Last day in Merida :(

I hate saying goodbyes! I went to yoga this morning with Eira for the last time. I really enjoyed going every tues/thurs and although some of Eldilio's exercises were a bit strange I always felt better afterwards. Except today I had a hard time concentrating and letting my mind relax because there was one of those HUGE nasty brown butterflies just chillin' on the white wall. It was basically staring me down.

Today at school, I just had to sign in for my geography class and check my grades. Todo chevere! Then I went up to Plaza Belen to buy some cocosette in bulk. BEST DAY EVER! Cocosette fudge and cocosette cookies are packed in my luggage right now. They better not take them away from me at the airport. If they do I will scarf them all down!! No wasting of the cocosette allowed.

Tonight there was a party in VENUSA and I danced until they pulled me off the dance floor! Merengue and salsa baby! Ugh..but I had a very hard time saying goodbye to Johan. I started crying when he thanked me for being such a special person to his sons and to the whole family. He couldn't hold back the tears either. What a beautiful family! I will miss them so much, but they offered me a place to stay when I return. So I need to come back as soon as possible.

Overall this was the best experience of my life! and I knew it would be! There's nothing more I could have done to make this any better. Everything worked out so well and I thoroughly enjoyed my time here. It's sad because I spent some of my time here wishing to go back home and now that I finally am leaving for home, I'm wishing to stay in Merida. I'll be leaving in 4 short hours to head to El Vigia, ending my life in Merida......at least for now.

Ultima Dia con mi novio y su familia

I had mentioned to Johan and Yija before that mi padre venezolano made me french toast for breakfast, but they had no idea what it was. So today I went over to there house to make them french toast. Johan had a soccer game in Mucuchies with his team Los Caballeros de Merida. So it was just Yija, the boys and I hanging out all day. They loved the french toast! and then we played for futbol for a while in the street. Oh and before I went to there house I had to get the ingredients and some colored pencils for my libro infantil and I ran into HARRY! (johan's cousin). I told him I was headed over to their house and he said he would be there too later on in the day. Well, it turns out he's their neighbor! haha I had no idea. I was out playing in the streets with the little kids. Then we just had music playing and hung outside with Yija, Harry and other family members. Apparently, everybody lives on the same street. I know that Johan's crazy mother lives below them. She yelled at the boys for being too loud when they were playing futbol. They wanted me to stay longer but I had so much homework to finish up! The last week of school always kills.....even in Venezuela.

Xcor acapella concert

Angel and Rosa invited me to an acapella concert tonight because Angel's uncle sings in the group. It was incredible the way they sang!!! Angel's brother Ali came too with his girlfriend. (Man, is he cute!) Anyway, the group started off singing a tribute to Michael Jackson. I was dancing and singing along for sure. Then they sang some spanish songs and then What is love? by Cher. This just proved how americanized the music is here in Venezuela. It amazes me how much influence we have on the culture and I didn't even realize it!

Zapatos Rotos

So those cute turqoise shoes I bought yesterday...well I wore them out last night for only 2 hours and they fell apart. That's what I get for buying shoes in VZ? Well I told my mom about them today during lunch and she gave told me I should return them and see if I could either get my money back or exchange them for a new pair. I was super nervous because I didn't know how I was going to argue my point/explain what happened in spanish. So I had Marissa come along for moral support.
When we got on the buseta, the same younger kids from yesterday were sitting behind us!! as if they were waiting for us to get on the bus?! so crazy! We just started giggling and they of course were trying to tell us things in english, but we couldn't understand anything they were saying. They told us we were beautiful and then asked for a kiss when we went to get off the bus. How can people BE so forward?

Anyway, I walked into the store with my broken shoes and a smile on my face. The lady recognized me right away and asked how I was doing. Ummmmm....well not so good. I explained the best I could and showed her what happened with my shoes. She got on the phone to call the manufacturer or something. Then she offered to exchange them for another pair, but they didn't have my size. So then she said I could find a different style of shoe or get my money back! She was so nice about it! SCORE! Successfully argued my point in a nice way and got my money back. Then Marissa and I spent it at the Merengada place. Chococambur otra vez!

