Our first stop in Venezuela was Santa Elena, a bustling border town with a brazen black market and smuggling scene. Most striking were the huge lines at the town petrol stations where drivers sometimes camp out in their vehicles for days. Wouldn't you join the queue if 1p (yes one English
penny!) got you 10 litres of petrol which you could then take 20 minutes over the border to Brazil and make a huuuge profit?

We ourselves took advantage of Venezuela's crippling economy by bringing in hard foreign currency, enabling us to live very comfortably for a couple of weeks at a fraction of the price of anywhere else in South America .

Our extravagant existence included hiring out a jeep with driver for the day to explore the sights of the Gran Sabana. The landscape here is a wide open grassland that stretches further than the eye can see and is punctuated by scores of waterfalls and 'tepuis', the savanna's trademark table mountains. The most picturesque of the waterfalls were the red-stoned Jaspe and the 22m Salto Kama. We enjoyed taking a dip in the many natural pools, especially soothing after being attacked by a swarm of mini wasps when we accidentally disturbed their nest whilst seeking a shady spot to park. During the day we also had our first encounter with the 'puri puris', nasty invisible biting insects, which would plague us for the next few weeks.

Onward night bus to Ciudad Bolivar, 13hrs.