Day 4 - Pariaguán - Barinas:
Fact Sheet: 555 Km
Pariaguán - Valle de la Pascua - El Sombrero - Tinaco - San Carlos - Ospino - Guanare - Barinas
Hotel Internacional - quadruple std aprox. USD 20
Nothing like a good nights rest. Breakfast at the Panaderia Panamerica, which is great, and on we go. West, on the motorway number 15, past El Socorro. The vegetation again starts to get greener, and taller. Then, through Valle de la Pascua, Chaguaranas, El Sombrero, to Rio Verde. From there on, the tar has the occasional pothole, until we cross into the state of Cojedes, where it starts to improve again. On, through Tinaco, and we stop for lunch at the "La Mansion de Pollo" (The Chicken Mansion) as we enter San Carlos, at arround 15:30h. After lunch, the scenery starts to change, as we turn south-west, and skirt the foothills heading past Agua Blanca, and pick up a fantastic road to Ospino, and on to Guanare and Barinas, where we arrive at 18:30. This stretch was not a sightseeing bit, and handled without a glitch. The temperature in Barinsa is cool, in the low 20's C, and a leasurely city that once was more lively, but retained a bit of it's charm stuck in time. The hotel is antient, simple, and clean. Perfect to rest, as tomorrow we start climbing into the Andes: Barinas is one of the "portals" to Mérida.
Events:
| Just
after El Socorro, we get into a huge cue of cars,
all stopped dead in the tracks: major accident. We manage to squeeze past, between the ditch and the run-off, as our cars are narrow, and hurry away from
the tragedy. It was a maniac that sped past us at twice our speed a couple of
minutes before. They are rather dangerous on the motorways, and take a fancy
to overtaking in blind curves, or on the oncoming traffic lane. A ghastly
combination is not unusual. |
Pictures:
