No Hay....

Jasper Falls
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We had a morning spent messing around at Jasper Falls - so named after the beautiful rock and then finally arrived at our final stop in Venezuela - Santa Elena - a small town on the border which is also used as a base for Angel Falls and for climbing Mount Roraima, setting of The Lost World.  Unfortunately for me we didn't have time to climb Roraima (that's my excuse and I am sticking to it) and when Tony re-joined us who had done off to do the trek I took one look at him and was very relieved - it was a very very hard trek.

Jasper Falls
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So we had two days in Santa Elena to re-charge our batteries and generally catch up on all our chores.  This would have been a real pleasure had it not been for the sewerage flooding our hostel forcing us to move next door and the general Venezuelan attitudes around - everything you asked for "No Hay" (we don't have) ie, stamps, coffee, toothbrushes - you name it, they didn't have it.

The other extreme is the "Si, Hay" which is even more bemusing.... you say "Do you have coffee?", they say "Yes, we have it" and then..... nothing.  Eventually you communicate "Well can I have some then?" and wait for them to chat to their friends, wander around and then 10 minutes later bring you a coffee.  Then you ask "Do you have any sugar?!.... they say "Yes, we have sugar" and so the process starts again!

Jasper Falls
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My favourite moment however was the night we tried to go to the local Italian restaurant and wanted to push two tables together because there were 8 of us.  The waiter refused, as apparently large groups of Brazilians are often noisy.  Aimar explained to him that we were (a) not Brazilian; and (b) the only customers and therefore couldn't disturb anyone but he wouldn't have any of it so we moved on!

Incidentally from my experience Venezuelan's come in only two extremes - the "No Hay's" and the people who when asked for directions will walk you all the way to where you want to go and wish you a nice day and then leave.  There really seems to be no middle ground!

Desperate Measures
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Anyway our time in Santa Elena was not a complete loss.  We had a great night playing poker and I even managed to win (the grand sum of around £2!) and we made friends with a very cute kitten.