New York

June 21, 2008

New York, what a town!

We haven’t even been here a week and I’m already exhausted. It is so cool to be able to get whatever you want whenever you want it; milk, ice cream, root beer, good beer, chicken wings, bagels, the list just goes on and on.

I’ll start at the beginning. We arrived on Sunday night around seven. We had sent a $350 deposit to a woman in midtown so that we could stay at her place. I found her on Craig’s list. It looked and sounded great. Anyway, we cabbed it from JFK, arriving at the apartment on 34th street around eight. We were all tired and hungry.

It is a two bedroom place on the eleventh floor. The first thing I notice is how badly the carpet needs to be replaced. A good cleaning would be a start, but what it really yearns for is to be torn up and thrown in the dumpster. As we walk in, I start to notice all the stuff piled everywhere. The woman shows us to the master bedroom, all the while explaining her life story and how it is she comes to be sleeping in her living room and renting her rooms out to perfect strangers. It is a sad tale, although in the end I could care less; I just want somewhere to put down my bags. There is a private bath in the master bedroom, but there is nowhere to put anything down and all of the drawers have been taped shut as they too are full to bursting. The only window is covered with a thick black curtain and blocked off with a giant mirror on top of a dresser. Carrie starts to cry.

In the meantime, our host is telling me that I still owe her $500. She will take it in cash and she will take it now. I suggest that perhaps she could wait until tomorrow when it is light out and the banks are actually open; she says no. So off we go into the dark Manhattan night to find a cash machine on a corner somewhere and withdraw $500. She did agree to move us across the hall to the spare room where the window is not blocked and we have nice view of the East River, the drawers are empty, and there is room to set down our bags. We slept well that night, waking early and inviting the little dog in to play; he promptly peed on our bed. Things can only get better after that.

We have had great visits with old friends and relatives, although my former employer refused to allow me into the school. We shopped and ate and rode the subway and replaced the glasses that Zman lost in the Gran Sabana. We even had a date last night while the little man stayed at his uncle’s house. Today we rent a car and head off upstate for fun and adventure camping style.

I’ll keep you posted.

MJR

Gran Sabana

June 16, 2008

I am such a procrastinator! I can’t believe that the last time I sat down to write one of these things was over three weeks ago. Well, a lot has happened since then. I’ll try to remember the details.

School ended on the 29th. We had Field Day and the usual end of school excitement for everyone. The next day Carrie, Zachary, Sonya, and I left for Barinas. We made it about half way (3.5 hours) before we slept for the night. Saturday we arrived at the base camp of Arassari Trek; the company we were scheduled to go rafting with.

We had an awesome lunch and then headed down a short stretch of river in the afternoon. Sunday we got up early and did a longer stretch of beautiful river while Zman hung out with one of our friends. Unfortunately, he had gotten sick during the night so when we got off the river we felt compelled to rush home.

Tuesday we loaded the car and took off for the Gran Sabana. This is a National Park in the South Eastern corner of Venezuela (bordering Brazil). It took twenty-seven hours of driving over three days to arrive. We passed through several cool towns and some not so much. It was well worth the trip.

First, we visited a Brazilian border town and did some shopping. Then we blazed 75 kilometers (about fifty miles) down a four wheel drive road full of rocks and washed out bridges to a town called El Pauji. Here we pitched a tent and hired a guide to take us to El Abismo.

Our guide, Rafael, turned out to be fourteen years old. This meant we had to take our car to the start of the trail. Our car has four wheel drive, but very low clearance. It is supposed to be an S.U.V. In reality, it’s designed to help one get through sticky spots on the way to the grocery store. Needless to say we didn’t drive all the way to the trail head. Rafael was rather annoyed.

Our forty-five minute hike took us to the top of a Tepuy. From there we got some awesome views of the Amazon. Miles and miles of nothing but trees, stretching as far as the eye could see. It was amazing. We sat and gazed and marveled and wowed. We pondered the idea that we had now been to the Sahara Desert and the Amazon Rain Forest. Finally, reluctantly, we hiked back down to our car.

Our driving over the next few days brought us to several spectacular waterfalls as well as a river made of Jasper. We visited native villages, bought some crafts and dodged potholes.

Eventually we found ourselves on another four wheel drive track. This one started out great, but after 32 kilometers it turned to sand, mud, and giant puddles. This continued for twelve kilometers until we reached the village of Ibirobiró; population 160.

The drive left me haggard, but the village was incredible. Lying right on the banks of a large river, there was no electricity and no other tourists. We pitched a tent and fought off the noseeums. A night and subsequent morning of rain stressed me out as I knew it would do nothing to improve the quality of the road. Around midday, however, we joined a small tour group for a trip to Salto Aponwao.

We journeyed down stream by motor boat for about half an hour. A short hike then brought us to the top of 100 meter (~300 feet) tall Aponwao Falls. Wow! We hiked a steep trail to the bottom then followed the river into some trees. At this point it started to rain hard. We forded three rather large streams and walked through a thick stand of trees to arrive at Pozo Escondido (Hidden Pool). Upon our arrival, it stopped raining. We all put on our swimming suits and dove in for a swim in the pool and a shower in the falls. The rain stayed away for the rest of the day.

