Jeep Tour with Rigo y Lennys

Kelsey and Brittany's venezuelan parents met up with us in Margarita Island for a day long open jeep tour around the island. At every stop the guides had free soda, beer and water for us! Party trip! We started out going to Castillo Santa Rosa which we had just learned about in our history class! This castle was where the Battle of Matasiete took place that fought for Margarita's Independence. Also, some lady was held hostage in a room in this castle and she lost her baby while she was in there and we went in the room. Kinda weird!Then we went to the Church of the Valley, which is very famous in Margarita. But because we had shorts on we were not allowed to go into the church. So we just admired it from afar. I also bought a little elefante for Eira because she has a collection at home on the coffee table. I think she is going to love it!
Next on the tour was La Restinga aka Venezuelan Everglades. There were mangroves and little streams and yeah looked just like home! We saw some birds and then the guide found a starfish and we all took a picture with it in our hands. Getting off the boat I saw a million fiddler crabs on the shore and an iguana in a tree eating some lettuce! Then we drove along the coast to the westernmost point of the island called Punta Arenas and ate a typical Venezuelan meal. Then we went a la playa and played in the waves. They were huge and very strong!! Kelsey got thrown around really bad, had sand all up in her swimsuit and so went back to shore. So Marissa and I were wave buddies!! We would wait until the last possibe moment before the wave crashed, then yelled out OVER!! or UNDER!!! After the wave passed we would come up from the water and look for eachother to make sure nobody got tossed around. Best wave partner ever! We were in the water for close to an hour and it was really fun!
The end of our tour consisted of stopping at a place where they sell cocada, a drink made with ice and coconut milk. Yummy, but strange texture.
The very last part of our trip was four-wheeling on the sand dunes near the coast. At one point our back window popped off....it was that rough!! Our guide told us the best way to experience this was standing up so we did.
We were exhausted after our fun day in the sun, but we had the driver drop us off at the mall. It's called Sambil and is absolutely huge!I ate a dulce de leche Cinnabon! We were shopping around and then I thought I heard a marching band. What? in the mall? Sure enough, my ears weren't playing tricks on me...a percussion band came marching through. Apparently they were advertising perfume. Weird. But I loved it!
Once we got back to the hotel, we were all beat. Except that Marissa and I wanted to go see the show. and boy am I happy we did...it was SAMBA night. I think the dance orginated in Brazil and so they had the crazy costumes and the fun music. It was a great show! Then afterwards we stayed around to talk to the dancers and they were having another pool party. I tried a new drink called esplash: it was amaretto and orange juice and it was really good!! But maybe I liked them so much because the bartender, Marcelago, was also very good looking! Needless to say it was a fun night!

Pool day

So everyday at our hotel they have a schedule of events including water aerobics and of course we joined in on that! I also played water volleyball and some game where you toss water ballons with a sheet to another team. Que divertido! We went to the Italian restaurant for dinner again and then to the show. They had another pool party, but the band was not as good as the night before. So we ditched the party and went to the beach, where we encountered a leatherback sea turtle returning to the sea after laying her eggs on the beach! What an amazing experience! There were other people watching as well, but making sure that nobody would come and harm the sea turtle. Locals will take the eggs and sell them. So sad! Ooh and we saw so many aguas malas (jelly fish!) rolled up dead on the shore. I counted 30 within 100 feet of me!

Porlamar shopping day

We took a bus for only 8 Bs to el centro de Porlamar, which was about a 40 minute drive from our hotel. I bought a cute skirt, jewlery to go with the skirt and a belt! and Brittany found 100 Bs on the floor when we went to go take out money from the ATM because we were spending so much! Fun girls day shopping in el centro. Best part was that we found a chocolate world store with every kind of candy bar...yes I spent around 60 Bs loading up on chocolate. Tried some new kinds, but they were weird scandanavian bars or something.
Tonight at our hotel there was a pool party after the show! They had a band playing all sorts of music, we started dancing with a girl named Oronami and then soon met her family afterwards. They were so nice and thought I was really good at speaking spanish! We spoke with them probably until 1am. Dancing was great too! I was dancing with the girls and then a guy came and grabbed me and started dancing merengue (which is my favorite!). He was older than me, ponytail and very much a gentleman. Later on I met his wife and adorable little girl. So he wasn't creepy at all! and I loved dancing with him.

