Post 46: An eventful day.

Fellow adventurers,

As I had previously mentioned, I had a lot to look forward to today. Firstly, I will start with what I received in the mail, all of which I will give my first opinions on now...

1.) ScotteVest Mens Travel Pants - though they are a little large on me, they are very comfortable, lightweigh, and full of hidden compartments that are a major added bonus. I like them so much I ordered a 2nd pair in a different color, I know these will come in handy, and save on space.

2.) Platy 1L Bottle - I received this in the same box as the netbook, and honestly I was more taken by it at first. I know I will get plenty of good use out of this bottle while trekking through Patagonia. It is super compact, light, and takes up no bag space at all. I have read that it is also very good in use as an ice pack. And its BPA free to boot .

3.) Toshiba NB505-N508(GN) - A 10.1 inch net book, from which I am writing to you now, is more than I could have asked for at $250 bucks. What a steal! Its a little slow, but I have ordered some extra memory to speed it up. However, considering its size and portability, it is perfect for our what we will need it for.

Tomorrow, i am expecting the camera to arrive. I am looking forward to getting a little practice on it before we depart in a mere 40 days or so.

June and I are almost settled on renting out our rooms and have people who are serious about taking over for us while we are away. Tomorrow and over the weekend I will begin to pack up my room items so she can start moving in in the next week or so. I am pretty positive this will be fully settled by Sunday at the latest. I believe my roomies are meeting with one more person before we make a final decision on my end.

After a nice dinner we searched around for some tickets from Caracas to Puerto Ordaz and found some round trip for under $220 ($60 bucks each, each way). The site was in Spanish but as far I could tell I made the purchase, however I received a message shortly after saying the card information wasn't accepted. I went back to the form and reentered to card information and from there got a message stating the information had been accepted prior and was not going to be processed again. Long story short, I dont know if it was accepted or not.

Regardless of that, we decided to go ahead and book our ridiculously outlandishly priced ($600 EACH - ONE WAY) tickets from Caracas to Cartegena for the night of November 19th. We booked them for late in the day in case the other flight in Venezuela was not booked, leaving us ample time to find a flight that fits our schedule.

Angel Falls better be worth it because the price is astronomical compared to what we will be spending otherwise outside of Venezuela. We are talking...

• $600 each ticket out of VE
• $120 each ticket between Caracas and p. Ordaz
• $250 for Canaima Tour
• $??? Lodging/Food/Whatever over 6 days.

= $1000+ or 1.7th the budget for 6 single days, out of 140...this will obviously have to be an exception. 

On top of everything else, we booked our lodging in Cartegena for 5 nights in the old Caribbean coastal city...the room was only $10 a night. We will surely have to make up for some money on that leg of our trip.

All will be well, I am confident. 

G