Big Post

Another weekend gone in Venezuela. I have been in this country for almost 2 months and time is just flying by. I find myself really enjoying the culture. Spanish is coming along nicely. I find it pretty easy to understand most people and their conversations and can talk back pretty well. I have also found the magic of non verbal communications. I find myself using my hands so much more to try to get my point across. I really enjoy learning the slang of this language also. I feel like it makes you so much more less of a foreigner than you already are. However, my Spanish class Is pretty tough. I find it difficult to grasp concepts in grammar because there are so many different kinds of verb tenses here that we don’t have or use in English.
Anyways, this past Saturday I organized a camping trip about an hour out to this mountain lake called la laguna de coromoto. We took a 20 minute bus ride out to the next closest city called tabay. From there we took another 20 minute jeep taxi to this city and park called la mucuy. From there we take this trail to the lake that was supposed to take around 3 hours. Mind you, this trail was pretty much uphill and with all of my gear strapped on, this was no easy task. The trail was beautiful, gaining some real elevation and going through the jungle. The trail was very well maintained however, the signage was absolutely terrible. We reached a point around 3 times when we hit a point where the trail broke into a 3 way fork. Because there were no signs, we pretty much had to guess where we had to go. So needless to say we were pretty much lost in the andes mountains. We had to backtrack like 4 times and reached a point where Andrew ran up the trail to see if there was any chance of making it to this lake before it got dark. He was gone for around 20 minutes running up the trail. Meanwhile, the rest of us were sitting and taking a breather when it got really dark really fast and it started to rain. Andrew came back and let us know that the lake was nowhere to be found and that the trail doesn’t open up for a camping spot. Sooo, we backtracked yet again to see if we could find someplace to set up camp. It continued to rain and we were in a race against time against the darkness. We tried a couple other trails and finally found a spot to set up camp (consisted of an old slab of concrete). As soon as the tents got up, it started to POUR. I guess this meant no fire and no hot food. But…my friend Andrew and I worked to get a fire started for around 2 hours. With the help of a pair of sweatpants of my friend Kelsey, we finally got a fire going with wet wood. This meant all of us huddling around the fire for warmth with bottles of rum and slightly cooked vegetables. Overall if I had to do it again, I would. The trail was gorgeous, like something out of Indiana Jones, crossing waterfalls and running into people fishing with sticks. I love the mountains here and it is soo easy to get up there and spend just a night. The weekends are pretty packed from now on so the night time I get to go will be the last weekend here.
I am going to really miss it here. It has been such a blast. Sometimes I catch myself walking down the street and remembering that I am in Venezuela. But there is so much on my plate coming up. Next week I am heading to the colonial city of Coro with my roommate and some buddies. Then next weekend my parents are coming for a week and we are heading to Los Llanos ( a wildlife paradise full of piranhas and anacondas) and to the mountains. The weekend after that I am going to Catatumbo, a place on a lake where natural lightning occurs. The weekend after that I might take a weekend trip to Columbia..maybe. After that is the last weekend here. After the program is over, I am planning an epic trip through part of South America. My roommate Adam, my friend Nora, and I are going to Cartegena, Colombia for a week. After Nora and I are going to bus through Colombia stopping in Medellin and Cali, and then to Quito, Ecuador. From there were are going to spend a week on the coast of Ecuador. I am soo excited for the epic journey. I have 24 days total after the program is over and cannot wait to explore more of this awesome continent! Well that is it for today, but tomorrow I am going ziplining through the jungle!!