On our buseta home, the cutest little boy with a crooked smile sat in front of us and heard us speaking english. He said Hello! and then grinned from ear to ear. He pulled out his trompo (spinning top) and started wrapping the string around like he was getting ready to play with it on the buseta. I told him that my friend Fernando had one of those too and that I could make it spin!! He was so cute and just grinned that crooked smile of his. People here are so friendly!

Shopping day with Marissa

I love Marissa! We have so much fun together and today we hit up all the descuentos in el centro. I got some really cute dark turqoise wedges, a headband and a Venezuelan baseball cap. Afterwards we went to this smoothie place I have been wanting to try out and boy was it good! I ordered a Chococambur merengada which is banana and chocolate with ice cream. IT WAS THE BEST MERENGADA! It's just sad that I found this amazing store with only 6 days left in Venezuela. I guess that just means I will have to go everyday to try new flavors and make up for lost time.

Oh and we walked passed the gobierno in Plaza Bolivar and it was all decorated with yellow, blue and red for the 200th Independence day this past Monday. It looked really cool, but I didn't take a picture: 1. Didn't have my camera and 2. thought that maybe if I did take a picture the guard that's always standing outside would shoot me.

Then to get home I flagged down a buseta in El Centro, but sometimes they don't stop for you. However, this one looked like it was slowing down and so I literally threw myslef at the bus from the curb, fell up the stairs and then landed near the driver. Then I quickly looked back to see if Marissa made it on, because I jumped in such a hurry and she was just getting on like normal people. The driver and I were laughing so hard...as was the rest of the bus. Oh well.....brightened some people's day.

(yes another entry about food, but when you feel like you're on vacation you can make excuses for your eating habits. At least that's what I've been doing. :)

Debate

Leunam, my history professor, organized a debate today at VENUSA. It was venezuelans vs. Americans and the two topics were: Global Warming and then Politics in Venezuela. The first part of the debate was really great, mainly because I think everyone is in agreement that the climate of the Earth is changing so no hot tempers. However, when we switched to the politics of Venezuela it got a little heated. There were Chavista's there and anti-chavistas so of course they were going to butt heads. Funny part was one of the VENUSA students, Juampi, who hangs out with all the gringos all the time is a chavista?! He was getting really into the debate and actually cutting people off when they were speaking. Johan was not really happy with him! Nothing got too out of control and for the gringos we didn't have anyplace arguing with them on this subject. I feel that we only have an outsider's perspective on this and although we spent almost 4 months living here...it's not enough to justify our opinion. The venezuelans live this everyday! The debate was really great and very informative. For me, I enjoyed hearing both sides argue their point. After the debate, everbody cooled off over some Solera Azul. haha Only in VZ!

Of course when I got back from the debate I went to the tienda to buy some chocolate from my favorite tienda man. and only in venezuela can you strike up a conversation about politics and Chavez in a tienda while people come in buy what they need to buy and throw in their two cents on the matter!! I talked to him for about 20 minutes!

Last WEDNESDAY!

I HATE WEDNESDAY'S, but today was my last one! I was out of it for my last class, but who cares!? Because on our walk home, the sky and mountains were beautiful! The sun was setting behind the mountain painting the sky with different shades of orange and red, while still casting light on the other mountain range. It was so gorgeous! Great way to end the day! Then I came home and watched Friends! So exhausted tonight though. Oh and I saw Eldilio in the street today on his moto. He didn't see me though, but I can tell him about it tomorrow at yoga class!

Day to myself and band...

