Caracas... home of Hugo Chavez
Trip Start
Aug 30, 2005
1
6
15
Trip End
Dec 06, 2005
Caracas, Venezuela
Thursday, September 8, 2005
My plans for the day are to go to the center for Venezuelans who want to learn English and then explore the city of Caracas. So we took a bus to La Centro Venezolano Americano. As far as the whole land legs/sea legs go, my land legs aren't working too well on this crazy non swaying ground. I feel drunk, waves of dizziness overwhelm me, if this doesn't get better I might not get off the boat, no actually I would still get off the boat, I just hope that this goes away soon because it's damn inconvenient.
But anyway back to the school. We were divided up into groups and sent to different classes. I was sent to a level 21 class out of 23, so they were able to speak and understand us fairly well. They were covering fashion and trends (beehives and miniskirts) in their text books and the instructor asked our opinion as Americans of fashion and trends as well as other things we did in the US.
We asked the teacher later after class what he thought about Hugo Chavez. Suprisingly he said that he was a selfish dictator who is filling people's minds with bullshit, while taking private property, and oil for his own profit. Cheery fella.
After we left we all went to a local restaurant where they served the local beer which is call Solera. And I had a local dish called Cachapa con queso amarillo, basically a cornmeal pancake folded in half with yellowish orange cheese distinctly cheddar tasting oozing out. It was delicious! As we left the restaurant we were caught in a tropical downpour that I absolutely loved (all those negative ions) but everyone else hated.
While we were cowering undercover in a really nice (they gave massages and had a cosmatologist) but small grocery store, we ran into one of the students we had met at the English school. She offered to drive us to the local mall.
Two carloads later and we arrived at Talon, a 7 story +3 sub level parking garage, Americanized mall. After trying almost every ATM, I realized that it just was not meant to be, and I was not supposed to take out anymore money out of my account. Blah. Actually there is a problem with that which I am kind of worried about. I have no travelers checks and probably only about 150 in US, so if I can't find an ATM that will accept my card and the ship (not a boat) are unable to give me access to my money, how will I pay for anything. Problems, hopefully Brazil or South America will have something, I don't knopw how much longer I can last.
Later we decided we wanted to go to a market because apparentlhy they sold cds for 2-3 US. Awesome. So we all piled into Daniella's car (she is the Venezuelan student) a little ford or something similar. We had Andrea pronounced on-dray-a, Jessica, Pam and some boy, I forgot his name, in back and Daniella, Dana and I in front. Pam had to sit backwards with her butt in our face while Andrea leaned out the window. Needless to say we attracted a lot of attention, but it probably didn't help that we were all busting out laughing. And then the icing on the cake, we picked up Daniella's boyfriend. He had to sit on Jessica's lap.
The market was a little shady but I did buy some CD's for way cheap. I also bought some pirated DVD's, but unfortunately they were the typical recorded in the theater so there was a side of the screen that was cut off as well as background noise.
We finally grabbed a couple of Taxi's not the Gangsta ones fortunately, said goodbye to Daniella, got back to the ship, ate pizza and passed out.
By the way the gas here is about 6 cents a gallon here.
"It's easier to find a traveling companion tan to get rid of one" ~ Art Buchwald
Comments
Sup girlie!
well it sounds like you are having an amazing time!! so jealous here... we have been doing good over here, just last night we had a small bbq at my house for Ray and Alaina to celebrate their departure. It seems to go well, by 11:00 every one left and all kinzie's friends came over and we were up till 4:30... it was a blast!! any way ray got a bad bee sting on her knee and it is swelled up really bad, but she will get over it! my school is starting here soon and i really dont want it to, i am enjoying my summer to much! plus my b-day is coming soon and i will tell you all about the adventures we go on when i recover from the amazing time. but nothing to crazy has been going on, but football is now starting so lots of boys are going wild and the only sad news is the hurricane... but you probably hread about it. But got to go! love ya tons, missing you much... keep me posted on your crazy adventures!
Brookie Babe :)
AIRIACA!!!!!!!!
Darling! So good to hear from you! I haven't checked my email in a while and it's awesome that you set this up, it's like reading your diary or something! Ya brooke's bbq was awesome. She was very sweet to put that on for us. Ya, I got stung by a bee on thursday and what do ya know I'm allergic and it swelled up and hurt and was red and then bruised to become a dark purple and I had to gimp around a bit. Sounds like the ship travelers life is treating you good. I don't understand about your account, like, did your mom freeze it because she wanted you to be a 'smart spender' or you just can't access because it just won't work? I'd be worried too, but ya know I stress over anything so you should be fine. I can't wait to hear more about your adventures! It really sounds amazing. Love ya girl and it was awesome to read what you've been up to! Be safe and we all miss you!! love love ~ Suga
Your credit account
You've probably figured the problem out by now, but sometimes a bank will freeze your account if they notice strange spending, notably out-of-state or especially out-of-country. Our account was frozen when we went to Reno and bought diamond earrings. You usually just have to call the bank and tell them that it is really you and that you are out of country.