Los Médanos de Coro

When you step off the $10.00, 13-hour, bus ride to the city of Coro, nothing strikes you as different or spectacular. It is dirty, rundown, and just normal for Venezuela. Then you head to a taxi with all your belongings, the most efficient and cheapest way to travel when there is no bus. You then ask to go to Los Médanos or the sand dunes. You expect a long ride, because you are literally in a city. The taxi takes you for a less than 10 min drive, and the taxi becomes silent. The city, the noise, the garbage, just stops. It is almost like the tree line of a forest, when it just completely ends. The city stops and the wondrous dunes just begin. For miles from there all you see is sand. We got out and just walked the sand dunes for a little less than an hour. We were hot and sweaty and full of sand by the end. Pictures do not do justice for what you have seen. Quite astonishing.

Camila Concert

Starting off I had to buy a Camila concert ticket. There were signs everywhere saying you had to buy tickets at a bakery shop. When I went to the street where it said it was I had to stop into three shops  before actually finding the correct one! Much different than just buying one from TicketMaster! When the day came we were told we had to get in line at least 4 hours early because there are no assigned seats. I got there with my friends and got really lucky that I saw some of my Venezuelan friends who had been in line for eight hours. So we got to go to the front of the line! After four more hours of waiting, the riot police opened the gates to let about 100 people through at a time. I have never been more scared for my life than this moment, it was a stampede to get in through the gates, people were fighting and the riot police were hitting people with their batons. You, yourself, were not walking, you were being pushed. Some girl passed out in front of us and no one stopped and the riot police had to hit people HARD with their baton to even get this girl up and stop people from stepping on her. Then when we finally got in they had 2 people taking tickets...one line for girls and one for boys. It was AWFUL you think they would have had more people since so many people were pushing and shoving. Then once you finally got in, you had to run up three stories on a ramp and then find and save your seat. By the time I was done I was covered in sweat. BUT we did end up getting front row! It was amazing. During the concert though, it started to pour and everyone got drenched from head to toe! It was worth it! The whole concert lasted a little over three hours, with two people who opened for Camila. But I can skip ever risking my life for a concert again. I really appreciate assigned seating.

CAMILA!

Paola, Me, Michelle, and Tyrell



Palo de Agua (raining cats and dogs)



WOW!!

Alright, so family and friends, I realize I have been slacking here on my blog. I have so much to share with you over these past few weeks...but tomorrow is my LAST DAY OF SCHOOL! So I have currently been focusing on school, which surprisingly is what I actually came down to Venezuela for. Over these past three weeks I have had a total of 15 papers, 3 speeches, and 6 tests. I have been on OVERLOAD for quite some time now. I am really excited to catch you up on what I have been doing. I will let you know this weekend because I will finally have time, to do whatever I want to do! Miss you all and love you all!
-Happy Thanksgiving- (a bit early)





Partido de Futbol

Celebrating the Los Estudiantes!

Last weekend and again this weekend some of us went to a soccer game at the Metropolitano stadium. It was ridiculously packed with people and tickets cost under $10! Everyone drinks outside and on the streets and things get really crazy. They have riot police everywhere during events such as these. We were cheering for the Merida team of course, their team name was Los Estudiantes! The crowds are really crazy and we finally

The crowd and the game



Giant Jersey



got our seats, because it is first come, first serve basis. We watched the Los Estudiantes team come out and the crowd went crazy, there was confetti, and people would throw receipt rolls because they spiral unravel. Then when it was time for the other team to come out they had to be escorted out under police riot shields! As soon as the team came out people would throw anything they had. It could be anything from bottles, to shoes, to rocks. It would never happen in the US that way. The game started and it was really cool to see the fans and the teams play. It was a great time at the soccer game!! After the game you had to walk to try to find a taxi or walk a little more than a mile to the trolleybus. We decided to walk and clearly so did everyone else.

 

Street lined with people!

Canaima aka. Angel Falls

If you look on the map, I traveled from Merida to Salto Angel.

Whoa. I realize it has been quite some time since I have had the chance to update all my friends and family. BUT you as much as I have to remember I am not here just for fun and sun. I actually do attend classes 4 days a week. Plus I really am not a fan of teachers assigning about 4 projects, papers, presentations and tests all in one week. We only have 12 teachers at VENUSA, you think they could possibly plan accordingly. So needless to say I have been overwhelmed with the craziness of school.

Alright well on to my lastest adventure last weekend! It all started at 5am on a Friday morning. Eight of us gringos (white people) met at school and hopped into a jeep with our tour guide. We knew we had a long day ahead of us so, none of us really slept the night before so we could sleep on our ride across the country! We almost got to our bus stations, five hours away, when traffic completely stopped on a mountain side. Not much you can do stranded there. We soon found out that a bridge had collapsed about a month ago, and it made it dangerous for the children to cross the river to go to school, on rainy days the children could not even go to school. So the village was having a demonstration against Chavez. As naive as we sometimes can be, we all thought okay soon it will be open and we can go. After two hours of waiting, doing yoga in the street, peeing in bushes, and trying to sleep, we got out a deck of cards (That I brought --Thank you family for teaching me well) and played card games...for another hour or hour and a half. Some Venezuelan children even came to play with us! Finally we were moving again so we all hopped into the jeep to head off to the bus station. We had to go to a further away bus station because we missed our bus. When we finally go to the bus we had to run to get on it! We took a two hour bus ride to a different bus station where we caught out next overnight 13 hour bus! Thank goodness we were all so tired, because I slept the entire 13 hours. We arrived to the bus station and walked to the near by very small airport. We had to take two 6-person planes. We got into our planes and the first one went off and we soon followed. Not 10 minutes in the air and our plane started to smoke, the pilot continued to tell us to stay calm we need to land. (He was making us more nervous by continuously telling us to stay calm.)

Some waterfalls we climbed

 We had another 2 hour wait until we got a new plane to take us to the island of Canaima. The flight was magnificent. The view of so much untouched beautiful land is incredible. As we flew in we had to hike about a mile to the boat that would take us to our camp to set up for the night. We still had about 2 or 3 hours of daylight so we took advantage and hiked three different waterfalls, we even went behind two of them! It was like none of us were talking because you did not want to speak.

One of the beautiful waterfalls we visited

You were completely speechless to the beauty of nature. We got back to our camp for the night ate a delicous dinner of spaghetti, with a potato-chicken sauce on it, veggies, and bread. We were pretty beat for the day and slept soundly in our hammocks with mosquito netting.

In the morning we had to take a "two-hour" boat ride to Angel Falls, I have learned very quickly that Venezuelans are always late and always lie about how long it takes to get somewhere. This "two-hour" boat ride turned into four hours, we stopped on a little deserted island for our bag lunches of ham and cheese sandwiches, a pastry, and water. We also got to swim to cool off for a bit since the sun was constantly beating down on us out in the river. In the river there were so many minnows that would bite at your feet, it was crazy! When we finally arrived to Angel falls we were told it would be about a 30 min walk to so. We were running for the first 25 minutes because our tour guide told us we have to beat the other tour that was also there, so we ran which was a bad idea, because a 30 min walk turned into an hour and a half.

Eating lunch on a island

We were completely exhausted. Also, it was not just a trail we were walking on, we were in the JUNGLE, with tree roots everywhere and rocks and you were continuously climbing up. We were tired. When we got to the top we saw it 1 km of water free falling off a cliff. It was so breathtaking. The thought that I just took a 30 hour adventure to get here was nothing. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Then our tour guide told us to follow him, we followed to the bottom of Angel Falls, where he then told us to jump in.

I swam at the bottom of one of the seven natural world wonders. The feelings we all had were overwhelming. When we got out our tour guide said we need to go quickly down, since it gets dark very quickly. When we had about 1/4 mile left to hike, it was so black I could not see my hand in front of my face. At this point we became a bit terrified because you would just lift up your foot and hope to not trip, fall, slip, or twist your ankle. We soon caught up with the rest of the group who did have flashlights with them, luckily they waited by the river we had to cross because you could only cross by rocks. When we were out of the jungle, we took a boat to our new camp at the bottom of Angel Falls. This camp had no electricity or running water. It was lit by candles, and you either got water from the river to flush the toilet or went right by the river. 

In front of Angel Falls

The next morning we had to adventure our 30 hours back home. From the boat, to walking, to another boat, to a plane (which I was CO-pilot on!), to an overnight bus, to another bus, to a jeep. We made it home, where all is wanted to do was shower in a warm shower! We got home at 6pm on Tuesday (because we had off school Monday and Tuesday). I had to get my homework done and be in class by 8am the next morning. Talk about a hectic weekend!

View from camp

Just another bump in the road.

Alright, so besides a parasite here and scabies in Guatemala, I thought I have had enough. Goes to show that this trip is really toughening me up. I had gotten chiggers, along with about 7 other people, this past adventure weekend. I did not get them as bad as others, so for that I am lucky. They itch like CRAZY! So we had to use a shampoo to make sure they are all out.

Chigger (about the size of a tick)

I can deal with bugs, handle snakes, cook on a fire, camp ANYWHERE and am always ready for the next adventure....My future husband owes you big time, Venezuela.

Los Llanos

I can not believe it is October already! My first October adventure starts in los llanos. Aside from my amoeba I was really prepared for a rough weekend. It started on Friday at 5am when we had to wake up and be in the jeep by 6am. We drove, ate a quick breakfast, and continued to drive. We also had to stop for lunch, because we were hungry and our butts hurt with 9 people shoved into a jeep! We had to take our original passports because we were crossing borders from the state of Merida to the state of Barinas. One boy forgot his and it cost him 270 Bs. of bribes to get across the border. When we finally arrived around 5pm to our camp in los llanos, we ate a quick dinner, unpacked in our cabins, which consisted of only hammocks, and got ready for our first night safari! As we started to get into the jeeps, our tour guides asked how are we going to see...so we ended up riding on TOP of the jeeps and just holding on! We drove for a while until our tour guide, Tony, jumped off and went into hip high water to wrestle a cayman. He brought it up to us to show all of us so we could touch it and learn. It was CRAZY! Then we continued on and saw more animals such as the giant anteater(was about 5 feet from tail to nose!), snakes, an ocelot, many different birds, an opossum, and world's largest rodent a chiguires. When we arrived back at camp we had a very relaxing night, we were all tired from the long ride in. During the night we were awoken by a bat flying around trying to get out of our cabin. Once it was out we all slept well! In the morning I took a quick shower in our outdoor shower filled with bugs and frogs, and got ready for the day.

Swimming with the river dolphins.

Our first adventure of the day was a boat ride. We had to keep very still because if you would tip one way or the other, water would be filling our boat. On the boat we looked at a rare species of bird that only eats leaves, big turtles, cayman, piranhas, and more. We got to a spot where the river widens and our tour guide pointed out to us PINK RIVER DOLPHINS! They were incredible, they are the only fresh water dolphins in the world. Then our tour guide jumped in and told us to do the same. All of us thought he was bullshitting us because we know what lives in the water, but besides the piranhas, cayman, turtles, etc. I jumped in. We swam with the river dolphins! Once back in the boat we headed back to start out next activity of the day, anaconda hunting. We took a jeep to where the anacondas roam and our tour guide told us we can either stay on the road or follow him, I thought it would be better to follow him, so we got into a muddy area. This muddy area soon turned into a swampy area, with water almost up to our knees!

Anaconda hunting.

We were showed the area in which the anaconda laid and her trail, but unfortunately we lost her trail and did not find one. In the mean time my friend and I made a joke to the others to "watch out ahead because it is leech infested" Well my joke was not that funny when I got out of the swamp with a big leech on my ankle. One of our tour guides had to pull it off, along with my skin he got. So besides my shoes and socks having mud and muck, there was also blood on them too. After anaconda hunting ,we decided to fish in the river for piranhas. So we baited our very simplistic hook with chicken and tossed it in. I am proud to say I caught a piranha and was the only girl to knock it over the head to kill it before you had to get it off the hook! Then we headed back to camp and to get dry clothes on, have a lunch of piranha (which were incredibly amazing to eat) and prepare for mule riding! I went in the first group, we headed through rivers that the mules do not like because the mules know that there are cayman and they get really jumpy. We had to cross a river where the water was up to our thighs, and we were ON the mule.



Heading through the river!



It was crazy, but of course fun! After mule riding, we had to walk a mile or so back to our jeep. On the way we found a boa constrictor in the mud, so we kept it with us and in the jeep to show the rest of the group back at camp! After a long day we proceeded to have supper and hit the hammock for a great nights sleep. We had to wake up around 6am for a delicious breakfast of pancakes and get in the jeep for a five hour ride to whitewater rafting! We rafted for about an hour and a half. I was in a raft with our guide and 3 other girls. We stopped in the middle to get out because our guide said he wanted to show us something. We climbed a ledge up a cliff where you could only fit one foot at a time on the cliff. We climbed up about 20 feet and he told us to jump into the water. My fear of heights kicked in, but I was the first to jump! It was so fantastic that I climbed up and did it one more time! When we finished whitewater rafting it was time to go home and rest for school the following morning. We ended up getting home around 11pm Sunday night. Also, this trip only cost $153 US dollars. It was incredible.

My first piranha!!

Amoeba

This is in my intestines.

Stool Sample Kit. (shovel included)

Of course, if I am going to get sick, I mind as well get a horrible parasite! Woke up at 12am to use the bathroom, my host mom heard me and assured me that I needed herbal tea, so I sat up with her as she went out to the garden and cut off some random leaves to make my tea. I did not get back to bed until about 1am. Woke up around 5am to repeat my bathroom instance. This went on until the time I was supposed to get up for school. I then decided I don't think I could make it to school. By 8am, my mom was at the pharmacy buying me a stool sample kit. YAY. I had to take it right when she got home. I gagged, this was not my favorite thing to do. By noon my stool was being sampled and we had to pick it up at 12:30pm. This is when I found out I was diagnosed with Amoebas. My whole family got really worried and insisted on me drinking water, although anything that went into my body came straight out with in 10 min. I was not a happy camper. We made a doctors appointment for 2:30pm. We got there and the doctor was still on siesta (a break in the day from 12-2 where places close) he arrived a little after 4pm. I was currently about to die in the waiting area. Finally it was my turn and he told me that we needed to get an IV in soon, because I was very dehydrated. So he wrote out a prescription for me, and I had to go to the pharmacy to buy all the needles, tubing, and solution I would need for my IV. As soon as I got back the doctor was ready to get me on it. Instead of the usual rubber banding of the upper arm, I had to use my other arm to apply pressure so my vein would show. (I love U.S. doctors as of today). I was feeling much better after the IV, a little dizzy, but better. I got home and only have had one bowel movement. Thank goodness. My stomach still does not want to see, smell, or eat food, but it is feeling better, which is a major plus to me! I will be on medications for the next 15 days, to get rid of the Amoeba. :(

Med #1

Med #2

Med #3

Overshare.

Last night, was my first really sick night. Spent about 3 hours (from 3am-6am) on or next to the toilet. Not my favorite night. Then at 7:40am when I had to get in the shower, I started not feeling so well and had to quickly finish up the shower and RUN to my room! I talked to a nurse and if this continues I have to get a stool sample to see if it is a parasite. So far 16 out of the 22 people in my group have had anywhere from 1 to 3 parasites, 3 people have ended up in the hospital. So far I am good, during the day I have been feeling much better. Hopefully it was just a short 24 hour flu.

Paragliding!

On Saturday morning we headed for paragliding. It happened to be a bit to cloudy so we had to wait a few hours. So our tour guide and all of us went out for a lunch. When it was time we went to go pick up the boys who were going to be our lead flyer. I mean boys, they were all 20 except for the head instructor. Randi and Regina got to go first they took off, off the top of the mountain and flew around for about a half hour and came back down on top of the mountain. Then Erica, Ruth and I got our chance. While I was getting strapped in I was talking to my flyer, I told him I was a bit nervous, kiddingly he replied. yeah me too. I laughed and asked him if he was nervous because it's his first time too, he said yup! haha. When we got strapped to the parachute two people have to hold you otherwise you get pulled back by the wind. So two people were holding my front they let go, and just told me to run.

So we ran, I literally ran right off the cliff, my friend said it was funny cause I kept running even when we were already off the cliff, I didn't know when to stop! When you are in the air you have to push a seat under you and then just sit back and enjoy the ride. Once in the air, my flyer told me we had to land again. I was like okay. Well in the meantime it began to rain...so he was like it will be okay. Turns out two strings were twisted, but it would not really effect the flight. The view was breathtaking. We did some tricks in the air, some twirling, and just some calm gliding. We when landed at the bottom of the mountain where the rest of the crew were to meet us after we landed. It was such a rush, and we hope to do it one more time before we leave!



Champion paraglider and I



Catatumo

On Friday a group of four girls and I headed off early in the morning to Lake Maracaibo. We hopped in jeep and started on our journey. We stopped at two waterfalls to just take in the beauty of nature.

We also stopped on the side of the road and our crazy world known tour guide, Tony Martin (the Steve Erwin of Venezuela), just told us we had to get out for a bit. He then told us we were looking for the famous red-legged tarantula that lived in the area. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately for me, we did not find one.

So we hopped back into the jeep to the lake. We made one more stop to eat lunch and to pick up whatever we wanted to eat for dinner and breakfast at an outdoor market.we picked up sausage, chicken, tons of veggies, potatoes, yuca, fruits and more! We also sat down and ate a lunch of rotisserie chicken, yuca, and coleslaw it was delicious! When we got to the lake we had to get into a boat.

 We took a slow boat ride down a river to our palafito, (house on stilts in the middle of the lake). On our way we were pointed out all the different animals that were in the rainforest surrounding us. We saw howler monkeys, parrots, toucans, iguanas, condors, vultures and so much more.



Monkey!

 We finally arrived to our palafito where we settled in, set up our hammocks for the night, and our guide made us dinner, while us girls played drinking games (without alcohol, because it was election weekend, and it was illegal to buy or consume any alcohol during election weekend.)



Our hammocks in which we slept



After dinner we went for a night safari in our boat again. We saw different huge birds, owls and crocodiles, one was about 9ft long! On our way back the phenomenon of Catatumbo began. It lasts about 7 hours and it is lightening without thunder. It lights up the whole sky. It is such an amazing sight to see. It did not seem real while I was laying back in my hammock, in the middle of the lake, watching this. It was surreal. In the middle of the night some of us had to move our hammocks because it began to MONSOON. well, close to it. It was quite a sight at 2am. Then I had to get up to pee, thanks to the rain. The toilets went directly into the lake! This was not a lake you come to swim in! At 6 am we woke up for breakfast, and headed out for our next adventure of paragliding!

Just some down time.

