Los Llanos and beyond! pt. 2

So we get back to Merida and go out to this really nice restaurant. We each had fish which was really great. For an excellent meal and beer it was less than 9 dollars! The next few days I showed my parents around the city so that they could get an idea of what my life is like here. We went to my favorite places to eat and hang out, and spent alot of time in the plazas. The plazas here are great, surrounded by vendors and a great place to people watch. Our posada just happened to be really close to the two main plazas in the city. The days went on as we caught up and ate alot! My parents had a venezuelan burger (complete with ham and chips and absolutely huge) and ate at the famous guiness book of world records ice cream shop (that being for having the most ice cream flavors in the world). Something very cool was that on Thursday and Friday we attended the passion of christ play right in my neighborhood. I later found out that these are popular for holy week but the one we attended is the most popular in the country. That is for good reason because the plaza was packed with people and the production quality of the play was excellent. Great costumes and actors! On friday my parents got to meet my host mom here and see what shes like. That was fun even though the language barrier makes everything a little more difficult.
I really got to practice my spanish while they were here. Being a constant translator can really improve your Spanish! My parents headed out Sunday afternoon. We went to the airport to find that their flight was canceled. They couldnt help them out because my parents had to catch a flight in caracas at 8 in the morning. So...I had to work quick and arrange a 10 hour cab ride to caracas. Not a very easy thing to do especially late at night. But, they made it there fine and all was good. I really enjoyed having my parents here. It was great to catch up and for them to see how i live here.
Anyways, I have only 3 weeks left in Venezuela. Really sad stuff. I am gonna miss it here so much but do look forward to being back in the US of A again. Next weekend we have a four days weekend so i might go to the beach or take some kind of trip. Oh yes, and the rainy season has oficially started here. It rains like 3 hours a day now.
Well thats all i have for now.

Los Llanos and beyond! pt. 1

Well my parents came for a nice long week visit over easter break. Soo i took a taxi down to the airport to meet them in the airport about an hour and a half away. The plane of course was 2 hours late. Welcome to Venezuela Mom and Dad, haha. We took a taxi back to Merida, and arrived at our posada. It was called Posada la montana. Really nice place with plants all around and with a beautiful courtyard and balcony. From there we walked around the city and got some dinner down the block. Typical meal of rice, beef, and tostones(fried plantains). From there we headed back early because we had to wake up early the next morning.
The next day we headed to a place in Venezuela called Los Llanos (in spanish means the plains). We headed out of the mountains on a 10 hour drive to the camp. The transition between the mountains and los llanos was amazing. As soon as we left the mountains, the land was completely flat all around and not many trees. As we got farther into the countryside, the vegetation became more and more sparse and it seemed like you could see forever in all directions. It was very pretty and almost looked like the Savannah in Africa. Los llanos is known for their cattle industry, so we saw many cattle farms with thousands of cows there. On the way to camp, our guide spotted an anaconda, and got to hold it and learn all about them. We then got to camp which was really nice. Showers and good food, but really hot! During the day, it was probably 95 degrees out! I got to sleep in a hammock every night which was surprisingly comfortable. Mom and Dad had some troubles sleeping with the heat because of the extreme climate change from the cold of Wisconsin.
I dont exactly remember the order of the events of days so I will just give events. One day we headed out on horses and spotted a giant anteater. Very cool looking animal and we were quite lucky to have spotted it. Really fun to ride around on horses on over 500 acres of land! Another day we headed out on a canoe ride. Really amazing to see caiman (similar to alligators) all around us (sometimes a little too close!). Caiman are all over los llanos which is so cool because obviously in Wisconsin we dont have anything like them. Another day we toured around in a jeep and I got to sit on top of the jeep which was really cool! We saw foxes, deer, and some really cool burrowing owls. My favorite part of the trip was the long boat tour. We headed out on this river(which are actually hard to come by because it is the dry season. Everything was so dry but made it easier for us to get around) and saw over 40 species of tropical birds, freshwater dolphins, caiman, iguanas, and a really cool sidenecked turtle. Our tour guide was sitting in the front of the boat and all of a sudden he just jumped into the river. He came out with this huge prehistoric looking turtle! Also he caught a pirana and stuck it on a stick. He then tossed the fish in the water and a huge hawk came down and snatched it as soon as it hit the water! We also saw this owl that blended in so well with a tree that you could barely even see it! Photos will be up soon!
Anyways, los llanos was great. We went to this huge party that only happens once every three months with a famous Venezuelan singer (he just happened to stop by our camp). He really liked my dad and came to the party and bought beers for everyone. The party was fun. Typical Venezuelan drinking and dancing, but was different because there is a specific type of music that comes from los llanos called jorropo. It includes a hard, maracas, bass, and a four stringed guitar. They sing about the hard life on the farms and tending cattle and such. We left los llanos after our 4 day 3 night tour exhausted and headed back to Merida on another 10 hour jeep ride.

