiting customs and head down the escalator one level to the bottom floor. You’ll pass the Avis counter on your left and exit out of the building to where white vans with the Hotel Eurobuilding Express name and logo are located (sometimes they will have an unmarked van with a sign in the front window). This transfer takes you directly to the hotel and the cost is included in your room rate (although it is polite to tip).
What’s Good:
The view, Clean, Friendly Service, Food, Local emphasis
What’s Bad:
No Internet, chilly at night.
Hotel website: Mama Yacchi
If you are planning a trip to Peru the Colca Canyon is a must see. The Colca Canyon is the second deepest canyon in the world (the deepest is not too far away from it). It is twice as deep as the grand canyon. The canyon and the valley leading up to it are spectacular. The scale of the area is almost beyond comprehension.
Arequipa is the gateway to the Colca valley. Most people book a two day tour from Arequipa. You leave early in the morning and return the following afternoon. We did just that.
This small hotel strikes a wonderful balance with its spectacular surroundings.
Lonely Planet has a site devoted to
Experimental Travel.
For our upcoming trip to Venezuela we had to transfer some of our points acquired with our Aventura Visa to Aeroplan. I thought the process would be easy. I thought there might be a web tool or some sort of easy to fill out form. Not so.
To transfer your Aventura points to Aeroplan you need to call the Aventura toll free line (1-888-232-5656 *hint* you need option '5' in the call menu). You'll get to talk with a friendly agent. Once you iniate the transfer the agent will let you know that it takes 5-7 business days to complete the transaction. This was a bit of a shock as we needed to buy our tickets right away. What could we do though?
Seven business days went by and no points showed up in our Aeroplan account. I spent the next two days on hold with both Aeroplan and Adventura. After getting the run around by a few people I finally lucked out and got nice people on the phone at both companies. What I found out is this: Aeroplan enters points it receives from Adventura the day after it gets them. From what I could tell Adventura is slow in sending the points.
Due to their slowness Adventura rushed a notice over to Aeroplan and somehow allowed me to book before the points actually showed up on my account. Their slowness was costly. We missed our desired flight and had to change our dates by two days. They reimbursed us a relatively small number of points to make up for it.
So a few hints for all of you who are going to transfer points in the future:
- Transfer your points long before you need to book
- You can only transfer your points in 10,000 point increments
- If your points don't show up in the time they said they would call back until you receive a friendly person
- Be nice to the people....they have to answer the phone all day
- At Aeroplan it's very hard to get to talk with a manager. Instead of asking to talk with a manager yourself simply ask the person you're speaking with to ask their manager for help with the issue.
Peter linked to ThirteenMonths.com a few days ago. Wow, what a great site!
The site is a written, photo, and video journal of a newly married couple's journey around the world. They've documented each place they've been, how much it costs, what equipment they've used, and much, much more. It is worth a few hours to go cruise around the site and follow their amazing journey. They are excellent writers (casual and funny) and above average photographers.
We were blown away by the gorilla trekking. See the gallery for amazing photos and you absolutely have to watch some of the videos (located at the bottom of the page)
