2017-11-16 Day 196 Thu

Rained gently during the night and into the morning. After some computer work we walked back up to the falls for a swim. Lovely water, not to cold and all to ourselves. We explored some of the smaller pools and still marveled at the skirts that the cascades had created.

Time to move on, we needed to be at the Consulate between 12:00-14:00hrs to pick up johns passport. We drove into a rain squall luckily when we were back onto a sealed road, bought 3 different types of mangoes. As there seemed to be a hold up on the road (maybe an accident caused by the rain) we took to the side roads. Finally found a way through and arrived at the Consulate with 10 minutes to spare.

Said our good byes to Santa Cruz and headed around the city on one of its 3 ring roads - and turned off to the East. Put 20l of diesel in at the foreigners price of Bs8.88 (AU$1.60)

At one of the police road blocks we were pulled over and made to wait for quite a while, until the cop was free to attend to us. John exited the vehicle and explained he only had a little spanish. The cop wanted to look inside so john opened the door for him but did not lower the steps. A quick perfunctory look and then into the hut. John followed. Supposedly the problem was Johns name on the Aduana (ownership of vehicle) and I was driving. The cop stamped the arduana then wanted to be paid for it. John said he didn’t understand so the cop pulled one of many Bs50 notes out of his drawer to show John want he wanted. John argued that what he was saying was incorrect. We had not paid for a stamp anywhere. My driving came up again and John said he’d drive. I arrived at the door to see where John had got to, as he had been away too long. The cop just asked john if I was his spouse and let us go. John drove off from the station.

We stopped for diesel to be told they did not serve foreigners, but the next one did. I was concerned they’d charge full foreigner price but it was only Bs4 so we filled up.

We had Internet signal on and off along the road. About camp time, and near Cuatro Canadas, we turned off into the farm land. Most of the land hand seemingly just been ploughed and planted so we wanted to keep out of that. The paddocks are slowly increasing in size as we travel further east, and more mechanical farming equipment is visible. We found a clump of trees to huddle beside.

We were entertained with thunder and lightning for most of the night, with only a little drizzle.