So this past weekend, I really did nothing. I went to a hotel and sat by the pool all weekend. It was amazing. I also tried to work on my pickle craving by going to Subway, but they did not understand that I just wanted pickles, so I had to buy a whole sub with pickles on it. They were still not the same, but they did the trick! I also had three tests this week already, two written tests and one oral. So far I have a B+ on the one I got back! YAY, off to a good start! This week has been really stressful with all the studying and everything. Luckily this weekend we are off to Catatumbo and paragliding!

TAXI ride with 7 of us!

Hot Mess

Today was my first mental breakdown! We got so much homework today in our classes, and in one class a teacher told me that I did an assignment wrong and needed to re-do it. It was not what I wanted to hear at the time and I started balling! First mental break down...is done! Time to celebrate a girl from our groups 21st birthday tonight, and tomorrow...homework.

Also, random fact, it is definitely okay for men to pee on the grass right off the sidewalk. I don't think it is that cool when I have to pass peeing men in the morning.

Special Visit

Mérida is currently getting ready for the visit of Chavez tomorrow. I doubt he will be stopping by our American school, but the streets are already running crazy with people, horns, flags, extra police, helicopters, and more. Note to self: DO NOT WEAR RED tomorrow. If you wear red here you are considered a Chavista -or- a follower and voter for Chavez. --I will be sure to not wear my red rain coat, let's just hope for no rain.

School

It's weird to be "living the life" in the sun and by the pools...and yet still have hours of school and homework. Although as hard as it is, it seems much easier because I do not have to deal with going to work. School is hard. But slowly getting easier, thank goodness!

Craving

For the past few weeks I realize that I have been craving Milwaukee pickles, really badly. I finally went to the store to find a small jar of pickles, which cost about $5, for a SMALL jar. I could not wait to try one...they were awful. Guess i will just keep on craving pickles.

Water.

I have decided that I am really sick of the governments ways already. Sometimes they will just shut off a neighborhoods water, without notice, to save money. Well I can tell you that I was not happy when I was almost through with my shower, and the water was shut off...I wish I could have a talk to this government, but I guess its better I just keep my mouth shut, from what I hear Chavez is not really a huge American fan. I just want running water all day.

Relaxing weekend in Merida

This is the first weekend we actually just stayed put in Merida. It was a lot of fun not having to pack up for the weekend. On Friday a bunch of us decided to go to coromoto heladaria, which is the Guinness Book of World Records, for the most flavors of ice cream! You can get anything from beer, to strawberry, to passion fruit, to beef, taco, ham and cheese sandwich, vodka, coke, and about 900 more! It was crazy We we also went to the zoo on Friday, it only cost 50 cents to get in. We also got to hold a snake and get some great pictures with them. It was quite a small zoo, but fun none the least. On Sunday some of us went to the pool, it was AMAZING, they had the best strawberry daiquiris ever! And of course I had to get home on time on Sunday to watch the Packer game with my friend Mark through our computer! All in all it was another amazing weekend here in Venezuela!

All the different ice cream flavors at Coromoto!

Loving the pool

Works of art.

Aguas Termales

This past weekend we got up early about 5am to go to the grocery store to pick up our food for the weekend! We packed everything is our packs and headed to pick up our rental tent, sleeping bag and pad, which we also had to get onto our already heavy packs. We soon got on a bus to take us to a jeep, the jeep then took us about half way up the mountain. We then got out to get ready for the hike. When we had to crawl under barbed wire I knew we were in for quite an adventure! We hiked about 2 miles to the first campground. Some of us decided to take a further trip to a different campground. So our hike continued. We camped with cows surrounding our tent. Once our tents were all up we went to the hot springs! It was so amazing, it was like one big hot bath. When we got out it was FREEZING. So we started a fire at our campground to start our dinner for champs, hot dogs, tuna, and chips. After dinner the sun sank behind the mountains very quickly. We stayed up until what felt like the middle of the night. We all crawled into our sleeping bags, and realized it was just after 8. It had been a long day though! We woke up early to pack up and get going for the day. It was so amazing to wake up on the side of a cliff. Our tent was about 1 foot or 2 away from the edge of a cliff.

