Venezuela and Curacao

Patria, socialismo democrático y vida....'patriotism, socialism or die'. This is the tag line for one of the first notable billboards I saw on the drive to Caracas from the airport. This advertising effort for socialism is all over the country. Before planning to visit Venezuela, I did not know the degree to which the country was struggling to be socialist and that it affected everything from government monopoly of natural commodities (i.e. oil) to everyday things like buying eggs at the supermarket.

As a tourist, I was affected most by the currency exchange. There is something called the parallel or 'black' market where American dollars are exchanged at a higher rate than the government issued rate because foreign money is not easy to come by. So, for example, if I was to take bolivares out of an ATM, I would receive 2100 bolivares for every dollar. On the black market I could receive 3500 bolivares for every dollar. To bring that to life...if I had dinner and it cost 50,000 bolivares, with the government issued rate it would cost approx $25 vs. $16 with the black market rate. Venezuela was a very cost efficient trip especially on the black market :)

My friend Leo, who is Columbian but lives in Venezuela with his wife Marcia were kind enough to put us up in their apartment the nights we stayed in Caracas. The first night we stayed in Caracas for about 7 hours since Alyson (friend from AMEX) and I had a flight to Merida at the crack of dawn the following day. The first day was spent acclimating to the altitude and eating lots of delicious foods. Cachapas, which is grounded corn batter filled with jamon y queso or however you like it, was delicious. I also had fabulous fish on the trip, Merida is especially known for their trout. Yum. In addition, we checked out a heladeria (ice cream parlor) that had around 200 ice cream flavors including salmon, pepsi cola and calamari to name a few.

Most of the trip centered around outdoor activities and enjoying the beautiful, lush Andes. On the second day in Merida we went canyoning - which is repelling down a rope through a waterfall and treading through streams, rivers and jumping into small bodies of water. In wetsuits and helmets, we tackled three waterfalls, one of which was so powerful that it was impossible to keep balance. I was so disoriented from the impact of the water coming down that by the time I got to the bottom all I could say was 'gracias' several times to the guide that helped me unharness my safety rope...first for helping me, but second because I made it through ok! The remainder of the canyoning trip was fun and exciting until I hurt my ankle. There were three rocks that we were to slide down slowly. I made it through the first couple fine but the last one I slipped off of and landed on my right ankle. I had it wrapped in gauze and was told not to put too much pressure on it. This took place right before the big daddy waterfall and hike back down to the van that was take us back into the city. It was a very exciting first day, to say the least!

In the days to follow we did more outdoor activities like bike riding. We began our bike ride 56km from Merida, mostly downhill and a little bit of off-road biking. The grand finale was to bike up a hill that would never end. We must have been going vertical (think Andes mountain steep) for a good 15km. Keep in mind this is after a long day of biking and enjoying the small cities we passed through. Sheesh, I was completely out of shape and nearly passed out from dehydration. Quite an opposite experience was the teleforico (tram) -- the longest one in the world which is located in Merida, that we went on the day after. It was a low energy day on our way to the top of a snow capped mountain. It was sort of cool because as you got closer to the top the vegetation changed dramatically from large, lush trees to cactus like plants. The one day we did do separate activities, I went horseback riding through the Andes and had a wonderful picnic at the top of a mountain peak with a crazy Frenchman guide, Jackie, and an Austrian law student while Alyson went paragliding.

Another hobby we took part in was shoe shopping. The Venezuelans are crazy about shoes. There were so many shoe shops we must have visited over 20 stores in Merida alone. There was every kind of shoe color, shape and style - it was fun!

On our last evening we decided to try a street food vendor across from our hotel. Boy, was that a bad idea for me. I had major stomach pains on the flight back to Caracas. When we arrived I spent half the day trying to get better, the other half shopping :)

The following day Alyson and I traveled to my 30th country....Curacao which is part of the ABC Islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao). What better way to spend my 30th country but on a beach....sleeping and reading! It was such a treat after all of the activities we had done in Venezuela - to do nothing. Though my favorite moment in Curacao was a day I decided to swim out to a platform about a quarter of a mile from the beach. It was built as a part of our hotel but apparently the bridge that connected land with the platform had collapsed. There was no way to get up on this platform since it stood about 3 feet above the water. Someone who must have tried getting up had tied some wire to the base of the platform but it was pretty hard to maneuver while swimming to stay afloat. Just as I was about to give up there were these three Dutch kids that swam out to try as well. We all tried to get up there for a good long while and we were about to give up when these three Italian guys swam over like a swat team. They re-engineered the wire and they made it up and helped us get up as well. The view was amazing (there were two stories on the platform) and it felt good to accomplish something, even on a relaxing part of the trip.

If I had to pick three themes for this trip, I'd say it was physically challenging, culturally enlightening and motivating for future plans and aspirations. On that note, this is the end of my 30x30 journey, but not my travels. Thank you to those who provided fabulous suggestions for places I visited- they will be forever memorable. Also, thanks for the rockin company steph, kevin, cat, amy, malik, alyson, leo and marcia!!!