Sept - Feb 2006/07

2007-04-29T04:34:00.000-07:00

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Our first impression of Puerto La Cruz was unexpected. We absolutely love our new home for months to come. Everyday we learn something new about this beautiful country. We settled into the Maremares Marina inside the El Morro Canals in Lecheria, a high class area and free, well almost free of crime, there is no place with absolutely no crime. Maremares is quite a bit more expensive than all the other marinas, but we don’t mind paying extra for safety. Bahia Redonda Marina has by far the best spot but is unfortunately surrounded by barrios (slum area). Lecheria is very safe and you can enjoy quite walks any time of the day, worth the higher marina rate. It turns out to be the best marina we’ve ever been when it comes to camaraderie, here we all are one family. Every evening around sundown, we meet under the “Talking Tree” or also “Tree of Knowledge” (I guess that depends on how strong the drinks were LOL) and exchange cruising stories. Every Wednesday evening the hotel had a great happy hour for us with free drinks and poopoos for us and every Sunday evening they provided us with a big barbeque and round tables with table cloths so that we can have our BBQ Potluck.

Two weeks after we had settled in Sid flew to North Carolina to visit his ailing mom. It was a very sad visit for him as his Mom did not recognize him anymore. She also developed breast cancer again and in her stage of Alzheimer’s they decided not do fight it. Sid was in the States for 2 ½ weeks and visited many friends. He sure put some miles under his car butt as he drove to Knoxville, TN to see Bob and Kari, from there to Ellijay GA to Nancy and Terry, then off to Oriental and New Bern, NC visiting Ron, Leslie, Tracey and Chris and of course West Marine. Last visit was in Wilmington with Megan and Greg before driving back to Raleigh.

While he was a social butterfly I explored our new home. One of my passions is grocery shopping, this was a whole new experience. Dotty on Changes in Attitudes took me down town to the local market, which we turned into a weekly Tuesday girls out day, what an experience. It’s a huge market the butcher hall alone has at least 100 different butcher stalls and they sell everything there, even parts you don’t want to see. The veggies and fruits are the freshest I’ve seen in a long time and there are so many varieties I’ve never seen before, all very tasty and now daily on our menu. The prices, ohmigosh are they incredibly cheap. Food in general is cheaper than anywhere in the islands, but the Government adds a 14% (was lowered a couple of months ago to 9%) and in restaurants an extra 10% service charge is added, this is not the tip for the waiter it’s split between everybody else in the restaurant, still a heck of a lot cheaper than in the US.)

Just getting to the market is fun as we take a porpuesto which is what cruisers call a poor man’s taxi (used by the middle class), costs 1000 BS (30 cents) no matter where you drive and will pick up to 5 passengers and drop them off anywhere along the route. Unfortunately a lot of cruisers think it’s below them to use a poor man’s taxi and spend 5 to 10 bucks for a taxi which looks just a bad as the poor man’s taxi does. But most of them use Raul, Leo, Andres or Arnaldo. They speak English and can be hired hourly but pay a much higher price. I like to use the poor man’s taxi as it gives me a chance to live the real life in Puerto La Cruz and to meet the locals. This is a big eye opener and I find out many times how misinformed we are and learn a lot about the president's politics.

A lot of our family and friends were worried about us being in Venezuela. We heard so many rumors and fortunately most of them are just that. We are in a very upscale neighborhood and the marina has 24/7 security staff. We feel very safe here, not any different than we felt in Mexico. Of course as in any big city there is crime of petty theft, you just have to be alert and keep your eyes open and don’t walk around with Gringo written on your forehead and you’ll be fine. We did learn not to use any ATM machines or credit cards period, there is a lot of fraud happening. The good thing is we get a better rate to exchange our US dollar into Bolivares on the black market as the bank still only gives 2145 per dollar. When we arrived here black market exchange was 2600 and roase fairly fast all the way to 4000, currently it is at 3500 to 3700 and the bank still at a same rate of 2145. It’s even easier as we can use our personal checks. No Bank here in Venezuela exchanges Bolivares to Dollars so the citizens of Venezuela have no way to get US Dollars and no country in the world other than maybe Cuba (not sure) will exchange Bolivares so the unfortunate Venezuelans are stuck and can’t go traveling to other countries and therefore the black market exists. With the El Presidente situation right now all the rich are desperately trying to get their money out of the country as El Presidente plans to nationalize the banks. But we’ll talk later about politics.

Every Venezuelan we have met so far are just genuinely friendly and treat us with respect.

It was good for Sid to visit everybody so he could get his Mom out of his mind. He had a long but good trip back to Venezuela and had no problem coming through customs in Caracas. Just as he thought he could recuperate from all the drinking and eating I surprised him with a 60^th birthday party. It was a huge hit. Larry, Toni and Ken pretended that they needed a sports bar fix, of course the easiest way to lure Sid away from the crime scene. The “Tree of Knowledge” or “Talking Tree” was right in front of our boat and so it was tough to get a party started with him around. Our potluck tables with green table cloths are usually brought down on Sunday mornings. When the boys left for the sports bar the tables were set up already with this time red table cloth and the seats were covered in white, it looked very festive. Sid always very observant had to question it, especially since it was a Saturday. Luckily Denny came up with a real quick answer, that there probably was a wedding at the hotel and they usually set extra tables here in case they needed them. Sid looked at the BBQ and Denny reading his mind quickly adding: “Oh, wow, they delivered our BBQ already for tomorrow, that was nice.” Ugh, that went fairly well. I had just about two hours to get the decoration up, lots of balloons and Sid’s caricature face which I had doctored up (had to erase his hair and add a few more wrinkles to it), hanging all over the tree. All the guests arrived at 5 and we were barley done getting all the food organized when the guys came around the corner and up the dock towards us. Half way Sid noticed a lot of people under the tree, but thought it must be a wedding until he saw me, that’s when he knew he was had. At this point we all placed his caricature face in front of ours, it was too funny. Everybody brought their own stuff to throw on the BBQ, a dish to share and I made sure plenty of wine and beer were iced down for everybody. Dotty made his favorite BD cake pineapple upside down cake. We had a wonderful time and partied until two in the morning. At 10am we met again and I passed BM’s around, which many of us desperately needed.

