8.00pm, Tuesday June 9, MS's ....finally booked

I have finally booked a tour to Canaima. I still have to get the rest of the money from T tomorrow, as I leave on Thursday for three days.

Today I spent a couple of hours at an internet cafe, booked my trip, and went to La Asuncion, the historical capital of Margarita. There is a grand municipal building there, a brick-road plaza, bright-coloured houses and more greenery.

Municipal Palace, La Asuncion

I walked around, looking for a bakery or an empanada seller or someplace that looked like it would sell something I wanted to eat, but no luck. I did come across a small plaza with stalls selling fruit, DVDs and jewellery, with chairs and tables outside belonging to a hamburger stall and a deli selling empanadas but there were no cheese empanadas left. I continued walking around until I got to the main road where the buses come and kept walking. All in all I wasn't in La Asuncion for that long - definitely no longer than an hour - but I needed to get back to give the tour agent my deposit.

No buses that were the right route came by and I finally took a taxi back to Los Robles. When I arrived back to the agency to finalise my booking, the agent, Nicol, finally figured out that we had met at Playa El Agua when I was there with N and C. The minute I had sat down at Nicol's desk I knew I had met her and I gave her a big smile, but she didn't return it and I couldn't remember where I had met her - had she helped me with bus advice? She remembered who I was when I mentioned being vegetarian, because we discussed vegetarianism on the beach with the falafel seller. I took this as an omen that I was supposed to book the trip with her. It was more expensive than the others (though also an extra day) and didn't include transport to the airport, but also I felt like I was somehow betraying MS. I had to fight with these feelings - it is my trip to do what I want/need to do with it. But he made noises about possibly coming with me, gave me the number of a friend who is a tour guide in Canaima (I called four times but no answer), but I can't wait for MS. I needed to book this trip today for fear that I'll never go - or not see anything else. How easy it is to give up one's will to a boy. But I didn't; well, I haven't entirely.

The trunks of trees here are painted blue and white. Sometimes the top, narrower, band is of another colour but mostly it is blue. I was told this is to keep bugs away.

MS thinks Venezuelans are lazy and don't want to work. I can't say I blame them. Nicol talked about how relaxed everyone is, especially on Margarita, where the common refrain ia 'Tomorrow!'