ciudad guayana or: how i learned to stop worrying and love the river mud
just peeked at my weather app and it’s 34 degrees celsius with a humidity that clings to your skin like a desperate ex-pack light if you’re headed here. you know that kind of heat where even your shadow tries to find shade? yeah. that. but listen, as a budget backpacker who’s been chasing cheap coffee and cheaper buses across venezuela, this city’s weird industrial-meets-jungle vibe got under my skin.
i spent half a day lost in the two-headed beast of puerto ordaz (all slick highways and shopping malls) versus san félix (where streets smell like fried plantains and diesel). they’re connected by bridges over the caroní river, which looks like someone poured strong black tea into the orinoco’s milky coffee. someone told me that parque cachamay is where locals go to escape the concrete, but i found more stray dogs than waterfalls. still worth the bus ride.
if you’re itching to escape, ciudad bolívar’s only a couple hours west by bus-bring snacks. heard from a guy at the hostel that the castillos de guayana are haunted, but honestly, the only spirits i encountered were the cheap ones sold near the mercado. don’t sleep on the empanadas from street carts though, especially after midnight when you’re debating whether that industrial port glow is romantic or just pollution.
pro tip: the canaima national park tours they sell at every corner? overpriced. find a colectivo driver named jean carlos (or any jean carlos, honestly) who’ll take you halfway for bolívars and a pack of cigarettes. also, drink the chicha even though it looks like murky river water-it’s cheaper than bottled agua.
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