Our tent near the cliff

In the hot springs!

Night in the Andes Mountains

Missing home.

As amazing as it is to be surrounded by mountains, you will always have the feeling of missing family and friends. It's hit me a little, but it does not get me down. So far, one of the things I miss most are my 3 year olds! I see all these kids on the bus, or on the street walking to school, and I just miss my class! Although I of course brag about how smart my class is to other people at my school, so I get talk about them at least. You should all know I miss my family, friends and class, very much!

School and First Weekend Here!

School has started and it is dificult. The classes are really interesting and the professors are amazing to work with. I understand almost everything that is going on in the class but when it is my turn to talk I feel like my mind goes blank. It will take some time to get used to all Spanish all the time. I am loving the school, it is so much fun. We also went into the Andes this past weekend for a trip to Mucubaji, which is a national park where we hiked until it started to rain. On Saturday we went to a party in the Andes because it was a friend from schools birthday and he rented out two cabins for us, we had many drinks, lots of swimming, and lots of food!

Mucubaji

The view from our cabin

Fun in Isla Margarita amd Merida

Saturday August 21, 2010


Snorkeling was really fun minus the fact that everyone on the bus got money stole from them. *sad* We went on a boat for about a 20 min ride to an island where we first got out to snorkel. We had about an hour there then we headed for lunch. For lunch we ate grilled chicken and fish, coleslaw, bread, and rice. Then we sat for a while drinking our cup of coffee (which is the size of a shot glass. If you order a coffee anywhere you will get a shot glass size. Nothing ever larger than that.) We sat resting and then went to another cove to snorkel. We saw sea urchins, plenty of colorful amazing fish, and a lion fish! I don’t think my body has ever taken that much salt water in haha. We got to know the people on the boat really well, they were so nice. There was a fun German couple, some people from Argentina and some from Venezuela. The two people pretty much loved Mark and I. They told us that they wanted to play volleyball and swim some more, as if we hadn’t been swimming all day. But we said we would love to, then after playing volleyball with Rafael and Jennifer, they said they would take us home, instead of us paying for a taxi.

Sunday August 22, 2010

Today was another awful day of crazy travels. First we got up and had a cab waiting for us at 7:00am we went to the ferry where I had to wait in line almost an hour to get our tickets. Then we had to wait for another hour just to get on the ferry. Once we finally got onto the ferry we had to wait in a HOT HOT line by where the cars park. We were sweats bullets like no other. When we got to the front of the never ending line, we found out we were in the wrong line the whole time. When we got to the correct stairs we went up them to find out we were on the worst level. I would compare it to the cheapest level on the titanic. It was HORRIBLY hot and we were sweating non-stop. After the 4 hour ferry ride we went to the bus station where we told a completely coked out man that we needed a ticket to caracas on the next bus leaving. After yelling with this man he wrote us tickets for supposedly 4:00 so it would be any minute that the bus would be pulling up. Well when we talked to him again he booked us on the 12:30am!! Bus. After getting our money back we went to the next station where we got tickets for the correct next bus. We had a 6 hour CRAZY bus ride, definitely thought we were going to tip over, he was a horrrrrible driver. When we arrived in Caracas we got a hotel and spent the night, ready for our trip for Merida en la manana!

Monday August 23
We took a taxi to the Caracas airport to meet up with the rest of the group. We were so excited to have the group with us. When they finally arrived we took a smaller plane for one hour to a closer city. Then we had to get on a 2 hour bus ride to the city of Merida! It was so exciting pulling up to the city. When I met my host family, they were so inviting and amazing. I got very lucky because I have my own room, my own bathroom, we have wireless internet (which is rare). I look outside and in our front yard is a mandrain tree, a platain tree, and an alvacado tree, it is surreal! It's nice waking up in the morning to go to school and realize that you are surrounded by the Andes mountains. All is well here!