First Day in Margaritaville

We woke up this morning, put on our swimsuits, stopped by the buffet for breakfast and then headed to the beach! We were fortunate enough to get four beach chairs together. Guess you have to get there early because it was crowded! The beach was beautiful: soft sand, teal blue waters and a beautiful, clear sky. However, within 1 minute of us putting our stuff down and getting settled, we were bombarded by people selling stuff on the beach. They had pearls, hats, swimsuit cover-ups, bracelets, fresh oysters.....as the day went on the things they were selling were getting stranger. Some guy had this weird concoction of beer/alcoholic drink that he insisted we buy, then another had this jar smashed full of who knows what kind of seafood. They wouldn't leave us alone; granted it was our first day and they obviously knew we were tourists. This is how they make their living....feeding off the gringas. We noticed this lady carrying around a pail and some water, didn't really know what she was selling until she started massaging Kelsey's legs!! We didn't bring any money with us and so couldn't pay for the massage or any of the other stupid stuff they were selling. We tried saying no, but somehow that turned into another woman massaging my legs!! Too funny! Well, after we persistently told them to stop, that we didn't have any money and didn't want the massages, but they continued... I just enjoyed it! Here I was sitting on the beach, reading the Alchemist, getting a massage, soaking up the sun. haha It turned out she wanted 100 Bs for each massage, but since we were students we told her 70 Bs for the both of us. She wasn't happy, but we just gave them the money and ran away. What a crazy first day at the beach!
For dinner we dressed up and went to the Italian restaurant included in our hotel price, ordered wine, ate pizza and pasta and had some deep conversations. I think we stayed there for close to 3 hours. Then we went to the show! Afterwards we tried going to the beach, but the guard said it was dangerous so we took pictures with the tree just outside the gate instead. Yeah the guard thought we were nuts!

Margarita Island= SPRING BREAK 2010

What an amazing trip! It was Kelsy, Brittany, Marissa and I for an unforgettable spring break in Venezuela. Everything worked out so well with little complications and the hotel we stayed in was very nice. I would recommend it to everyone: Hesperia-Playa El Agua. It had 7 pools and was right across the street from the beach. Very fancy hotel! They had shows every night for us after dinner in the outside theater. The buffet was amazing! Chocolate croissants for breakfast! yes I ate more than 3 every day for breakfast...they were small and I was on vacation. I didn't eat a single arepa! YEAH!
Our first night was Saturday night and we got to the hotel right around dinner time. After we checked in and took a ride in a golf cart to our room, we headed straight to the buffet. Yummy desserts....especially the white chocolate coconut cake. After dinner we watched the show outside, did some exploring and then went to rest up for a fantastic Sunday!
Oh and throughout the trip I read the Alchemist and Dear John. Both really good books! Can't wait to read some more Paulo Coelho and Nicholas Sparks this summer.

Baby Shower for mi prima

I love spending time with Eira's family! They remind me of my extended family at home. I had no idea we were going to the baby shower and it was so much fun! Everybody remembered me and welcomed me right away, but got straight back to playing the games. I jumped right in because I love games! and if I didn't understand I would just ask Rosa to explain in english. But for the most part I understood well! The first game we played was where everybody sits in a circle and one person stands in the middle. They say "toot toot!". Quien es? "La Caretera" y que traje? "Una carta" para quien? "Para todos que....." and then the person says something like for everyone that is wearing jeans. Then those wearing jeans have to stand up and switch to a different seat. Funny thing was that if I didn't understand I just stayed put. Didn't work out though when I apparently had whatever they said and everybody called me out on it. hahaha They also played a game where one person feeds another person baby food while being blindfolded. That was messy and it smelled horrible.
The next game just about made me die...it was the turkey trot!! except they didn't put the coin in between their buttcheeks, but rather in between their knees and then walked over to drop it in a cup. But only the boys played that game. Not sure why? We played another game with a string wrapped around your waist hanging down in between your legs with a pen attached at the bottom of the string. You had to walk over to a bottle and drop the pen into the bottle! It was hard....took me 36 seconds. I couldn't get the pen to stop swinging!
We also played a game where you had to dress the baby as fast as you can! I was super nervous and couldn't put the clothes on fast enough. I guess you had to pretend the baby was real too, because I turned my baby on its head to get the pants on and everybody freaked. ueeyyyyy! haha ooops!
The last game we played was with toilet paper. I was the second one my aunt came to apparently asking us how much tp we wanted? No idea what was going on! So I just took some and said okay. Well we were measuring how big we thought the mom's belly was around! By luck, I won the game and got some tupperware as my gift. HOORAY!
Then it was time for presents. Everybody went up to the gift table to get their respective present and then one by one everybody went up and wished the couple blessings and such. Then they opened the present and everybody clapped! It was different than I had seen before.
Overall it was a great day spending time with 'family'. Lots of laughter!

Ziplining!

