Gum On My Shirt
27 August 2005 (Saturday) – Mérida to San Cristobal, Venezuela
After breakfast, I hopped onto the local bus to get to the bus terminal. I made inquiries for buses to San Cristobal and found one leaving at 10am. It was 9am then, and I was apparently the first to sign up for the trip. I sat on the bench, reading, until the bus slowly filled up and got ready to leave at around 10+am. Then, we seemed to be waiting for someone else as the bus sat there near the exit, ready to leave but yet not leaving.
Finally, someone opened the door and hopped in. Hey, I know this guy! I waved to him, “Hey, Richard!!!” Yep, it was German-Richard whom I met in Caracas last week. Strange to see him here. I thought he would be travelling much faster than I as he had only 2 months to make it from Caracas, Venezuela to La Paz, Bolivia, while I intend to make the same trip in 3 to 4 months.
The bus stopped for a snack-break at around mid-day. It was only then that I discovered that someone had left a piece of gum on the back of my seat!!!! ARGGHHH!!!!!! So, now, my Wallace and Gromit T-shirt had sticky gross gum stains all over the back, and my jacket, both inside and outside, was ruined as well! Horrors!!!!
I was really mad! I mean, I know I am always the butt of chewing gum jokes whenever people learn that I am from Singapore. But I am proud to say that I am GLAD Singapore banned the import of gums for the past 10 years. What use does chewing gum serve anyway? It only dirties the streets and ruins clothes and shoes. This person put the gum here on purpose, NOT BELOW the seat in an attempt to dispose it, but AT THE BACK of the seat in an attempt to cause damage. My blood was absolutely boiling when I discovered the mess and continued to boil for the rest of the ride.
All the way to San Cristobal, I tried my best to remove the sticky stains. Not very successful. I wondered if a lavanderia could remove them.
Anyway, when we arrived in San Cristóbal, Richard got ready to hop on another bus straight to Bogotá. Gee… I was a little nervous when I thought of crossing the Venezuelan-Colombian border by myself. So, now with Richard around, in a way, I could cross the border with him. But I had an obligation to stay a night in San Cristobal. So, I could only bid farewell to Richard and wish him well, perhaps, we would meet each other later in the trip.
I came to San Cristobal because, way, way back in Manaus, my guide for the jungle trip whom I had named Jorge, was from Venezuela. And, being very helpful, he had given me various names and contacts here. However, he later told me I could not go to his sister’s place as she was travelling in Europe, and I later changed my mind about going to Choroni where his mistress was, and I did not contact his sister-in-law in Mérida because I sensed bad blood between them, and I figured it was unwise for me to impose on her… And his final contact was his ex-business partner living in San Cristobal. He is Juan, and he apparently owned an organic cacao farm. Jorge had seemed very keen that I should meet his ex-business partner. Frankly, I was interested as well to visit an organic cacao farm.
I had contacted Juan back in Mérida, but he told me he was in Valencia then, and MIGHT return to San Cristobal on Sunday, 28 August. As San Cristobal was enroute to Colombia, I decided to come here, stay a night, contact him tomorrow, and see how things go. Perhaps I could visit his farm and stay overnight at his place.
If not for this, gosh… there was absolutely no reason to stay in San Cristobal. It feels like a very horrible city. It did not feel safe, it felt like a frontier town, although it was not really at the border. It was dirty, noisy and a mess. The 2 hotels I walked to turned out to be half-demolished or closed buildings. I finally found another one. It was a tad expensive for me, but the lady at the counter insisted that this was a ‘family’ hotel. Hahaa, she seemed to suggest that any hotels cheaper than this were used by prostitutes. Guess I was better off here.
Tags: 05) Merchants of Little Venice, San Cristobal
swesn