The same day Sid came back from the States, our friends Joanne and Ken on Rusty Bucket arrived as well. We met them in Cartagena a few years back and here they are, actually they’ve been here for several years, cruising between Puerto La Cruz and Bonaire. Chris on Colonel’s Lady was here as well, we met him even longer ago in Puerto Vallarta and keep running into him several times over the last few years. On Joanne’s first morning back as she stepped out of the boat she found our neighbor Collin from England sitting on the steps in front of her boat, sweating profusely. Asking if he was OK she ran back inside and brought him a glass of water and as he started to drink she noticed the droop in his mouth and called the hotel nurse right away. By the time he arrived at the hospital he was in worse shape and a few hours later we learned that he was paralyzed from his chest down and was in an induced coma. Later on that evening as we had dinner with Rusty Bucket on Changes of Attitude we received the info that he needed surgery immediately, he had suffered a stroke and it was very serious. At that time it was a life or death situation. Poor Joanne had no idea what she was getting into as she speaks perfect Spanish (she was involved for a couple of month straight). The hospital needed somebody to take the responsibility which none of us was risking to take, as this type of stroke was eminent that he may not make it or may be a vegetable for the rest of his life and such a responsibly was not what any of us wanted. We needed to find family members in England now to get the OK. Larry and I went through his boat to find an address book or something, nothing. We looked and looked, while Joanne contacted the British Embassy. We could not find any info on his family, except for some doctor’s names as he was a diabetic. Weeks later we found out that the marina staff left his address book on a chair at the hospital which disappeared. It took Joanne, the British Embassy and Collin’s doctor 5 days to get hold of his family. In the mean time we found out that it was not a stroke but a severely compressed disk, an ongoing serious problem where he missed seeing his doctor and that he still needed the surgery as he was paralyzed from his chest down and still in an induced coma. 10 days later his ex-wife arrived and surgery finally went through. Too make a long story short, Collin was able to move into a home of another English fellow and Joanne worked hard to organized a flight home for him, which was almost impossible in his situation, she finally managed to talk the doctor into escorting him with her and so they got Collin back to England, she even paid for her own flight. He will remain paralyzed from his chest down, has limited use of his hands and now back in England with socialized medicine is not getting the care he needs, poor guy. We all learned valuable lessons, hospitals here will not take a patient, no matter how serious the illness, unless they get paid in advance. Luckily Gordon and Thelma, our next door neighbors, Collin’s British friends, came up with roughly $ 4000 so the hospital would keep him. Imagine that, the two don’t even want the money back. The second thing was to have some papers available who to contact in case of emergency. I made a list of contacts and taped it on the mast so it can be easily seen and another one is in my wallet.

Two days after the incident Changes of Attitude left for two weeks to Merida to study Spanish. I offered to take care of their kitten Evita, who was recovering from being spayed and needed medication. The second day kitty-sitting she got so ill we had to take her to the vet. She had a kidney infection and hadn’t eaten in four days. Now instead of having to give her 2 different type of medication she had 5 to take at different times. She looked awful and refused to eat. Every couple of hours we injected her with some water, so she wouldn’t dehydrate. Sid spent the first night with her, sleeping on the couch with her next to him. I spent the following three nights with her, also sleeping on the couch, giving her water and food every three hours day and night. It was a 24 hour a day nursing job. We thought she was not going to make it and had to force feed her with a syringe. Day 6 finally a bit of a progress, she tried to lick some water, a good sign. Then mom came back as she was worried about her baby. Evita by then was doing much better and we got some well deserved sleep. Two days after Dotty came back Evita took a turn to the worst again but recovered within a couple of days. Then Dotty had to go to Florida while her hubby was still in Merida so we took over again, still feeding Evita with a syringe. After a further 3 days Evita was finally eating on her own, actually she turned into an eating machine and was finally putting some weight on, what a relief. She was a rescued wild kitten, who witnessed her parents and sibling getting chewed up by a dog and was badly malnourished when Dotty and Larry took her on. She’s doing fine now and is as wild as ever and all she wants is to play. She spent all her toy-mice allowance and bought us a trip to Merida for 3 days as a thank you for saving her life.

While all this had been happening, Sid was involved in some charity work. Jenny and Jim on Three Keys have been here for 6 years and know this place in and out. Jim had been helping a local women Zena and still is, who’s husband abandoned her and her 2 kids, to build a hot dog stand on the beach. This had been an ongoing two year project. He had to fix a new roof for her and Sid and a couple other guys helped him for a few weeks. Sid said it was hard labor and came home pooped every day, but they were having so much fun. Unfortunately the restaurant next door saw a competition, imagine a hot dog stand = competition and called the cops on them. The last project they were doing they had to destroy within 24 hours or she faced jail time and loosing her place. That was very disappointing for the guys, but they felt good helping her anyway.

Halloween seems to go around the world as it now is celebrated in Europe and even here in Venezuela. Bahia Redonda marina had a huge and great party, pretty much everybody was dressed up, the music was rolling and booze was flowing. We went there for a couple of hours to catch up with Chris but went back to our marina as the hotel had a Halloween party as well. This place was pretty empty and instead of fun music they had a life Jazz group playing and at 11 they announce the winners, just like that. Kind of boring, but we had fun chatting to all our boat neighbors while eating some yummy Sushi and I won first price for my skull face, a dinner buffet for two at the hotel.

