Back to Reality

It's taken me a while to get round to finally writing this post, for several reasons. Chief one, which is still a little upsetting, is that I've lost the first 2/3 of my holiday "diary," and while I can still remember vast swathes of the trip, I'm sure there are many of the little bits and pieces that make up the full story that I've forgotten, like...

Fruti Max, facts of the day, PV=nRT, "For twos, you use the bag," "Bumface," "Amanda, that's oarful," the monkey spider, Brian and the Day of the Three Spilt Drinks (also Brian and the day of camera footage...), the sunbow when we landed at Kamarata, "a woman comes in 3 times a week," the bus-surfing, Michelmas at Chichirivichi, bananas, ant armies, Chinotto at Paraitepui, Tek river waterfall jacuzzi, the Milky Way at Kawe, toilet buddies, "hold a firework in your right hand and count to 10," galletas, termite chilli sauce, fireflies, Salto El Sapo and "pondering life" afterwards, joy of movement on Roraima, partial eclipse, Myra's long-sleeved top, wrong turns (on the way up through the bog and on the way down through the steep forest near Paraitepui) the beautiful spider, snake in the cooler box, watermelons (for eating, for betting and for leaving sat on rocks for slowcoaches to enjoy), Carlucho the rain attractor, chinchoros, homemade limeade, menthol, waking up to the ISS, group dynamics, toilet terror, "when the fly comes down 6 inches...," Tarot Shithead, the flickering lights in the hotel on the first night - and the shower cubicle there too, pool at Banana Camps in Santa Elena, the DVT hour, thunderstorms at Angostura, lollies, swimming in Angel Falls, seeing Angel Falls from El Mirador for the first time and wanting to agree with Lee but not being able to speak, not washing for 6 days, remoteness, "How're you doing, brother?" on the way down Roraima, Simon & Garfunkel music quiz, Dust in the Wind - English and Portuguese - Piano Man, More Than Words and Mr Big, Ann Arbor coincidences, the Chinese girl's Mills & Boon folder of love for Jose Alexander, restaurant malfunction at El Tizon, solitary coffee at Kawe falls and at Angel Falls, hammocks for giants, crossing Rio Kukenan on the way back, El Anal cashew nuts, Toffee Goodness - something sticky and sweet, checking of passports on leaving the plain in CDG, insect attack, the 15 Minutes of Chocolate conversation, Aussie "mites", selling Amanda all my bolivars at airports...

And those are the ones I do remember!

Photos are here and here.

I don't think I've ever been on such a ... concentrated holiday. Even now, 2 weeks later, and I still haven't got my head back fully into the real world from it - of course, that could be in part because the real world isn't exactly somewhere I'm enjoying living right at the moment.