si dios quiere

well as more and more time passes here, the more I learn about culture and meet more venezuelans. the title of my blog, si dios quiere is one of my favorite slang phrases here. It translates into if god wants. They say it all the time here if a situation is uncertain. If they dont know if they are going somewhere they will say it instead of maybe. Religion is huge down here. With the population being 95 percent Catholic, it is pretty unavoidable. The church always has people in it, its crazy. Also they place churches here right by the main square so that its central to everything. Coming up is holy week here which is supposed to be really cool. They have practicing here for recreations of the passion. There have also been drummers practicing for some kind of procession. Cant wait to see what is all entailed and for my parents to be here for all the activities. My parents come tomorrow. From there, we are headed to los llanos to catch some anacondas and see some amazing wildlife. Spring break is here and could really use the break from school! I cant wait to show my parents around this beautiful city and more importantly eat some really good food!
On another note, registration for next semester is coming up. Very strange looking for classes while in another country. It more difficult because all communication with advisors is through email. Anyways, I am still continuing down the path of public relations. We will see where it will take me. I have been doing alot of thinking about switching into education. I have concluded though that the best thing to do is finish up my undergrad in 3 and a half years and figure it out from there. If all works out this summer i will land this job through americorps doing public relations for habitat for humanity. The nice thing about public relations is that you can work for any company or field you find interesting. If i stick with this i would love to work for a company like habitat. oh well we will see. si dios quiere.
-Alright this post is full of random things but oh well. Its crazy here that it costs more to buy a bottle of water than to fill up your gas tank!
-also if you dont know how to dance salsa you are kinda screwed. They breathe salsa down here and if you cant dance even a little bit, it is very hard to meet girls. All of them want to dance and if you cant, they will easily find someone that can. I actually love dancing salsa. I am not very good, but am slowly getting better. I have come to overall appreciate dancing more while being here. Honestly, why not dance when given the opportunity. It brings people together and is absolutely part of the culture.
-I love the way people greet each here. For guys you say something like epa chamo, which is like hey dude! when you greet girls or women, you give a kiss on the cheek. They are incredibly friendly with anyone they meet. Its such a nice change from the more reserved american style of greeting.
-Well thats it for now. Off to los llanos!!

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!!

Slow and steady

Well wow, I guess i didnt realize that it has really been a long time since my last post. I am really starting get into this lifestyle and culture. Its kinda neat to know that I have been here for almost 2 months. I have learned so much already about myself and about other people. I feel like this is why they encourage students to study abroad. You can really only learn so much in a classroom. But to be thrown into a brand new culture with a language you dont really know and with no one you know is a humbling experience. I already feel different on the inside and am sure that it is for the better. But anyways, what have i been up to?
Earlier this week, my roommate adam and another buddy and I decided to go to a venezuelan casino. Everything was pretty much the same there except for one major thing....all the games were automated. There were no actual tables or dealers there. I sat at a blackjack table for a while that was an old sega game. too crazy. all video poker and slots. even roulette was automated. The wonderful thing about that place though is that they give you a bunch of free food and drinks. Its a cool feeling sitting playing bingo while eating hot soup and drinking some fruit juice. Free beer, soup, juice, even cake. Anyways, i ended up loosing only 20 dollars but was a great night overall.
Another thing I did this weekend was go on a super cool day hike. Classes on wednesday were cancelled because American supervisors of the program were here evaluating everything. So, me and some friends decided to make the long hike up the mountain to the first teleferico station. The teleferico is the longest cable car system in the world...but I am in venezuela so of course it is broken. Something like one time the car fell and everyone died. But anyways, there are something like four stops on the route before reaching some really high elevation near the top of this mountain. We kind of just wanted to see how long it would take to get to the first station. Its something like a 1000 meter walk total. The walk was strenuous and in the heat, it was no easy task. We made it something like 3/4 of the way there but decided to take a different route that led down to a river. This was a great decision because it was a great time there. We all climbed up this river, scaling rock faces and trailblazing the whole time. we found a series of waterfalls, soaked in a mountain spring, and found really cool walking sticks (the insects). Overall a great way to spend a day off.
Anyways thats it for now, but I will post again really soon.

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 :)