Leo’s (taxi driver) wife gave us a cooking class in typical Venezuelan cooking. We learned to make Empanadas with Machacca (pulled pork) and Guasacaca, which is nothing else but Guacamole. The way she makes it is a bit different, she places two garlic clove in a blender, one onion, lots of parsley, one big avocado, 2 teaspoon of salt and about a quarter cup of oil and blends it. It’s a bit soupier than the guacamole we’re used too but it tastes creamier and is also served with grilled meats. We had so much fun listening and watching Rosalva while Mimosas was passed around. The recipes are fairly simple but for the ones who need to have the exact measurements they will not be able to cook it as she never gave us any, she just mixed and blended by feel. They tasted yummy but were a bit too greasy, so therefore not on our menu.

In the mean time Evita the kitten was doing really well, she survived her ordeal and her parents finally came back from Florida and so we planned our trip to Merida. Dale and Sandy joined us although they took a flight. November 10^th we took our long bus ride to Merida. We had a full moon and therefore were able to see quite a bit of the beautiful country side. It was a pretty comfortable ride as the chairs are like recliners and in all they showed 6 movies. The only problem was that they don’t regulate the temperature, but we knew it was going to be a very cold ride and prepared accordingly but never expected to sit in a freezer. We wore sweat shirts, winter jackets, socks and had towels over us and still were freezing our butts off; result Manuela exited the bus with a sinus infection and therefore took the plane back. The drive took 20 hours but is amazingly only about 615 miles/990 km, so we must have driven an average of 50 km/30mph. By sunset we drove through Caracas’s rush hour, a two hour drive through the capital of Venezuela. It’s a huge city with rush hour as we know it in our cities. The downtown area is filled with high rise buildings but the suburb is what caught my eye. You cannot describe this area as it is a mess of the ugliest housing I’ve ever seen. One shack is built on top of another like shoe boxes are stacked; you cannot describe it, all I can say is it breaks your heart to see how the poor live here. For anybody that’s been in southern California it looks like a giant Tijuana, just worse.

Finally driving up the canyon to Merida we expected to find a small Village surrounded with mountains, instead we found a huge city with traffic worse than Los Angeles. We were pretty disappointed to find such a busy city with rush hour traffic that lasts all day long, instead of the little tranquil village we had expected.

Merida (1577m/5176f) lays deep in the heart of the Andes and is separated by the high mountain from both Colombia and Venezuela. This picturesque city sits on a flat mesa, an alluvial terrace stretching for about 12 km between two parallel rivers, its edges dropping abruptly to the riverbanks. The historic quarter is at the northeastern end of the plateau, easily recognized by the typically Spanish chessboard street layout. The city is filled with Posados, small and inexpensive family-run guesthouses with a friendly atmosphere. Dale and Sandystayed at the most beautiful Posada Casa el Sol which is run by a Swiss couple. We stayed at Gioia’s house. Gioia is famous amongst the cruisers as everybody stays at her house. She lives with Sabrina, her daughter and her Mother in the old town of Merida. Her mom is an artist when it comes to decorating cakes. She makes flowers out of sugar which are absolutely beautiful and look very real. As Dale and Sandy arrived we sat down with Gioia and planned our stay. Early the next morning we went to the Teleferico, the highest and longest cable car in the world. It is 12.5 km long and goes from 1577m/5173f up to 4765/15630f (Pico Espejo) in 4 trams and a total of five stations, from where you can observe the highest peak of the Venezuelan Andes Pico Bolivar 5007m/16423f. Plan was to take the cable car up, ride mules down to Los Nevados and from there by jeep back to Merida. But unfortunately or fortunately the cable car had some mechanical problems so we took the jeep ride up to Los Nevados first and at the end of the trip realized that this was the better way to go as it is easier to ride the jeep and mules uphill rather than down hill.

Gioia told us to get a jeep for four people as they load the trucks full with tourist, barley leaving room. We couldn’t find a jeep but managed to talk the truck driver into taking us four alone, or that’s what we thought. As we left he drove into town but before we knew it we were back by the cable car station where he loaded up a whole bunch of construction material from wood to paint, you name it. Then an older man showed up with a bag full of long candles (which we learned they use for the many power outages they have). Then another one with more construction material which they tide up on the roof along with a huge bag full of fruits and vegetables, then we finally left for the 5 hour drive up to Los Nevados. Again, that’s what we thought then about 10 minutes later he stopped and picked up the one guy’s wife and 3 year old son. Off we went again for another 5 minutes, then another stop where we now picked up bags of pasta, sugar, toilette paper, flour, more fruits and vegetables. Now it was not just the 7 of us but also a load of food and provisions strapped on top of the roof and we finally left for Los Nevados. A half hour into the steep drive up the mountains we had to stop, the poor woman had morning sickness, the whole drive turned into a big adventure. The road for the first hour wound up the hill on a fairly narrow road with plenty of room for two cars to pass if they slowed down. The view over the valley of Merida was just spectacular. Then we started heading into the valleys above the mountain where the road now turned into a very narrow dirt road, just wide enough for one car to pass with a steep cliff side to the right. It was a very exciting drive and looking down the steep mountain walls gave us the willies. Half way up the mountain we stopped at a tiny town of four buildings, had lunch and then had to change jeeps as the road was being worked on. I tell you it was tough work to schlep all the food and construction stuff up the steep hill to the other truck. Now there was not just the four of us, the old man, the couple and son, but also another tour guide and two girls from Belgium all piled into one truck, it was tight. The road was even steeper now and more primitive and the truck was listing to the cliff side, not good. I told Dale out of fun that he should move to the other side, five minutes later the driver wanted to know Dales weight and asked him to switch side with Sandy, now that worried us a bit, you have to know the path was just wide enough for the truck and the tire had about another 10 inches before it went steep down the walls to a riverbed that looked a couple of miles below us. We were all glad to finally arrive safe and sound in Los Nevados.