We camped again that night and drove back up that crazy road the next day. I hit a few large holes as well as some seriously thick sand, but the car did great. We hit the pavement and took off for Ciudad Bolivar.

Ciudad Bolivar is a beautiful city on the banks of the Orinoco River. It is clean and well maintained. There are several universities and museums. The Historical District is well kept and the people are extremely friendly. We pampered ourselves in a gorgeous posada in the heart of the Historic District. We walked around the next day; checking out El Centro and the waterfront. We didn’t have time to get to the expansive Botanical Gardens, but we are determined to return.

Around noon we clambered back into the car and headed for home. We knew it would take between eight and ten hours so we were prepared for a long day. Fortunately there was little traffic so we could maintain good speed as we journeyed. I did notice that she was running kind of loud, but I ignored the noise and moved along. We stopped in El Sombrero to search out dinner but decided that it was a disgustingly dirty place and we would never eat food from there. We thought it would be better to drive for another hour or so to San Juan de los Morros.

After thirty or forty minutes, the strange noise stopped. It was replaced by crunching sounds every time the wheel turned. We were in the middle of nowhere, but managed to find a driveway to pull into. We turned her off just as the sun disappeared behind the horizon. We were at least two hours from home, broken down in the middle of nowhere. We have been there before so we knew what to do; we pulled out our chairs, grabbed the flashlight, and dug up a few cold beers before we started making phone calls to get some help.

We were assured by our friend from the school that the insurance company was sending a tow truck for us. This truck would tow us all the way back to Valencia (over 100 miles). We settled in and waited. After three hours, the police showed up. This was somewhat frightening as one never knows what the police want when they stop to talk. He spoke very quickly; I was forced to call our friend so that she could interpret for me. Apparently, we were in a very dangerous place and the policeman wanted us to move our car back to his station right now. I politely declined as I did not want the car to break down in the lane of travel. This was understandable to him, but then he insisted that we accompany him and leave the car. I definitely didn’t want to leave the car alone out there so I suggested that he wait with us until the tow truck showed up. He said he was not about to wait there as it was far too dangerous a place to hang out in (and he had a gun!).

Now I was sort of nervous. He gave me his phone number, climbed back in the truck, and headed off. Ten anxious minutes later he came back with the tow truck. He told me several times how the tow truck had missed us and he had stopped it and directed him here. I felt compelled to give him 50 Bs (~$25) for his trouble. At 10:30 pm we climbed into the flat bed tow truck to go home. Zachary was excited as he had never ridden in one before.

During the three hour drive we had incredible conversations with the driver (all in Spanish) about politics and life in Venezuela. He is not happy with Chavez. While he has built schools and clinics throughout the country, they have been staffed with people who are perhaps not fully qualified to practice their craft. Doctors here only need two years of technical education to be considered qualified. By lowering standards, Chavez has increased the number of people in any given field, thus creating the appearance that he is solving the problem. The problem is further exacerbated by the continued importation of goods. This has created a shortage of blue collar jobs and driven unemployment rates up. His family, it turns out, is from Colombia. Another issue arises in the form of infrastructure; many projects have been started under the current administration, but nine years later they are no further along than when they began. He told us that he felt that While Venezuela is a rich country, the people are poor; whereas Colombia is a poor country, but the people are very rich.

We arrived home after 1. We dropped the car at the school and fell into bed. Fortunately, our mechanic speaks English fluently. He got hold of the car and informed me that we had bent several suspension parts and destroyed a wheel bearing. Total cost of repairs: 2,200 Bs (~$1,100). OUCH! I guess we shouldn’t have gone four wheeling…but then again we had a great time and we almost made it home. In the end I guess it all worked out. We left the car with the mechanic and headed off for New York City.

But that’s a whole different story.

MJR

Birthday, Anniversary, Almost the End

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Only four work days left!

We’ve had good times since returning from the islands. We have celebrated an anniversary and a birthday, planned our summer a little more, and thought about the future a bit.

Our tenth anniversary happened on May 14. We got a baby sitter and went out for drinks and dinner all by ourselves! We had cocktails at a place called Palau. The tables there are covered with butcher paper and they give you crayons so we spent some time reminiscing about where we have come from and thinking about where we are going. We still don’t have any answers, but it was fun to think about.

After that we went to a Sushi restaurant. It was almost as if we had left Valencia for the evening. First of all, the place was empty at 7:30. The waiter had a big smile and greeted us warmly. He was attentive and gave us a big time for our anniversary, even treating us to a dessert. We had a really good just the two of us.

A week later was my fortieth birthday. One of my mothers brought in a cake and juice and all my kids sang Happy Birthday. They gave me more chocolate than I could possibly eat in this lifetime as well as posters and cards. It was fun.

The following Saturday we went out for a parilla (barbeque) at a local private park. There was a piñata filled with treats for young and old as well as good food, good booze, and many people wishing me a happy fortieth. It was a lot of fun.

School ends on Thursday. Then we are off to go rafting, travel through the Gran Sabana, camp in New York, and visit old friends in Seattle. We are excited and a little anxious to get out of the country for awhile.
MJR