We were in Plaza Las Heroinas the other day and stopped in Jammin' Expeditions because we saw one of the students from VENUSA there and then I found out about a ziplining day trip they offered. It ended up being six of us that went and we had a blast. The first part was a tight rope walking part bewteen two trees and then there were 3 ziplines but we had to wait for the whole group when we went. At one point all of us plus the 2 guides were squished together on a very small platform high up in the canopy. Scary! We got done around 6:30pm. I went home ate dinner and Eira talked about going to a quinceñera for a co-workers daughter. She didn't really want to go and Dominico wasn't feeling that good but somehow I invited myself along and we ended up going. The decorations were red and white with butterflies everywhere. Eira didn't know anyone at the party except for the mom of the quinceñera, so we just took a seat at the back of the room at a table and waited. My mom felt uncomfortable which made me feel uncomfortable too.....here I was some gringa showing up to a quinceñera. Eira told me about a saying that was something about how when you feel out of place or uncomfortable it's like being a cockroach dancing among gallos (which is an animal that eats cockroaches.) Anyway, within 5 minutes of her telling me that story the largest cockroach in the world came out from the woodwork and started right for the cake table! Everybody screamed and Eira and I just laughed so hard. How ironic?! Some extended family ended up sitting with us at our table, it was a little awkward. We made small talk.
Okay so you know how every family gathering has that crazy uncle that drinks waaay to much and then makes a fool of himself on the dance floor? Yeah, well I danced with him. He was the skinniest and tiniest man ever and boy did he dance crazy. At one point, I'm pretty sure we were marching around the dance floor. I just followed whatever he did! haha I wasn't even planning on dancing and neither did my parents until la hora loca started and then I actually recognized some songs. We ended up dancing until 3am when we left, but the party wasn't over then. They didn't even cut the cake yet!! Funniest part was that that night was the latest I had ever come home and I was with my parents. :)

Field Trip- Mucubaji

Today we went on a field trip to las montañas in Sierra Nevada National Park...yes where I went last weekend for camping. Third times a charm! We left at 8am which meant 9:15am venezuelan time and headed out on the bus. Right before we got off the bus our professor told us that she wouldn't be grading us very hard today nor would we have to write a lab report because she would no longer be our teacher. Wow! way to throw that one on us. Turns out she is still our teacher and we have to write a lab report, which I am so not looking forward too. It was also a very cloudy day so we couldn't really see where we were going at all. The field trip was still fun though. I learned so much more about the Frailejon!!

Fun day with Kelsey Lynn!

So today after our geography exam Kelsey and I went to el centro to pay for our zipling trip on Saturday. We also stopped at Te Cafe, a really cute place for lunch and batidos. We had yummy potatoes with pesto sauce on them, chicken and some spinach pasta. Then this crazy man wanted to talk a picture with us. I guess we did look cute!

Happy St. Patricks day!!.....sort of

So nobody celebrates St. Patricks day here! I know, big surprise. I told Eira about it today and she couldn't figure out why I celebrated. "Tu no eres irlandesa?" Yes I am mom. I have Irish blood and am proud of it! Of course I had to wear green today, but the only shirt I had with ANY amount of green on it was my mexico soccer jersey I bought here at the exposition. So I celebrated my Irish decent by supporting the mexican futbol team. hahahaha love it!

Arepas del trigo= so good!

Tonight at VENUSA they had another cooking night! We made tons of arepas, but not the nasty corn ones that I always eat here at home. I've eaten waaaaay too many of those; enough to last me a lifetime. Instead we made wheat arepas. SO MUCH BETTER! As a venezuelan staple, it would only be appropriate if we ate them with ham and cheese. They were really good though!

Leguna Negra Camping

This week was a little stressful in deciding what to do and making plans for the camping trip. Nobody here is decisive at all. So it was hectic getting organized for a camping trip to Leguna Negra in National Park Sierra Nevada. But we did it! This was an amazing location to go camping. We camped along side of la Leguna Negra, which is tucked back in the mountains. The hike was hard because of the altitude. My heart was going crazy, but I slowed down and enjoyed the view. We were as high up as the clouds! We camped in a valley with huge mountain ranges running along both sides of us. The area we camped in was a bog/marsh area, which I found out the hard way. We wanted to explore, but soon I found myself sinking into the ground and so I just ran as fast as I could to the other side. I was covered in mud and my shoes are destroyed. But I had fun! We didn't see any animals, but I did encounter a cave on our hike to the other side of the lagoon. Nobody else was out there with us, so it was just our group of 7. So peaceful! We had nothing to do and it felt nice to relax in such a breathtaking landscape. I would close my eyes and listen to the sounds of nature, only to open my eyes again and be stunned by the beauty. I am so lucky! After night fell, we watched the stars for a while. I found Orion's belt and the rest of his body, which I learned from our trip to the science museum. I also saw 3 shooting stars!!! But once the sun went down, it was freezing. The temperature difference is very drastic en el paramo. Summer during the day and winter during the night. We woke up to a frozen tent!