Los Nevados is a charming mountain village, nestled at about 2700m/8856f half way up a steep valley. The inhabitants live of tourism and every house is a Posada. We stayed at the Bella Vista which is the most expensive but also the nicest and cleanest. The view from our bathroom window was just spectacular as we were high up the hill overlooking the wide canyon, just breath taking. We paid 40 000 BS (15 bucks) per person per night which included a wonderful dinner and breakfast, can’t complain. There was another Posado we liked with hammocks hanging on the patio, so we had a couple of beers and a shot of rum resting in the hammocks. There is not much to do as the village is very small. It has maybe three little convenient store. We couldn’t find any wine, just beer and rum but they make local hot toddy called Calientada which is a variety of mountain herbs boiled up in hot water and served with liquors, very tasty and each Posada’s had its unique flavor. And the lights go out at 9 sharp.

Early the next morning our mule adventure started. Giovanni out guide was ready with our three mules and one horse. The weird thing was he put the big guys on the smallest mules and us girls on the big ones; we couldn’t understand that and felt sorry for the poor mules. The 5 hour ride was just incredible. You have to know that this is the beginning of spring in this area and all the wild mountain flowers where in full bloom. It was just absolutely breathtaking and we savored every inch as we headed up the steep mountain. All went well for the first couple of miles, but then Sandy’s, Sid’s and Dale’s mules started fighting over who’s first while my horse stayed behind them. The mules were constantly fighting over the lead position we were laughing so hard our faces hurt. The competition got worse and worse and my horse all of a sudden wanted to be in the lead as well, there was biting and kicking. We caught up with another group of mules and the fighting over the lead involved them now as well. It was a mess, Sid’s mule seemed to like me behind him as he kept stopping and my knee would shove up his butt each time he did that. That wasn’t fun but we laughed so hard as my knee was wet and dirty, actually both of them. The mule seemed to like it as it repeated this over and over. Finally Sandy’s mule got so out of hand, it even kicked a guide and hurdled him downhill, luckily it wasn’t very steep and he didn’t get hurt as the mule kicked his back pack. We finally had to tell Giovanni that this was not fun anymore. So he guided Sandy’s mule behind us and we had no more problems and my horse was now in the lead. We took an hour lunch by a pretty stream and from there it was another 1 ½ hour up the hill, this was the steepest part. Sandy’s mule and my horse started playing with each other, racing up the hill. One would stop and wait for the other then they would gallop up the rocks and repeated this over and over, us girls of course screaming. Finally we reached Loma Redonda 4045m/13267f our butts were sore. From here we could have taken the cable car to the top of Espejo where you can see Pico Bolivar, the highest point of the Venezuelan Andes, but I don’t think Sandy and I could have made it as our lips were blue from lack of oxygen and with every step we felt dizzy. So we headed down instead. In Merida again we had an early dinner went home and crashed for the day, we were pooped.

The third day the boys went canyoning an awesome, terrifying, beautiful, insane but amazing or quite possibly the maddest thing you can do without getting killed – climbing, rappelling and hiking down canyon water falls. The guys had a blast. They repelled down three waterfalls starting at 8m/26f, 14m/46f and 35m/115f, what a thrill.

Sandy and I took a tour with Sabrina from Merida up the Valley through Tabay, Cacute, Mucuruba, Mucuchies to Laguna de Mucubaji and went to see the famous Condors. They had three caged one has been there for 14 years as he cannot fly anymore. He showed off for us with wide spread wings, it was awesome. This bird is really huge, would hate having one come after us as they can run very fast.

Merida is known for trout and so we ended our fun week with a wonderful trout dinner. Merida as busy of a city as it is, it has some of the best restaurants, lots of fun stores and just grows on you. We will be back and stay with Gioia again, maybe even stay for a month and study some Spanish. This was a wonderful trip filled with fun memories.

The last day we were in Merida El Presidente decided to visit. We found out that he comes unannounced as he is scared of getting killed. Wonder why?! In his 8 years of presidency he’s never been to Merida. We were caught in the biggest traffic jam as he closed the road off to go out of town in any direction so that his busses could drive in. (Just good we flew out the next day as the airport was closed for the day as well). There were at least 60 busses that were brought in from up the valley where we were headed. He is such a crook, he sends busses to poor villages, bribes them with BS 60 000, gives them a red T-Shirt and hat and takes them to where he has a speech, then the media will be there filming all of them now called “Chavistas” cheering for El Presidente, so that the rest of the country believes they all like him. Some on the trucks were cheering for him because they got a day off from work and got paid almost a week’s salary for it. So we witnessed he’s crummy little deal here in Merida. He usually feeds them too but not this time, so the locals were a bit anxious as they feared a riot. Military was staged in all corners, just glad we all were out of town for this. Merida closed all his speeches around the country and he now decided that it was enough of speeches even fro his opponent Rosales who hadn’t even around yet and there was still 3 weeks left until election-day. El Presidente also mentioned already that on election-day it is only necessary to count 55% of the ballots publicly to determine who wins the next election. As of now it looked 50/50, so El Presidente was starting to worry. The following week his opponent Manuel Rosales was at a football game which was shown on TV, as the crowd started chanting his name, the screen went blank, El Presidente pulled the plug. He controls all but one TV channel and is shown every morning with his lying speeches, Rosales has one channel and guess what, it stayed blank for a week after the game. We also heard that El Presidente's dad used to be a teacher in a small village, with a salary of an average of 2oo bucks a months. Now he’s the biggest property owner of this country, wonder how he got it? El Presidente’s slogan for the election was: Election for Amore (Love). Vote for MY Venezuela. I need your vote, I need your AMORE. There is not on tiny bit of room left in his heart for even a tiny bit of love. He was married twice, but no one knows who and where his ex-wifes are. Rumors have it that he is gay as most of his goonies are, they just haven’t been able to prove it. We’ve heard that several times already. Most of the business owners here were worried that El Presidente winning and were ready to flee the country if he did. The dollar exchange on the black market was rolling high as they all wanted to get their money out of the country, for us it was great as we got more Bolivares. A lot was at stake and still is as El Presidente is planning to turn Venezuela into another Cuba. He was telling his people that he wants a socialistic country like Italy, France, Germany and Switzerland, but does not tell them that he only wants one political group in Venezuela which is copying Castro.