The First Few Days

We arrived here and are safe. We have not had internet at all or any way of


getting a connection. So let me tell you what we have been up to. We

arrived at the Simon Bolivar airport at 12:40am, a little later than was

expected. As we walked through customs, there was Hugo, a HUGE mural of him

welcoming us. Then we were waiting for our luggage….and waiting…and

waiting….until mine showed up! Yay both are here and heavy and safe with

me. Unlucky for Mark, we could not find his. SOO we had to stay quite some

time at the airport looking for his luggage, then talking with the lost

luggage guy, and he told us he will look for it on the next flight in from

Toronto…which is Friday. So luckily he has his toothbrush, some clothes,

and a swimsuit. By the time we left the airport it was 2:15AM, we got a

taxi and were on our way to hotel la parada, we got there and the taxi

driver tried really hard to rip us off..thank god we are not that stupid

and know how to bargain. They happened to be booked so we had to have a

taxi to another hotel. Not going to lie I was quite nervous to the area we

were going to, and there was a gate going into the hotel and all. A bit

sketchy, but we were so tired and needed sleep, since we had a long day the

following day. We talked with the guy from the hotel who hooked us up with

a cheap taxi into Caracas so we could catch a bus to Puerto La Cruz. He

said we had to be to Caracas by 8 if we wanted a good bus. So we decided to

get a wake up call at 6:30am….mind you we did not get to bed until 3am.

When we woke up we were all ready and the taxi guy picked us up…who

happened to be the hotel owners son. They said it would be about a 35 min

ride to Caracas… after an hour and a half the boy driver told us he did

not know where he was going and that it was his first time driving in the

city. So a 35 min ride turned into 2 hrs. and 10 min. Mark and I were

currently very frustrated, lucky for us it was a flat fee, and not by the

minute or mile! We arrived at the bus station in Caracas at 9:10am (only

six hours after we had gone to bed) We got tickets on the 11:00am bus to

Puerto la Cruz. We had time to spare and neither of us had eaten a thing

yet so the best we could get at the bus station was I got a yogurt and

water, he got Doritos and water…(little did we know this was all we would

get to eat until 10PM!!) We finally got on the bus and it was a nice bus

with really reclining seats, WE PASSED OUT SLEEPING. We were told the bus

ride would take about 5 hours. We couldn’t believe it because it was

technically only the distance to door county! Well our bus did go a high

30mph the whole way. We stopped at a rest stop to use the restroom or grab

food. The food did not seem very good for us Americans to eat, so we passed

on that, but we did hit the restrooms, where I had to get a bucket of water

(MYSELF) to flush the toilet. The toilet that did not have a seat and that

we cannot put toilet paper into. Mark and I kept checking the time, our

“5” hour bus ride was really 6 ½. We finally arrived to Puerto La Cruz

at 6:40pm. Where we had to take a ferry to the island we are staying on for

the next 3 days. While in line at the ferry station we heard that a ferry

was going to leave in an hour and a half. Perfect timing for us! Well we

wait and wait and wait in a pretty short line and our 8:00pm ferry was

dwindling from our dreams. At 8:10pm, when I was told the next ferry was at

2am Mark got to sit with the luggage while I finish up in line. After lots of bickering

and help of some really nice people around me, they got us on the 8:00pm

ferry. By now it was 8:22pm and they told us to run. We got on the ferry

and finally sat down to a ham sandwich, it was amazing, since we were so

hungry. We made it to Isla Margarita and we took a really sweet taxi to the

a 20$ a night hotel. Haha. (then again we have no toilet seat, there are

geckos in the bathroom, the shower curtain barely stays up) but it was

20(US dollars). In the morning we went to La Playa Agua. (the beach) We

laid out all day, which we could do because it was a bit cloudy and was not

always sunny and hot. We ate a yummy seafood meal, played in the waves, and

then got on a bus to head back to our hotel.