Deb's Sushi Birthday Dinner

Wednesday's are so long, but I ended today with a delicious sushi dinner. It was Deb's birthday today and so we celebrated by going out for sushi. We sat upstairs in the loft area, where you have to take off your shoes and sit on the floor. The food took about 2 hours, but it was worth it. It's funny how much you miss asian food and soy sauce when all you eat is arepas and eggs. I inhaled my vegetarian rolls and practically licked the little plate clean of soy sauce. So good!

Pizza night!

Today was probably one of the best days here, although I never have a bad day. I live in Venezuela! But this day was just extra special. Around 2pm Johan, Juan Diego and Fernando picked up Kelsey, Brittany and I and we headed to Garzón to get ingredients for pizzas! We ran into Eira at the grocery store, so she was able to meet mi novio, Juan Diego. Johan made the pizza dough from scratch so we had to let it rise. So I played futbol in the street with the neighborhood boys and Fernando, while little Juan Diego walked down the hill with his bicycle. It was so funny, he couldn't stop himself and yelled out "ayudame!" in his high little voice. Adorable! We of course helped him out. The boys set up a game of shootout and since I was an adult they made me kick from farther away. Well, I drove the ball straight past the little 8 year old goalee and blew my flip flop apart. They were my favorite cute black sandals. Oh well, I guess that's what you get when you play with sandals. It was an epic kick though!
After I blew my shoe apart, I headed back inside to make the pizzas. We had jamon, cebollas, champiñones, maiz, pimenton, anchoas (only on Johan's pizza), aceitunas negras y mozarella. ¡Muy delicioso! We sat together as a family and ate dinner. They showed us family albums while we were waiting for the other pizzas to cook. Brittany helped Johan with his iTunes so we had salsa and merengue playing. It was great to spend time with 'family' on a Sunday night and enjoy each other's company. They really are the best family in Merida. Later on Johan's cousin, Harry, stopped by to grab some pizza. I love HARRY! He was the one I ran into at the grocery store. The girls and I helped clean up the kitchen and then danced with Harry. I didn't want to leave!

Teleférico Hike

I went to yoga this morning with Eira and then left around 10am to go for a hike underneath the Teleférico system (that's not working) here in Merida with Kelsey, Brittany and Leigh Anne. Boy, was it a difficult hike! Just getting to the entrance for the trail took us forever. On the way there we had to stop because I suddenly got a sharp pain in my stomach. I cooled down, drank some water and felt better, so we started walking again. Before we went into the jungle, we applied a TON of bugspray and began our hike into the Andes jungle. It was very beautiful, but also extremely uphill and difficult. Well, my stomach problems came back and I had to go....so I went in the jungle! There's a story you can't tell everyday. hahaha Anyway, the view from higher up the mountain was gorgeous. We were able to see the whole city of Merida and the cable car passed by us. I guess they let it run only to the first station to transport workers, or people who live up there? Not really sure. We found this stone wall and sat facing the city with the mountains in the background for quite a while. Very relaxing! After our exhausting 3hr hike we stopped at La Nota for lunch. They have 8 different sauces for you to use on your food! My favorite one was the ranch-like sauce. I had a burger and it was really good. Everybody kept telling us we had to go and now I see why!
Tonight we tried to go see the movie Alice in Wonderland, but it is opening weekend here so it was sold out. Instead we went to MacWen, hung out and then Marissa and I came back home to watch the movie The Waitress with Britanny. I fell asleep! But I think it was a good movie.

Lions, and tigers and chigüires...

Okay so there weren't any chigüires at the zoo, but I wish there were! They are the world's largest rodent and are found in Los Llanos here in Venezuela. People eat them too! Not sure if I want to try it though. Today after my first lingüistics test, I went to the zoo with Ellie, Beth, Liz, Caitlin and two of their venezuelan guy friends. It only cost 3 bolivares to get in and get this: Chavez is on the ticket for the zoo. Ahhhhhhh....he controls eveything! They had a very beatuiful lion, crazy monkeys that are just so funny to watch, some snakes, tropical birds, jaguar, a really large bunny, turtles and two very beautiful waterfalls. It was a fun way to spend a Friday afternoon! Tonight I just stayed in with Marissa since she is sick. We watched the movie Grease tonight, singing along to all the songs and ate waaaaaaaay too much chocolate.