Election-day inched closer and El Presidente ran a foul propaganda as he ran every single TV station with his slogans, not one of Rosales could make it for the last two weeks, not even any regular commercial was ever shown.

Then election-day finally was held on December 3^rd. Everybody loaded up on the essentials as there is always a possibility after election-day that there might seem some problems and no food available for a couple of weeks. Especially for this election all the locals were worried everybody was on pins and needles.

Since he first won office in 1998, El Presidente has increasingly dominated all branches of government and his allies now control congress, state offices and the judiciary. Current law prevents him from running again in 2012 but he has said he plans to seek constitutional reforms that would include an end to presidential term limits. The newest rumors was that if defeated he would not give up power. As the pools opened the pooling stations where it was known to be Rosales followers the pooling was slowed down, causing mile long lines in the streets. I was actually amazed to see that the election was not counted electronically but by hand. As it was shown on TV you either saw one person open ballots after ballots then showing result to others while one person wrote it down. Some other pooling stations showed the person opening votes but never showing the result to others.

Months later we found out that not one Venezuelan counted the ballots, El Presidente brought people in from Guatemala, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, all the other country he gives money and free oil to, they count the ballots. Now tell me there is no corruption involved, of course were they bribed to count for him, especially knowing that in Caracas the most inhabited part of the country had Rosales in the lead, he could not catch up.

It was really sad to find out that El Presidente was re-elected, even though we all knew he’s corrupt enough to pull it off, but deep inside everybody was hanging on to that little hope. Manuel Rosales never had a chance.

Grocery stores were busy and 4 days before election shelves were empty.

Restaurants were limited as they didn’t get any deliveries. Everybody loaded up as there was fear of a strike.

Ever since arriving in Venezuela we haven’t been able to find sugar in the stores. The only type sugar you can find is a mixture of sugar and aspartame. Sugar consumption is so high that Venezuela cannot provide it and would have to import it, which El Presidente refuses to do.

The unfortunate thing is El Presidente is in the power now to get his wish to turn this country into a dictatorship. Indeed a very sad day for all Venezuelans.

On a brighter note, we had a little fun with our neighbors Dotty and Larry the day before election as they were in Florida and had sent an email hoping that all was well for us on election-day and telling us to use their provisions if we had to. I dug the three life vest out of the bilge, stainless steel salad bowl, machetes and we played a joke on them. Dale, Jim and Sid were standing on the bridge of Snow White with salad bowl helmets, life vest tide on and a machete swinging in their hands. It was too funny. Then we took photos of Sandy and me leaving Dotty’s boat with her provisions and sent them all in an email stating that we think we’re OK but for security we all moved into Snow white and also thanking her for her provisions.

Nothing major happened after election-day and within a few days all the shelf in the store were filled and life went on as nothing had happened.

December went buy fast as we were busy arranging details with the yard, finding a suitable apartment and planning for the long haul out. Peter and Helen from Switzerland, Helen works for my cousin, vacationed in Venezuela and so we had a chance to meet them and had a wonderful time. We finally received our quote from AquaVi and arranged to be hauled out by January 15. We thought finding an apartment would be a hassle but the first day surging I found a kewl 3 ½ bed/3 bath condo/townhouse/penthouse (everybody visiting tells us it’s this or that or….so who knows, I think I like penthouse) with three boat slips right across from Maremares.

Having lived on Paradise for 20 years, 30 for Sid, the condo is absolutely too big and we joked that we would need a GPS to get around the house. It’s a really cool condo on three levels. It has a patio by the slips, a balcony above by living room, open kitchen, 2 balconies in the bedrooms facing Maremares and a huge terrace on the roof with built in bar and the most incredible view of the mountains. Best yet we had a choice of keeping the maid and for 15 bucks a day we decided to afford her twice a week. This is probably the only time in my life I’ll be able to afford one. Terry our roommate and I were really excited over this. Jim and Terry on Gymnopedies we had met many years ago in Mexico were also in the process of hauling out the boat for two months and so we invited them to share the house. Then of course just when you need it the least something goes wrong. Our car blew up, the dinghy engine melted beyond repair and so we have to buy a new one as it is going to be Sid’s ride to and from the yard, really not what we needed at that time.

In the past few months a lot of changes had been going on at Maremares, several managers had been replace and daily new employees were facing us, nobody seemed to be happy anymore. They stopped our Happy Hour on Wednesday nights they had for the last 10 years. Marina docks were falling apart and they were not repairing them. The hotel guests were fewer, it looked like this hotel was financially in shambles. They also were charging now for the BBQ.

