Arapuey

Day 110, Oct 20, 2013, 291km

The further you go from the border the less garbage you see, and the other thing you now notice is the huge line-up's of cars at the gas stations, I guess filling those huge tanks takes a lot of time.

Finally into the mountains towards Valera where I started looking for lodging, most places wanted 400Bs if you paid cash or 600Bs to use credit card, what a rip off I thought. I had tried several ATM's but no money, so I figure there will be more small towns down the road with better prices and hopefully no extra charges.

After a while I find myself now riding into the night, until it is pitch black the small towns have no lodging so I keep moving on further into the mountains coming through passes with no real roads left from the washouts. 

After a couple of hours of this my body is starting to hurt from the strain and I need to stop often to gather more strength, navigating through the gravel inclines is starting to take it's toll on me and I can't help but think how stupid all this is for a few lousy bucks. By now it's 11:30 with no end in site, I have been riding since 8 this morning and I know I need to stop or I will crash on these roads so I start looking for a possible camp site, but with a rock wall on one side and a  steep drop on the other, there is not much choice but to move on. I have also been riding blind because my GPS has no detail maps of this area and all I know was that I was heading South West most of the time towards Saint Cristobal so I decide to take the next road that is heading North East that should be towards Hwy 1. After another hour, I finally come to a town with a hotel and he is asking 150BS but luckily he was okay with the 145Bs because that's all the cash I had. This place has no Internet no nothing but a place to sleep and I will happily take it.

More to come.