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Published: October 11th 2007
As you can see, these summer holidays were very active for me and my family. After the fantastic San Andres, I then visited one of my uncles in Valencia, and we then had the chance to see some beautiful cities of our brother country, Venezuela.
Our visit to Chavez's native land had always been put off as it was difficult to leave my brothers and sisters in one of my very short holidays; but this time, we -my parents and I- made sure that the trip became a reality and off we went to the border. As it happens, We entered Venezuela through San Antonio del Tachira, a very commercial city where huge everyday business transactions are jointly done by people from the two neighbour cities, Cucuta, in Colombia and San Cristobal in Venezuela.
The driving Anyway...My uncle drove us for the whole trip, thus, it was very comfortable as we were able to stop wherever we pleased and did not have to depend on any bus schedules. So, lots of times we got off the car to taste the delicious 'empanadas', have a pee or just relax;
yeah, in Colombia we pee too :-)
The Copa America, although not a football mad, it was nice to see lively sights
San Cristobal When we arrived in San Cristobal, I was totally impressed by the decorations and lights on the main streets; the 'Copa America' had just finished and as Venezuela was the siege, different flights of American countries were hanging over posts together with beautiful lanterns made into footballs, they were all beautifully lightning the streets. The mascot of the cup was a parrot which we saw almost everywhere we went. Though I am not a big fan of football, I couldn't help but feeling the excitement of the championship, even if it was all over at that time. I think I told you, I prefer doing sport to watching it, I don't know you but I cannot really weather a 90-minute match waiting for the slow teams to score goals; as it happens, I might enjoy a basketball match as it is more exhilarating and fast.
We also stopped to have some beers, the famous Venezuelan 'solera', very cold indeed and mind you, I
did not find it so bitter as the regular ones. On one ocassion, we had this big lunch and my mum was not very happy for the cook did things hurriedly and didn't roast the chicken as he must have done it otherwise.
My mum was very annoyed, I suppose my dad's chicken was the same but he didn't care.
The trip to Venezuela was very colourful and lively, not only did I have my parents to myself again but I also had my favourite uncle with me, wasn't that splendid? me being spoilt again, I know!. We have such a wonderful rapport, you see, our sense of humour is very alike and over half of the time that we spend together, we are always laughing about simple matters and making others laugh. I must confess that sometimes I go over the board with my uncle, for I don't know where to stop, but I guess he doesn't care as he travels all the way from Venezuela to see me everytime I am in Colombia. I love him. Apart from that, he is also an excellent driver so he drives us everywhere when on holidays.
Valencia When we arrived in Valencia we were very happy to see my cousins that I hadn't seen for over 20 years, they were very kind indeed and made of our stay another wonderful experience. We spent our first reunion day telling each other about the things we were currently doing, they were of course very startled for I had decided to expatriate myself to China. You know, people are always curious about the life in China, what people think, their behaviour, the chopsticks, the food, the gymnastics, everything; at dinner, I was bombarded with questions and I very much enjoyed having them laugh with my funny experiences, the staring, the difficult language, etc. I also told them about the ways our culture differ and how much I love the country.
That same day, I felt very sportive and decided to go jogging; Lilia, my uncle's wife, who is extremely kind, didn't want me to go on my own, so she quickly got ready and before I knew, she was holding my hand when I was about to leave, I thought that was cute, she wouldn't let me go on my own, I'm
National Day
As it was one of their national days, we found lots of flags everywhere. check it out, since last year, the flag day is to be celebrated on 3rd August.telling you, these people love me, lucky me!!! off we went but after four minutes she lagged behind, so I told her I would go up and down on the area near the house, she was totally relieved. Twenty minutes later, I was struggling for air and some water, so I decided to stop and joined Lilia, we went back home, I took a nice shower and we had dinner.
The next day's plans were quickly made and on the agenda there was this visit to the city: Valencia, the capital of the Carabobo state; Carabobo literally translates as stupid face, so no wonder, I made silly jokes about it but I suppose they had heard them all before for my cousins didn't laugh that much, my dad did, though! Valencia is located 150 km west from Caracas and it is known to be one of the most industrial cities in Venezuela; as I was with my mum, it was not difficult to know where we would be heading the next day, no historical sites or anything like that but shopping malls, but she was right for going to Venezuela to buy stuff has always been a
Colombian pursuit.