Ewald from Switzerland, married to a Venezuelan and having lived here since over 17 years, has a good inside of what’s happening. He told me Maremares has just been sold for $500 000, it’s not official yet. He said what happens here in Venezuela is that if a business goes bankrupt the government takes it over, which happened to Maremares a couple years back and ever since it was going down hill. So it is supposedly going up for auction. But this is how the government runs the auction. Before it’s posted in the newspaper some El Presidente’s family, buddies, friends, goons or whatever offer the minimum amount and buy it. Then he waits about three days before the auction is published but of course nobody now has a change to make a bid, but to legally be correct it had been posted in the papers. I guess we just found out how Papa Presidente became to be the richest property owner in this country. They are so corrupt. Ewald also mentioned that when his ex-sister in law came over a few days prior, she was telling him that she just came back from a free three weeks Cuban vacation from her work. She works for a bank El Presidente owns. He said she was so brainwashed, all she was talking about was Fidel this and Fidel that. El Presidente and Fidel have a program where they exchange people for free vacations. He’s on his way to turn this country into another Cuba and will probably get away with it. What we’ve found out in the time we’ve been here are bits and pieces but they are all starting to come together like in a puzzle.

Then Christmas was around the corner, Paradise was nicely decorated in and out, but the Christmas spirit hadn’t set in yet, maybe because it was still 90 degrees outside? No snow covered roofs for reindeers to land on? No Santa Claus walking around? The cat hadn’t grown her winter fur yet? We’re hanging out at the pool every day? Drinking cold rum drinks instead of hot toddies? No sugar in the stores to make cookies? No eggnog either? Whatever it was we were hoping the spirit would get here on time to celebrate Christmas.

Denny on White Tiger came up with the most unique Christmas decoration for his boat, empty beer cans wrapped in colorful shiny Christmas paper. I asked him if we could steel the idea for the “Tree of Knowledge”, me wondering how the heck we’ll manage to drink two or three cases of beer on time for Christmas, which was one week away. The next morning when I stepped on deck I found a trash bag full of empty cans, Denny was so happy that somebody liked his idea he donated the cans. He also had a good time harvesting them. Later that afternoon I had all the kids together and we decorated the tree of knowledge. The kids had a blast and so did the adults. Now that’s Christmas Spirit!!!

Sid’s and his buddy Jim were busier than busy running around town, helping Zenny with her hot dog stand, shopping in hardware stores, fixing up things on the dock, building a BBQ (you should see that thing it’s awesome, I even sewed a kewl cover for it) for the boaters since the hotel is now charging for it, or having coffee early in the morning with a “Sicilian mafia gang”. The Gang wanted to cook a pasta dinner for all of us cruisers and so they did. I tell you it was awesome. First they cooked us a Pasta Carbonara which was served in a wooden bowl that was about 5 feet long, looking like a cattle trough. We ate it all and surprise, they cooked more pasta and filled that trough up again, this time it was Spaghetti with seafood on a marinara sauce. I don’t think anybody cared that they were full already because we ate all of that too. It was an incredible evening.

A couple of days before Christmas Jim and Jenny invited Dotty and us to Los Altos, about two hours away from here up in the mountains. What a beautiful place, very remote and each house with the most spectacular view over the coast line and the islands.

Christmas Eve we had a comfy get together with the left behind cruisers and shared appetizers and played some games. Jim’s friend Darrin invited us for Christmas Day to his house. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner with his Venezuelan friends. New Years Eve we celebrated with a delicious Fondue Bourguignon Dinner I had prepared under the tree of knowledge and enjoyed the most incredible fireworks show at midnight. There must have been 20 individual firework shows all around us. Most of us partied until 3 am, Sid, Joanne and Natalie and family danced until 5 am and I think they were still drunk when we started our New Years Brunch at 11. We had a wonderful time. Venezuelans sure do like fireworks, during the whole holiday period we saw one or several every night at any time, yes even or especially at 3 in the morning. The 8^th of January was the last day of celebration in Venezuela so it got a lot quieter afterwards.

January second we moved into our new home “The Penthouse”.

We moved everything that was on the boat into the house and after schlepping everything up to the first, second and third lever we were pooped, not to mention in better shape. The house is awesome but we realized fast not much different than a boat as everyday something else broke. At least most of them were easy fixes like exchanging light bulbs, which by the way are still burning out biweekly. Throwing away the blender because the fluid we pored in came out of the bottom faster than we pored in, had to hook hot water to the washing machine and tightening the hoses so it wouldn’t flood the floor anymore. The water pump had to be rebuilt and since the water get turned off at least four times a week we have to go downstairs to turn it off and close the valve, then climb all the stairs to the top and turn on the water tank. Then when the water came on again climbing up to third floor turn water tank off, then all the way to ground floor to turn the pump and valve on again, believe me when I say we sure are getting our exercise.

The second week in the house we had a fun house warming party, all our friends showed up, we had a full house and partied late into the night. Best yet, an old friend Bill Tittle from Venice Anglers came, he lives just around the corner from us, small world.

Dale and Sandy on Snow White decided that we needed a getaway before yard work started and took us on their boat to the Mochima National Park. Snow White is a most beautiful 57 foot Nordhaven previously owned by Gene Hackman then named “Hula Girl”. It was an overcast day and rather on the cool side, we almost decided to put on jackets. On the way to Mochima we had a big pod of bottle-nose dolphins which played with the wake of the bow. They must have been on our bow for at least one hour, it was really neat. We also saw a big flock of flamingoes fly along the coast that is a rare sight.

Approaching Mochima reminded us very much of the Channel Islands with the dry brush like appearance and rock formation. El Culto was our anchorage which lies deep in a bay surrounded by islands, very protected and remote. Sandy and I tried to do some noodeling, but changed our minds after dipping our feet into the freezing water. Later when the sun came out we did sit on our noodles, not for long as we were chilled through and through and had frozen toes.