We got back from our Choroni trip this morning around 8am from the overnight bus from Maracay. We watched a horrible movie (I think it was called Death Sentence) with Kevin Bacon where everyone died! Great images for me to fall asleep to....not. When I got back home I talked with Eira about my trip, took a shower and then thought I was going to take a nap, but I suddenly had energy to go shopping in el centro. Well today is the bicentennial celebration of Venezuelan Independence! Feliz 200 anos a Venezuela!!So there were a ton of people in el centro and a parade with bands! I shopped around, got some Vivaldi ice cream and then headed to Mercado Principal. Then later tonight I went with Marissa to her sister's band concert. It was a concert celebrating the bicentennial and all the musicians were wearing these really awesome Venezuelan windbreakers! They played 1812 overture! haha I love that music is a universal language. Viva la musica! not Chavez. hahaha

Last day in Choroni

The beach was crowded beyond belief! So many people it was not worth being there. So Marissa and I went shopping instead and then headed back to pack for our trip home. The same taxi drivers were nice enough to come pick us up again from Maracay. It's almost a 2 hour drive! But a beautiful drive up a very large mountain, into the selva nublada and then down the otherside of the mountain. Scary, winding roads that don't look wide enough to fit two cars, but somehow does.

Oh and I forgot to mention on our ride there we saw leaf cutter ants marching along the side of the road when we slowed down to make a really sharp hairpin turn. SO AWESOME! Those ants are amazing and I always hear about them on national geographic and other shows. Viva la selva nublada!

We had the taxi's drop us off at a T.G.I.Friday's! We were so ognoxious when we entered into the restaurante. "Oh my gosh, SALT! and ketchup! I just want to eat that ketchup straight out of the bottle! Hamburgers! Chocolate brownies!" haha you would have thought that we hadn't eaten in days. embarassing!

Una Lancha a Chuao

We were told that Saturday would be when everybody came to the beach for the independence weekend and so, having spent the last two days at Playa Grande, we took a lancha out to other beaches. The area to get into the lanchas was total chaos. So many tourists trying to get into the boats that were crowded around a very small piece of shore. Insanity! The boat ride was really great though. I just love being out on the water. We played in the waves at Playa Chuao for a while before we took a bus into the pueblo of Chuao, which is unique in it's cultivation of cacao. Yes that's right they specialize in chocolate! A pueblo built for me?....I think so! The town was so small, people just sitting around doing nothing but making chocolate in their homes. I bought a dark chocolate bar that was so rich and natural! and then we ate some chocolate ice cream that tasted like a fudgecicle! yum yum yum.

After that beach we got back on the lancha to head to another one, but on our way there it started down pouring! Here we are riding along the coast in a lancha getting soaked. what fun! Later we headed back to Choroni, made pasta with veggies and then played some more Ultimate Charades.

Surfs up dude!

We weren't lying about taking surf lessons from Tarzan. It worked out perfect because 6 of us in our group wanted to do it and so he took us out in pairs! It was so much fun!! We first practiced standing up in the sand first to figure out how we were going to place our feet on the board. Then we hit the water with our boards! It was harder than it looked, but I ended up getting the hang of it. I stood up 3 times and once I rode the wave for a really long time and got an applause from some people!! Tarzan was a great teacher and got us all to stand up. Amazing!
We walked back home to our cabaña (there was no danger in walking at all) and then made tacos with beans tonight for dinner. Then Jackie taught us how to play ultimate charades, which is now my new favorite game!

Everybody writes down words on little slips of paper and puts them all together in a hat. Split up into teams and start the game!
1st round: just like catch phrase, use the words in the hat to get your team to guess as many words in 45 seconds. Do this until there are no words left. Keep score by how many words your team guessed!

2nd round: Put the same words back in the hat, but now you have to silently act them out. This time you have 1 min to get your team to guess as many correct words. Again keep score

3rd round: put all the words back and now you can only saw one word and that's it for your team to guess the word. 1min time for each person until the words run out.

We started writing down words for our third game of ultimate Charades when a mysterious truck pulls up near our cabaña and we all freak! Our cabaña was literally tucked away in the middle of nowhere. Who could this be?! The truck pulls in front of us and backs in. Someone was standing up in the back of the truck and soon enough we realized it was TARZAN!!!!! NO WAY!! He came to pick us up and take us into el centro. We heard there may have been tambores, but didn't have a ride into the town and so were fine with just staying home. Then tarzan shows up. Apparently he is friends with Margarita and the town is so small that he knew where we were staying!
No tambores that night, but there were a ton of people on the dock area dancing to music.

