Soaking up some Carribean rays

Well this weekend I decided to head to the coast with some friends to do some needed relaxing on the beach. So we set out from Merida at around 6pm. We purchased a ipod speaker before leaving which proved to be a great purchase for hotels and the beach. Nothing like drowning the constant sounds of Reggaeton with the likes of Bon Iver. So anyways we took our giant coach bus on a 12 hour ride. After a flat tire and two security checks, it ended up taking 14 hours to get to Valencia. After spending a couple hours in the Valencia bus station trying to get a bus ticket home, we set off for the city Chichiriviche, a popular beach city that has close access to a set of islands that is part of a national park called Morrocoy. The first day in Chichiriviche was spent trying to find a posada first and foremost. Because it was Carnival, many people headed to the beach so lots of places were all booked up or way too expensive. We eventually found this nice posada that ran us around 10 dollars a night. It was run by a family and had a gorgeous balcony that included a kitchen and a view of the ocean. We headed to a coastal beach and caught some waves and soaked up the sun. Needless to say, the water was perfect. Only a little nicer than the shores of lake michigan haha. After the beach we headed back to the posada to utilize the kitchen and made some plantains and pasta. The night was spent with stints on the beach and casual drinking and playing games.
The next day we decided to head to one of the islands. We went to the closest island (because of monetary reasons) called Cayo Sal. We hopped in a boat and went out to this island. On the island, we met up with some other people from venusa and set up our camp site. The beach and the island was great and beautiful but was packed with people because of Carnival. (This brings me to a sub point. With all the beauty that venezuela has to offer, they do a really poor job on maintaining the environment. These beaches were so pretty but were full of clutter. This has to do with a certain mindset that the people have. Even in merida, it is perfectly acceptable to throw trash in the street. Also, there is no pollution control, the cars and trucks exhale so many deadly fumes into the air. It is a really sad sight sometimes.) We spent the day playing frisbee and volleyball and just relaxing. Once it hit around 6pm, most of the people that werent staying on the island had left, it became so much more peaceful and beautiful. We headed out to a a series of tide pools to look at crabs, fish, starfish, and the works. While we we there we had the pleasure of experiencing a beautiful island sunset that was just perfect. We headed back to the camp site for some cards and fun for the rest of the night.
The next morning we headed back on a boat to the mainland. We had to pay extra for a new boat driver because our driver that was supposed to pick us up never showed. On a sad note, my tent was stolen by this boat driver. We put our backs in the back of the boat by the driver and his helper and they must have removed it from my pack. They threw our packs on the dock and pulled away before i could even notice it. Sad :( We then proceed to take an hour bus ride to another beach city of Tucacas. We searched for another Posada called Posada de Carlos, and well Carlos was kind of a jerk, but his posada had rooms and was cheap. This posada was pretty gross, damp and had a distinct smell, but we made the most of it(and it did have A/C). The day was spent throughout the town looking around and taking advantage of american movies on cable. The majority of the people in our group were not feeling so good, so we decided to take it easy for the day.
The next morning, we spent the day at the beach. This one was also crowded but was beautiful. It was surrounded by mangrove trees and had lots of coral. A funny thing happened there. We were in the ocean when this lady started to me. She asked if she could take a picture with me because of my blond hair. I went back to the beach with her and proceeded to take pictures with her and her whole family. They really love blonde people out here because it is soo rare. We chilled at the beach and collected some seashells and headed back on a bus back to Valencia. From Valencia we took a 12 hour ride back to Merida. The long trip busses are ridiculously cold but are pretty nice for the most part. (they have bathrooms and tvs also) Made it back to Merida all in one piece. I think i am going to take advantage of the last night of Carnival here tonight!!

It had to come sometime

Well i know that it has been a while since my last post, but there is a good reason. I was pretty sick from around tuesday of last week til monday this week. Im not exactly sure what it was (most likely some form of parasite from the food or the water), but i saw it coming. It was seriously a countdown of when it would happen, mostly because almost everybody else in our program has gotten it. Well needless to say it was not fun, and was in bed for the entire weekend while everyone else got to go out and have fun. But it is done and over with and shouldnt have to worry about it anymore because now i am used to the food and water here.
On another note, I did go out on thursday night even if i was a little sick. I had to check out this club. Its called club racing. It is actually quite similar to clubs in the states. It had a racing theme and was jammed full of people. It turned out to be a really fun night with lots of dancing and singing to the few american songs they played. It was interesting though, because a couple venezuelan friends had to try really hard to get into the club. In a country where i think a lot of people look the same, there is a good deal of racism here. The clubs prefer to let in people that are lighter skinned( obviously i had no problem) and are much more picky about letting in those who are darker skinned. Its crazy to hear and for me its hard to tell the difference. As much as some people here do not like americans, they try pretty hard to be like them. A classic case was when my friend tim was at a mcdonalds(by the way, not nearly as good in the U.S. and also REALLY expensive here) and some venezuelan uttered some words as he was leaving about him being a stupid american or something along those lines. But it was so ironic because the guy said that while in a mcdonalds. How much more american can you get? Too crazy.
Another off topic random fact, to fill up a tank of gas here it costs around 3 dollars their currency. That turns out to be around 50 cents american dollars. This is why taxi drivers here make some big money. But it does confuse me because with all of Venezuela's abundance of oil, they still find themselves in an energy crisis. Sometimes the logic here makes no senese...
But on a lighter note, this weekend is Carnival here, which means lots of drunk people in the street...so i will be heading to the beach with some friends for around 4 days. I will be sure to take lots of pictures and soak up the rays for all of you that are suffering in the snow and cold back in the states :)