Dotty and Larry and company followed us on their boat and so we enjoyed a fun dinner together. We had such a good time we decided to spend another night.

The following morning Dale and I took off in the dinghy to a nearby fishing village to see if we could buy some fresh fish but the village was abandoned. Instead we saw this big fishing boat along the rocks with lots of small boats attached to it, so we drove over there to check it out. Between the rocks and the boat was a huge fishing net which they brought in and now scooped sardines out of the water with a huge net and into the boat, the net was at least 10 feet across and 10 feet high and each dip they filled it up half way. It was amazing to watch. Nobody had any bigger fish than the sardines and one of the guys scooped two big scoops of sardines into our dinghy. They flopped all over the dinghy covering it and us with scales. I fried them up for lunch later on and even Sid was impressed that they tasted better than he thought, for him sardines and anchovies are bait and belong on a hook. I finally convinced him that Sardines are actually very tasty.

After that we all decided to take the boats to the town of Mochima, which is around the other side of the park, a tiny quite village with a couple of restaurants and one little convenient store, actually all we saw in there were coconuts and some bananas in a cooler.

In the evening Dale and Sandy thought us a new dice game “Mississippi Marbles”, I think we kept the whole anchorage awake, well the three boats that were in there anyway. We laughed so hard our faces hurt. Later we started a new tradition, we play it now every Thursday night under “The Tree of Knowledge”.

Then it was back to reality, we had to haul out Paradise. It went pretty much without any glitches until they started pulling her out of the water and the cradle slipped, wow almost had a heart attack. Then they told us that they couldn’t lift the boat any further, that we had to undue the forestay, of course the jib was still furled up on it, so it took a while to get it off as there was lots of tension on the rig. Finally smooth cradling her to her temporary resting place in the yard eventually they moved her to a better spot for the paint job. Next was a really hard job removing the rudder. I wasn’t there for that but Sid said it was really tough and took several guys to do. Sid also found weak spot in the steering so yard work may be a bit longer than we had hoped.

The first week in the yard I got talked into a job, teaching English every Monday and Wednesday in a private school. Two classes, the first with 9 kids ranging from 4 to 7, for as little as they are they are monsters and wear me out. Kids now days are just not as behaved anymore. The second group with 6 teenager girls all 12 years old, yes with 12 they are full blown teenagers now days. After my very first day as a “Teacher” that’s what everybody still calls me there, the principal asked me if I would be interested in giving adult classes. Absolutely……….NOT!!!!!!! I’m having fun with it and could better my Spanish quite a bit. Even now after several weeks, the kids are still little monsters but better behaved, the teenage group fell apart as they had other interests, tennis, painting etc. Imagine that all the teenaged girls had a cell phone, even some of the 6 year olds, but what blew me away was a little 6 year old getting a inflatable with a 60 hp engine for Christmas, are these kids spoiled or what?!

Yard work was coming along pretty good and by February we felt like being on a schedule.

Sunday evening: potluck at Maremares

Monday: late afternoon Manuela teaching English

Tuesday: Tivi the maid was here so one of us had to stay home

Wednesday: late afternoon English classes again

Thursday: Mississippi Marble Night

Friday: Tivi again

Saturday: 9 am private English class with a parent

In-between Sid spent mostly all day long in the yard working on the boat. I had a lot of sewing projects and when we relax with a cocktail in the evening we wondered how we ever fit work into our busy schedule.

To be continued

And for those who are interested in Politics, here are some more El Presidente facts:

All the Venezuelans we have met are just wonderful and the majority in this area does not like El Presidente. Amazing how much power he has, the news here is rigged by him, they don’t hear what’s happening today, they get the news the following day and only what El Presidente wants them to hear. Rumors had it that he also had the election rigged.

About rumors, foreign vessels cannot get fuel here in Puerto La Cruz. All the cruisers think it’s the act of El Presidente, which didn’t make sense to us as only Puerto La Cruz is affected by it. Gas prices here are really cheap but if a vessel fuels over 1000 liters the price doubles, so instead of paying 18 cents a gallon it’s 36 cents, which is still dirt cheap. The workers at the pump station took advantage by writing lot of bogus receipts for the liters over 1000 and stuck that money into their own pockets. Not just that they filled fuel into the fish holding tanks of local fishing boats and sold it on the islands, so a stop was put on this and no boat is allowed to fuel more than 1000 liters. Months later the one good gas station here, was caught again for bringing diesel and gasoline up to the Caribbean island and the owner was caught and put in jail and gas station is closed indefinitely now.

I also had a lot of talks with locals about El Presidente, only the very poor like him as they are too uneducated to know what’s going on. Any employee not on a salary earns about 110 000 Bolivares per week that’s 440 000 a month which is around 125/150 dollars and if an employer has more than 18 employees they have to give them food stamps as well. I tell you

BS 440 000 is not enough to buy food and get by, even with food stamps. Food can be fairly expensive here as a 14% tax was added to everything (just was reduce to 9% which still is fairly high), so all they can afford is cornmeal for Arepas, pasta and simple things.

Before the election El Presidente sent some busses into very poor villages, they loaded them up with the poorest of the poor, gave them money a free T-shirt and took them to an amusement park, movie theater, zoo or whatever and made sure they had a good time for the day, then at end of trip a news group was organized to film the now happy poor who by now were chanting for El Presidente…… and the rest of the country who saw that on the news had no idea that they got bribed. It’s all so deceiving, this guy is so corrupt and he hasn’t done that anymore after the election.