Cabaña Añil...yeah not so much

Thanks to Jackie and Johan we were able to secure a posada for the busy independence day weekend in Choroni, however when we arrived it wasn't exactly what we had expected. First off, the taxi drivers couldn't even find the place and there is only one main road leading in and out of the city. It turns out it was tucked away very far from the beach even though online it said 5 minutes a la playa. One of the taxi drivers was really worried about us walking to the beach and our security in general, which freaked out some of the girls. The owner, Margarita, was really nice and I felt bad that some people in our group were expressing their disappointment in front of her. So I started a friendly converstation with her, scoping the place out. It had two matrimonial beds and then one twin bed. We had 7 people and the other two had to sleep on cots on the floor. Not an ideal situation, but it worked. I asked about being 5 minutes away from the beach and she answered yes in a car. Ay que chimbo! (that's what Eira said!) So she stretched the truth a little on that one, but it got worse. Our fully-equipped kitchen was actually outdoors and we had to start a fire as our 'stove'. Again not ideal. Well since we had already paid, there was really nothing we could do. Somehow the group cheered up and changed our negative attitude.
Margarita told us about some busetas that take us to the beach for only 2b's. We changed into our suits and then headed to the beach. Playa Grande! y fue muy bonita. No habia nadie en la playa y parece como nuestra playa privada!! But we did meet surfer dude that looked like Tarzan (that was our nickname for him). He offered to give us lessons and we said that we would tomorrow. It was only 50b's a person for 30min and he said that he wouldn't really be keeping track of time.
That night we made some pasta and played games! Jackie brought travel scattegories and then we played that game Auntie Julie taught me that's kind of like scattegories but you want the same answers as other people. They really liked the game! We also started a game of 'who would be most likey to..." and I got voted

Most likely to win Survivor
Most likely to be famous
Most likely to date somebody way older than me. hahah Thanks guys!!

Great news was that we had AC in our rooms and so slept really well. However, my twin bed had a tendency to fall apart! We tried watching a movie on someone's computer and there were 3 people sitting on my bed. Well one of us moved and then BOOM! all of us were on the floor!!! We thought we broke the bed, but the cardboard piece underneath just fell off its bracket. Fixable!

Choroni Beach Weekend

We left tonight on an overnight bus (13hrs!) to head to Choroni which is a city with very beautiful beaches! The buses here are so insane, because they keep them freezing cold. Everybody that i've talked to about the buses always complain about how cold they keep the bus, so why not just turn the AC down a tad? Oh yeah that's right... I've given up on trying to figure out why venezolanos do things the way they do.

TANGENT: remember how everybody uses straws here? Well, one of the venezolanos told me they do that because someone could have licked the can!! Seriously?! So you can pee in the streets, leave trash all over the sidewalks, never have toilet paper OR soap in public restrooms, but will use a straw because someone MAY have licked the can! what?!

Anyway, the overnight bus trip was okay. I couldn't ever get comfortable and was in a silly mood the whole time. Slept a little though!

Mariposa en mi cuarto

Tuesday mornings=yoga class! I love going to yoga with Eira because I always feel better afterwards. However, this morning when I woke up there was a monstrous butterfly in my room just chillin' on the window curtains. I didn't see it until I got up out of bed to turn off my alarm and it started fluttering around my head!! I screamed and ran into the kitchen where Eira was making breakfast and asked her to get rid of it. haha She was just as scared as I was, but we got it out the window. I guess they come out now because of the rain, but they are huge! Not like a regular butterfly....it's brown and the size of a small bat. I also have no idea how it entered in my room because the windows were closed!

CATATUMBO!