Next day was extremely hot and we walked around some very popular markets, the prices were really cheap compared to what you get in Colombia, I am sorry if I said it in one of my previous entries but I am still so startled when I think that the devaluation of the bolivar (that is Venezuelan currency) actually allows us to save half the money everytime we buy any item there.
My parents bought some shirts, dresses and other stuff while I went to fetch us some drinks. When I saw what they bought, I got jealous so I asked them to take me to the shops and I bought some shirts for myself and some friends. In spite of being a foreigner again, it was such a relief to feel that I was not being ripped off; thus, I was very well at ease, comparing prices and buying stuff. I also had some time to look for some music and videos.
Afterwards, we headed to the town centre where I helped my parents find a fridge for my sister, you know, again, devaluation was the culprit. While I
Inmigration
In San Antonio all foreigners must pay some stamps for the entry into Venezuela was waiting for their transaction to finish -you know how impatient I get- I decided to leisurely take a stroll in some other direction; at one point, I was standing near a shop and a Venezuelan guy from the shop came and spoke to me in English, it was so funny, I answered him in English too pretending that I didn't speak any Spanish, we later had a laugh with my cousins, but as I was telling them, it dawned on me that at that moment, I was holding my very useful Berlitz Chinese phrasebook; let's see... a foreigner in Valencia learning Chinese, I don't know what went through his mind, but anyway, as Venezuela has forever been packed with foreigners, it was not difficult for him to put two and two together I thought it was my blond hair and my very blue eyes, but I was wrong, the phrasebook gave me away, damn it!.
Not very far from my uncle's house, there is Parque Carabobo, very significant to the Venezuelans as it was there where the famous Carabobo Battle took place (1821), and if I remember correctly, Mrs Alvarez, the history teacher at my secondary
school told us that this was the battle that set Venezuela free. After an armistice was signed by the Spanish General Pablo Morillo and the commander of South American forces Simon Bolivar, the Spanish thought it was wiser to break the terms of that deal and took their troops to the Maracaibo Lake. Bolivar then organised his army and fought them at Carabobo; in the end, the Spaniards were forced to retire. For the record, I did not retain all that information from highschool, when I used to revise my history lessons, I would use my short-term memory.
So, my uncle offered us to take us there, the entrance is quite formal as there are some soldiers inspecting everything, you sort of ask for permission as they do not charge you to see the glorious spot. The site is quite big and it actually has some monuments reminding us of the battle. As we walked, we had our own glorious battle fighting not royalists but hunger for we hadn't eaten that much in the afternoon and we hurriedly drove to the park before it was closed, no time to eat whatsoever. It was an easy battle for
Abandoned tolls?
Yeah, that's right, one of the good things Chavez has done, Venezuelans can now save money on tolls as he eliminated most of the tolls in the country, I said most not all the mangoes were waiting for us on the grass. I suppose I was too hungry and started being silly calling my uncle 'La Negra Hipolita' who was Bolivar's nanny and I was pretending to have him interviewed on my camera, like 'hey, was Simon a very well-behaved boy?' he laughed the first time but was getting quite annoyed afterwards, my dad was extremely enchanted; you see, that's what I mean by not knowing where to stop; looking back, I suppose it was not my fault, they always look for me when they want to laugh, even if my jokes are silly, they need them. (hahaha, but sorry, Tio).
Tales of an accident Back at home, we had a lovely dinner and some beers, we laughed a lot as we were told this brilliant story of what happens in the vicinity and as I am so handsome and nice ;-0, I would share it with you, my friends; my uncle's house is located near a very famous and dangerous turn notorious for frequent truck accidents, so Valencia, being such an industrial city, is frequently visited by large lorries carrying lots of stuff from different companies;
the drivers, though never drunk, sometimes miss the dangerous turn and when they realise their mistake, it is far too late. As a result, not only their truck ends up laying upside down on the road but lots of stuff from their companies they were meant to deliver. It is commonplace that one of the neighbours wakes up -as you can imagine the noise made- and then they start calling the others, eventually, the whole area wakes up and orientate themselves to the accident spot. There, if the truck driver agrees (he has already phoned the company to fill them in about the accident, they then decide whether to get the stuff back or give it away), all the people start taking the boxes home, nice, ain't it?
