10.30pm, Wednesday May 27, on the bus

This bus has leg rests! My calves are supported and I can elevate my feet a bit. This bus is much nicer than anything Greyhound ever imagined - double-decker even.



9.00am, Thursday May 28, Hotel Italia, Cumana

The driver kept the lights off in the bus, so no reading or writing.

I arrived in Cumana, Venezuela's oldest city, at 5.30am, waited for a long while for a bus into town, then wandered around in the area of Plaza Bolivar while waiting for the hotel to open at 7.30am. As I wandered, a stream of young men, some in military green, most in civilian shorts, emerged from a big old building, shouting, and ran around the Bolivar statue and then on down the street. I assume that the old building is some sort of military school.

My hotel room has light grey tile floor, yellow walls and two twin beds: tile platforms laid with mattresses covered by pink, yellow and blue horizontal-striped sheets. Each bed on either side of the narrow room, near the door, has a towel and a sheet folded on the end and hard tall pillows. There is a small television up in the air in one far corner, near the bathroom, two small bedside tables, one beside a bed, the other at the far end of the same bed. The best part of this dingy room is the dark bright pink toilet paper. The shower is a cold small stream with some acompanying trickles, the ceiling stained pasteboard. I am used to it now and it is alright, though at first I missed Allan - I've never been in such a budget hotel by myself before. However, the room is cleanish and the bugs in the bathroom are small and not cockroaches. I am waiting until 10.00am to call MM.