Finally we made this trip happen! Catatumbo is located en el estado Zulia which is near Lago Maracaibo. We took a jeep from Merida to Catatumbo stopping along the way at a coffee plantation and Laguna de Urao. Then we made it to Puerta Concha, which was a small little village situated on a port that lead out to Lake Maracaibo. All the fishermen were there and it did not smell good. Omar, our guide, came speeding around the corner in his boat and we piled in. The scenery also looked very similar to the Everglades and it was beautiful! We saw so many animals: monkeys, birds, caiman, lizards, freshwater dolphins and fish. Apparently Omar has 30/30 vision or something because he saw a green snake on a branch that was covered with green leaves while we were speeding by on the boat. IMPOSSIBLE...but not for Omar. We came out from the rio to Lago Maracaibo and then set ourselves up in our palafito. These houses are built on stilts above the water! and people sleep in hammocks!
The palafito was really cute. Maybe someday I wouldn't mind owning one and coming down every once in a while for some relaxation. It was so peaceful and quiet and right on the water. Later on we took a boat safari with Omar to look at the birds and take a little tour of the southern part of Lago Maracaibo. The sky was an amazing mixture of pinks, blues, grays, and oranges. It looked too good to be true! We came back from the safari, had dinner and then just watched the sky for a while. When can you ever take time to do that in life?

After dinner we took another boat safari out at night, but this time with a very big flashlight because we were going caiman huntin'! Their eyes glow red if you shine a bright enough light on them. We found a ton and tried to grab them but Ysaac couldn't catch them.

So the main reason tourists come here is because of the colorful lightning! It's unique to this part of Venezuela because the cold air from Merida y los Andes mixes with the hot air from el Mar Caribe and then something about methane produces the lightning. A natural phenomenon like no other! We stayed up watching the lightning before we fell asleep in our hammocks. In the middle of the night there was a huge storm that woke us all up. My first thought was: hmmmm little tin house over the water in combination with a very strong storm and lightning = NOT GOOD! But Omar said the houses never get struck by lightning. Maybe he was just saying that but it help me fall back asleep to the sounds of the storm. Our return trip to Merida included stopping at beautiful waterfalls on the side of the street and a national park of caves. However, the river was high and so we couldn't go very far in the caves. Fine with me.....I rediscovered that I really hate bats!

This was probably one of my favorite memories so far! I would love to come back and sleep in hammocks in the palafitos again. I'm telling you I want to own one of these someday!

Karaoke and Sangria night!

VENUSA held another karaoke night tonight and since I wasn't able to make it to the last one, Kelsey and I started the party off right by singing WHAM!'s Wake Me Up Before You Go Go. We kind of hogged the microphone tonight: I also sang Fanny Lu (by myself), Loba by Shakira, Te amo with eduardo....y mucho mas. Marissa and I stayed until they had to tell us to go home. We were having so much fun! Never been 'kicked' out of school before.

Travel Day

We were all pretty tired today due to lack of sleep the night before and my legs are sore today from dancing! So much fun last night! Today we had a really long layover in the Caracas airport which really is not that big to have such a long layover. But I started and finished Dear John while we were waiting. GREAT BOOK! Maybe when we get back to Merida they'll have the movie on the streets?

Last Day in Margarita!

Can't believe our trip went by so fast! Today is our final day of spring break in paradise. We lounged by the pool most of the day and I finished reading the Alchemist. Loved that book! Can't wait to get back home and read this summer! We of course did water aerobics in the pool again...gotta work off some of those chocolate croissants. Then tonight we went to Kammy Beach for a concert: it was Los Cadillac's and Caramelos de Cianuro. They played Por Ahora, which is my favorite reggaeton song. So I was dancing all over the place like a maniac. But apparently it was good enough that some venezolano started dancing with me, but when I told him I didn't really want to dance (yo quiero estar soltera, por ahora. lol) he was very confused and walked away mumbling that he thought I was venezuelan. How could I turn him down? hahah Well I did!
The concert ended at 3am and then we took the bus back which was provided by our hotel. We changed, packed up our stuff and then headed to the beach to watch the sunrise. Our flight left at 8am and we had to be on the road by 6am so we just didn't go to bed tonight. Okay we slept a little on the beach waiting for the sun to rise. Great ending to a fantastic trip!

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!