Tuesday, November 26, 2002
Caucagua to Guanare

Our day began with a walk to the town square and to find that Caucagua just may have been more peculiar during the day than at night. As we passed the fruit stand outside our hotel, Curt noticed that the vendor held a handgun in one hand as he straightened his mangoes. We found our way to local pastry shop and each picked a delicious looking delight. We stood to devour them, and each agreed that our breakfast was quite heavy and doughy- though the café con leche was superb! As we paid our bill on the way out, a local woman approached us and quite directly asked where we were from. It struck me as a hilarious how obvious we were. In a town of all dark Latinos and blacks, here we appeared: Curt wearing his surfwear, silver haired Pam in her smart khaki shorts, flip-slops, and lavender sweater, and Steve- a dead-ringer for a svelte Santa Claus if it weren't for the ball-cap. We stood out like sore thumbs. The woman wasn't being unfriendly, just curious, and Steve chatted with her in his Spanish for a moment before we were off in our rental car to see how far east we could get towards the Andes.

Driving through Caracas was uneventful at best. We merely hit a lot of traffic. When we finally got through it and hunger struck, wouldn't you know it- there was a Burger King on the side of the highway? From there, we made it as far as a town called Guanare (before dark this time), and got a room. It was fine enough for our needs. Clean and cheap. It was just a stop before heading off the next day.

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