When I dropped Sid off at the airport for North Carolina my taxi driver who drove me home asked me if I was German and as I told him I was Swiss he said that we was glad as he hated Americans. That didn’t sit too well with me so I asked him the reason. He could not tell me really why he “hated” us but I got a really good idea how El Presidente brain washed these poor people and now that I understand a lot more in Spanish I see why, he tells the lies about Americans. He also told them and still tells them that the US is planning to invade the country and take over and that it would be the end for them all. Many times he said that Bush has a contract out to kill him. By the time we arrived at the hotel we discussed a whole bunch, where I assured him that the US has no plans, nor interest to invade his country. I also asked him if El Presidente tells them that the US donates monthly money to his country (as a matter of fact the last donation by the US counselor was 280 million (last September), the previous months some 57 mill, if you go online and check out the Venezuelan Embassy, you’ll be shocked how much money we pour into this country. It will make you so mad that we pay millions to the sorry sob who slanders us all over the world. The taxi driver was very surprised. He also told me that El Presidente tells the poor already that if his opponent wins the election in December he Roslaes then will eliminate the food stamps and that he will eliminate free doctor visits, which is nothing but a lie. Then when we parted at the hotel he told me that he liked our conversation and that I was a very nice person, to which I answered that I was an American Citizen. He took a moment to get over the this, apologized to me and said that from now on he will listen to other info too not just El Presidente. He was also planning, to only allow one party in this country and he just did that. Well he allows two parties but of course both are on his side. It took him exactly 10 days after the election to pass a new law which is not in favor of his people. His congress of 167 people voted 167 to 0 to pass the new law. Of course nobody would even think voting against it, they either loose their seat in congress or much worse. The new law is every citizen of Venezuela age 15 to 50 has to volunteer 5 hours per months to the government or have the choice to go to a school for two years (must be a brain washing school). Citizens not following the law will have to pay a fine which will be deducted monthly from there already measly salary. I think some citizens are finally starting to have a rude awakening. “VOLUNTEER???”

He also got through that for 18 months he can do whatever he pleases and nobody can stop him, I tell you this country is doomed.

Then he put himself in the hot seat as he eliminated the only TV station not under his nail yet and at the same time he’s nationalizing the phone company, water and power. Result the Stock market took a plunge and the Bolivares was for one day at 5000 per 1 US dollar and stayed at 4000 for over a months, not good for the poor people here. In the mean time it’s back to 3500/3700. He also announced that he wants to change the name of Venezuela to Republic de Bolivar. A lot of cruisers feel like it’s time to head out of this beautiful country.

My English student Ernesto just told me that PDVSA the big oil company here fired a couple of years ago 18 000 of the most qualified people and to this day these people have not been replaced and they are having a hard time running it, but yet they have to run the water and power, Cantv and all the other companies El Presidente is nationalizing, knowing nothing of that business other than the oil business. Ernesto works for PDVSA which is also being taken over by the government as of May 1^st and Ernesto knows that he’ll loose his job because he didn’t vote for El Presidente. We know several other locals who lost their job after last election because they didn’t vote for El Presidente.

Ever since January lots of businesses have been shut down for a couple of days, due to not paying taxes. Our hotel along with the grocery stores and restaurants we visit all were closed at the same time. It seemed that every good restaurant or store in town was shut down. The Government has taken over so many businesses.

El Presidente has a commercial running threatening to arrest anybody who is charging more than he allows. Result, the affected people can’t afford to buy supply they then have to sell under cost, so beef, pork, poultry, milk, eggs, and other things are hard to come by now days. Only the toughest cuts of meat are to be found. There is still no sugar, maybe every two months a small ration will be placed on the shelves which will be gone within minutes. The public market’s meat section was shut down for three days because of charging too much. Rumor had it that they want to shut down the whole market completely, which is the income of too many poor Venezuelans and too many can only afford to shop there.

He even threatens doctors and hospital that if they raise prices that he will take over so that poor people can afford the service, wait a minute El Presidente do you think they will use a doctor they have to pay instead of the already free hospitals???

We had no water in four counties for three days, reason they had to do some work on a major water line. We have a big water tank on the roof which should give us enough water for a week. We hardly used it and the second day the tank was already below half and the following evening barley anything, we have a huge leak but have no idea where. Well the water came back for some 20 minutes, enough time to fill the tank before it shut off again for another day. But we’re used to the drill as the water goes off at least three times a week.

A couple of weeks ago the taxi driver who drove me to school was nearly in tears when he told me that El Presidente closed all the Casinos down because Fidel does not like gambling. He then said that he voted for El Presidente but that he hates him now and does not want him to be his president anymore he is not giving them what he promised. I couldn’t believe how upset this poor man was.

The week of Semana Santa (Easter) which lasts 10 days is a huge holiday here in Venezuela. Most businesses were closed for the holiday and yet another blow from El Presidente, on Friday the day before the holiday started he announced that there is a ban on selling and drinking liquor on all the Semana Santa days from 5 PM till 10 AM.

I started watching TV more often now to learn more Spanish and was so excited to find “House and watched it when the series was interrupted by a El Presidente biography which lasted for 25 minutes. Every single TV channel had his biography on. Radio the same, several times a day all channels get interrupted with one of his speeches. Every speech starts with Fidel, in the first 5 minutes he talks just about Fidel he idolizes him. Some of the laws he changes here is because Fidel does not like this.

The latest on El Presidente I’ve heard is that he thinks that people should only have one home and that he’s planning on taking the extra homes away from people to give to the poor. In downtown Caracas he stormed a building and chased the owners away since they were rich enough and had other houses. At the same time he overtook a golf course to split it up for the poor, who by the way can’t afford to install plumbing.

Venezuela 1

Sept - Feb 2006/07