Whooo Civil Unrest!

So, I´m sitting in a small mining town called Las Claritas in the south of Venezuela. We were SUPPOSED to be driving up to a city called Puerto Ordaz where we going to catch a plane back up to La Guiira and the ship, BUT there is a protest in this town and the only road north is closed indefinitely. Crazy, right? Apparently, the town is not getting enough gasoline to power the mining machines on a regular basis, and are protesting to demand more gas from the government-run industry. We drove up to the north end of town, and there is a big party up there, with demonstrators on megaphones and literally hundreds of people and cars blocking the road. At this point, we are pretty sure that we are going to miss our flight back up to the boat, and are working out contingency plans--either they will hold the ship in port for us for a day, or they will fly us down to Brazil where we will meet up with the boat, or something. But no need to worry, it is a very peaceful protest, we are already set up at a nearby lodge, and this is more just a cool experience than something I am worried about. I´ll write another entry about the whole Venezuela trip at some point, but for now, we chill in the Internet Cafe and enjoy an extended trip to Venezuela.