I asked Lilia what kind of stuff she was referring to and she said everything, mostly toilet paper, household objects, stationery and the like. wow, stationery, that'd be my dream, so I started praying: 'please God, give us a stationery truck, give us one, make him miss the turn too, amen.' No, I'm only joking, I am not that bad to desire something like that, moreover, I suppose I'm
far too proud and would feel sort of a looter if I pick up the remnants of the accident.
As we were cosily chatting and laughing about all this lorry accident stuff (don't worry, habitually there is only one driver and he is always safe and sound, so no injuries whatsoever) and silly jokes, my cousin Pacho arrived from Colon; we had a long conversation which ended with his invitation to drive us the following day to the hilly Caracas; I, of course, was very happy for even though I had already been there, my previous visit had been limited to one or two places near the airport. I was very much looking forward to seeing Venezuela's largest city, Caracas.
'Conchale vale, vamos pa'Caracas' We set off at 7 in the morning on our nearly four-hour drive, which was full of jokes, nice music and some interesting views. I must say I was a bit disappointed for I imagined Caracas was such a modern city, but it seems we didn't go to the right tourist spots as my cousin was a bit apprehensive due to the latest security problems the city
is undergoing, I hope the government can get through this for the city seems to be quite nice. In addition, there is always the fact that he was driving and I suppose it is quite difficult to find a good car park.
On the way, we stopped to take pictures of the nice view of the hyppodrome, La Rinconada of Caracas, the horse races take place every week and they are all watched by many television viewers; incidentally, I remember back in my country, as we only had Venezuelan television, 'Venezolana de Television' was always showing horse races and I used to keep picturing loads of people betting so much money on different horses, something I didn't find very appealing; and now here it was, La Rinconada, though a bit far, it was good enough to bring me nice memories of my virtual childhood.
Something I remember relatively well from this chief town was the big hoardings on the roads, one of them which you can see here was 'Prender un cigarrillo apaga tu vida' something like 'if you light a cigarette you destroy your life', but what is good about the sign is
the smart Spanish pun they used: the verb 'prender' (turn on) which is like the beginning of everything and 'apagar' (turn off) meaning the end of everything, here 'your life'. Don't you think it is rather clever? Yet, the signs you cannot afford to ignore, turn on or turn off are Chavez's signs, they are everywhere, I couldn't help but thinking of Bangkok.
Our first stop in Caracas was the cemetery, yeah, you might think that we were about to visit tombs, but you will be far from the truth; in fact, there is an extremely popular market which is just 200 metres from the cemetery, so that explains the name; due to the prices of items, the place is always packed with lots of people buying in bulk or merely doing their household shopping.
My parents did play by the book, they planned to go shopping and they certainly did; I, conversely, was rather interested in music, so I said I was going for a stroll and hurriedly went through all the music shops looking for my very particular Merengue taste: Los Melodicos, Diveana, Las Chicas del Can and Liz. For those, who
don't know, these were the most popular Merengue bands in the 90s and we danced with their music during all our highschool and university studies, their songs were just great, a great deal of melodies you can listen to the whole evening and dance all the way without stopping. The problem was that, as most of the bands do not play together anymore or at all -now, the reggaeton is what new generations listen to- it was a bit difficult to find their music but... Eureka, I was able to get hold of all the records I wanted. It took me quite a while, though...so when I went back to our car, my mum was extremely worried and my dad was a bit annoyed, but hey, it is not all the time that I come to Caracas to find my records, right? anyway, there are never harsh words between us as we don't have the time to get angry at each other, you see, my holidays are so short that we just enjoy them as they come., no conflicts whatsoever.
After that, we went south to 'El Paseo de los Proceres', a 2 km avenue which was
built to commemorate the independence of Venezuela and celebrate the country's heroes; you must know that Venezuelans are reknown for being extremely patriotic, indeed, we are all patriotic in South America but still, to my mind, Venezuelans are more serious when it comes to respecting national symbols. Now that I mention it, I remember a long time ago when a Colombian singer Noel Petro was put in a San Cristobal's prison for one night for playing his accordeon near a Bolivar's statue, you can then have a picture of what I mean. Simon Bolivar was the liberator of our countries, for those who don't know it, and he was born in Caracas.
