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Published: June 16th 2008
My Life...
This is all that I will be carrying through South America...It´s funny how life tends to work out. Of course in order for life to¨work out¨life usually had to have thrown you a few curveballs...and probably beaned you with one or two of them...
But since I´ve resolved to be the glass half full type this morning, I´ll focus on the good stuff - namely that I have finally embarked on an escursion. SO! sans sense and sensibility - and the major working of a plan - i find myself in Venezuela. I wish I could say that I am well prepared and have planned this to the hilt, but that just ain´t me. As it stands, all I´ve got is a backpack, two cameras and a lonely planet guide that has already gotten on my bad side (me and lonely planet are beefin´right now...)
And here is the story so far...
Caracas
Remember that time some bombastic fool blew hard about how it´s easy to travel anywhere since English is the defacto language of tourism...and how that bastard continued to regale you with stories of being able to communicate in every country he´d been in without any sort of trouble? Well Caracas has tried it´s hardest
Gettin´ Ready to mime
This guy had quite a crowd later to prove that fellow wrong. I didn´t hear a single word of English in the city. In fact, even the touts and tour agencies screwed their face at me when I innocently asked ¨¿Se habla ingles?¨. I know...you can chastise me later for trying to take the easy way out. I spent the next day thanking my lucky stars for Shahima Chalela and Ricardo Ballon of ¨Go Spanish Now!¨else that day would have been alot more frustrating.
Caracas reminded me of a mixture of San Jose and Mexico City on steroids...except the people drive even crazier than in D.F. Crossing the street was an exercise considered imprudent by at least 7 out of 10 doctors...and I think the other 3 had been run over crossing the street to the poll. Caracas isn´t the prettiest city, but it had some bits of flair. It didn´t feel the safest either. Especially after my Bolivian/Venezuelan kickboxing buddy told me not to walk South..or West... or East for fear of my life. I guess North was the sea? Jokes aside though, I wasn´t any more paranoid than I am in any city. Only one Caraqueña looked at me with deep concern and said
Feeding the birds
In Caracas near Plaza Bolivar ¨cuidate...
So far I have felt like a rank travelling novice when it comes to paying for things...at first I thought that I had forgotten my numeros, but then I realized that there is just another series of currency that was recently introduceD...so if a clerk says 10 Bsf, she might mean 1,000 Bs. (which is about $4.60 US in case you were wondering).
I got out of Caracas fairly quickly to see go to Merida. I took my first long (13 hour!) bus ride. It was as comfortable as I could probably ask for except we had to change buses twice (once at 3am and once when I was too bleary to look at a clock...).
Merida!
Merida is known as the City of Gentlemen, but they let me in anyway.
Since everything closes on Sunday in Latin America, I took the world´s longest and tallest Teleferico to Pico Espejo and promptly experienced my first bout of altitude sickness at 4,765 meters (15,630 feet). The world looked funny through the stars I saw...
--
"Against logic there is no armor like ignorance."
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Fred
non-member comment
So, you like to travel?
This is so funny. I had soup after class with Ray Saturday and asked if he had heard from you lately. He said he thought you were traveling...that's an understatement! Don't forget your training. Actually, forget your training and kick them in the head if they give you any problem, it should be easy since they are all much shorter than you! Remember--being an ugly American tourist starts with you.