Anyway, the most important events of the country are to be held in this 'paseo', lots of protocol as in every nation liberated by Bolivar.
Though I had seen pictures of Caraca's slums' shacks on TV, I told you we had access to Venezuelan TV when we grew up, I was astonished to see so many ramshackle houses clinging on the slopes of the hilly Caracas's mountains. And this is the result of the big gap between rich and poor, which is
not only a widespread phenomenon in Venezuela but in the whole South American continent: it is commonplace to see that thousands of people have opted for invasion given the poor welfare scheme of the country. These poor people have been migrating to the cities in search of their place in the sun, which doesn't always work to their advantage. As a result, after some initial opposition from the government, squatters are helped through different programs that actually cover their basic needs of housing.
The downside of the whole situation is that the people living in these slums actually remain cut-off from the city and their dwelling places sometimes turn into very dangerous spots with lots of 'malandros' taking over. My grandpa used to live in San Cristobal in one dangerous area, it was actually a risky experience to go and pay him a visit, now thanks god, he's resting in a better place.
Well, I must say that I was a bit disappointed by what I saw in Caracas for my expectations were far too high, you imagine this lovely and modern city but what I found was something very different, but here again,
I'll give credit to the reputation of the city as I think I didn't go to the rights spots. What I saw, however, was a noisy and bustling city with millions of inhabitants, with traffic jams, dangerous areas to avoid, slums, and a strikingly distinct contrast between the levels of society.
Puerto Cabello: 'En la playa te encontre....Diveana' As Puerto Cabello was only 90 minutes from Valencia, we decided to go for one day. On the road, we found some delicious empanadas which we ate with such a pleasure as the meat was tender and the rice was delicious, we also drunk some avena, a sort of oat milk drink. I was longing to go as being on the beach would complete my idea of marvellous holidays. On top of that, the weather was perfect for swimming. The beach we went to was called 'La Rosa', which was great, the waves were quite strong and the scenery was nice, I must say I really enjoyed the green colours near the beach, lovely palms which gave a lovely view of a very tropical oasis, the showers were quite good and we had a relaxing time.
We stayed on the beach for almost the whole day and took turns to watch over the clothes. But, I must say, I still prefer San Andres, those turquoise colours cannot be found anywhere else, you see, I am too Colombian!
And the inevitable happened... Yes, though not as I had wanted it (no stationery trucks), another truck missed the turn in the early hours in the morning; at about three, to be more precise, I heard so much noise that I decided to get up and find the cause of that early hullaballoo. My cousins were by the door and I saw some neighbours talking and going up and down, then they told me there was a new truck undergoing the customary oops experience. I thought, it could be fun to go and have a look and so early, thus, I ventured hurriedly to the spot and found so many people, I heard my mum in the background telling me to be careful but I had already woken up and it was far too interesting to stop at that moment. On the spot I found lots of things going on, my uncle's wife
was already carrying things and I don't know whether it was chivalry or something else (does it concern you that maybe I turned into a hypocrite?, remember I said, I would be too proud?), but I found myself lifting some boxes and taking them to the house.
My cousins were laughing and they also came along and we all did a very remarkable job. When the police arrived, I just thought it'd be very funny to pretend that I was a reporter, so I asked my cousin to take pictures and got near the policemen, it was so funny, they were so serious, I think they were wondering whether I was mad or real but still, we all loved it. After two hours have passed, we had put all the boxes in one of the rooms and we were all excited to sleep, and, though still very tired, we had breakfast at that very moment, it was a very early breakfast I must say and we kept talking for over two hours.
You must be wondering what the contents of the boxes were, are you not? I don't blame you, I will be doing
the same. Anyway, it was mostly women's makeup, parfum and accesories, lots of sandals, combs, etc; funnily enough, some of those boxes were meant to be delivered at one of Lilia's neighbours' house as she was selling some of those brand products, which by the way are dear. And Lilia had ordered some from her, now she had them for free, but three days later a new bus didn't miss the turn, so the order arrived and Lilia had to buy brand new products for she had made already a previous deal. We laughed at that again, it is like, hey, instead of buying them from you, I can sell them to you, as I had lots, but the neighbour too, she had lots, those from the looting and those from the official order.
Now that I look back, I had so much fun with my cousins and uncle, the conversations were so spicy and it was as if we had not stopped seeing each other for such long 10-year gap.
Leaving Valencia On the way back, there were some stopovers to buy different Venezuela produce like corn, which
my mum said were extremely cheap, some cheese from a very attractive lady and then the customary lunch and snack.
Our next destination was Merida, a lovely city surrounded by mountains, which is very packed due to the large number of university students residing there, it seems that the University of Los Andes is the second most important in the country, no wonder why we saw so many activities going on in the city. The place is relatively cold due to the Andean mountains surrounding the city which sort of provide the metropolitan city with a nice spring; no wonder why the weather made me think that the title we give to our Colombian Medellin should be given to Merida, 'la ciudad de la eterna primavera'.
All activities prohibited to us, vertigo sufferers and related to high places take place there, climbing and the like; guess what? we got to know the highest and longest mountain cable car in the world, yes, very scary indeed and before you ask anything, I didn't have the guts to go inside. The Teleferic was constructed in France by 25 different companies and responded to the need of
the 1952 government to provide people with a cable car to have access to the Sierra Nevada of Merida. If you love exhilarating experiences, not me thank you very much, you shouldn't miss this one, there are places where you can have lovely panoramics at a very low height of 4765 mts (oh, my Frank!).
And the trip is quite long, there are four trams; apparently it is really worth it for those in search of adventure. Our visit to the teleferic was just limited, some photos only for I didn't even contemplate the idea of getting on the car, I remember my mind going: 'are these people mad or something?' in fact, I was maybe jealous but still, I am very happy to tell you that I do not aspire to do that in the near future.
By the way, a 12 year old girl made me feel very ashamed as she was the big star of the day, in fact when we went to the square near the telepheric, there were this group of people gathered together, I went closer to see what it was and here she was a very cute
12-year old girl getting ready to climb, I thought she wouldn't be able to do it and there she was, smiling and going up without any effort. My uncle would look at me the whole time like sending me messages and reproaching me in a good way for not being able to do it. But I didn't have time to answer, I was at that moment feeling so giddy myself. When she came down, I sort of interviewed her, her parents were very proud and said she has always done this, I said I would send them the photographs and as we speak, I haven't got round to doing it yet, how bad I am.
We had a stroll around the main square, where we obviously found a Bolivar's statue, I had taken the precaution of not playing an accordeon (I didn't have any) near the monument, walked to the university and saw lots of students in their daily routine, had a nice lunch and took photos of different spots of the city. I think this international city offers nice contrasts, some of the buildings are modern while others are extremely picturesque; I found that the footbal
excitement was still there, just as if the Copa America had just kicked off, the decorations were still there and lots of people were still wearing the t-shirts of the event.
Coming back from the teleferic station, I spotted a wonderful graffiti, it would say something like: 'Eres mi pasaporte de la tierra a las estrellas, prefiero morir antes de dejar de amarte' which I loved, it translates into something like: 'You are my passeport to go from the earth to the stars, I'd rather die than stop loving you' don't you just love it? and can you imagine if someone says that to you, my God, it would be like your place in the sun in every way!, thanks Merida or the inhabitants for adding so much love to one of your walls, I hope one day, somebody will say that to me, sniff, sniff.
And the journey came to an end To sum up, I believe this was also an exciting trip, I was very happy to see my cousins after so long for we still enjoyed every moment of our reunion; it was also nice to see that
my jogging skills were back there. Between us, I have now something new to put in my CV, looting of trucks in search of ladies' makeup stuff, do you think I would convince anyone to grant me a teaching interview then?. Something to remember by would be the hotels in Valencia, many of them seem to come from a theme park or something as they look like the place you imagine Sherezade dwells in, however I didn't have to come up with a story every night, though I did it in a very spontaneous way, sorry cousins, sometimes I can be a big mouth, oops..
Last but not least, though I did not like what I saw in Caracas, I must say that we didn't go to the tourist places as my cousin was a bit apprehensive and traffic is also chaotic, so Caracas might still be very beautiful, I will tell you next time, or if you go first, please fill me in!
Well that's all about my trip in Venezuela, I hope you liked the account. Bye for now, I'm going to bed as I am teaching tomorrow at 8:00.
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