The view from our living room.
The back of the building. Notice how many levels there are before the "first" floor.
This is the Dining Room/Breakfast Area
The Living Room
With the windows open it turns into a balcony
The Kitchen
Today will be a somewhat shorter post. We have not been on any spectacular trips this week, but we are trying to keep our social calendar lively. We went to a wine tasting on Saturday night attended by about 100 embassy employees. It was in a beautiful setting, at an apartment building near the embassy, with an incredible view of the city and the Avila. The tables were set on a covered patio with a large lawn. It was quite nice. The wine was good, but I could never, and still can't, distinguish one wine from another. It is just as well, since I am blissfully happy drinking inexpensive wine. I was reminded of just how privileged we are to be sipping fine wine, looking out over the lights of the city from the lawn of a luxury apartment, while many of the homes we are looking out over are one room brick shacks with tin roofs. Also this weekend, we were invited to an advance showing of a movie at a “VIP” theater. The movie was “10,000 B.C.” an update of the old Raquel Welsh film, “One Million Years B.C. “(this was set about 990,000 years later). It has not yet been released, so we got to see it first. It was made by the director of “Independence Day” and “The Day after Tomorrow”. It was pretty good, not great. It was fun, with lots of action. The theater had about 50 seats, all of which were like leather upholstered Lazyboy recliners. Very nice. Especially since it was free. They even gave us popcorn and soft drinks!The other big news is that our “cedulas” arrived as did out first shipment of stuff, Called UAB (Unaccompanied Air Baggage). A cedula is an identity card issued by the host government to diplomats. In the U.S. these are called “carnets”. The real significance of having a cedula is that we can open a bank account here and begin participating in the “permuta” (the complex bond/currency buy-sell thing) and we can get refunds of the VAT on our purchases which represents about a ten per cent discount. Now that a small fraction of our things are here life is a little easier. I have a guitar and my coffee press. Honestly, I don't know what we were thinking when we packed some of the things in our UAB, like four boxes of Quaker Oats. We have kitchen towels, but no knives. A portable DVD player, but no DVD's. A Jam Box but no CD's. Some things make sense like the i-Pod docking station, the computer accessories, plates and silverware. Oh, and the spices, they were a good idea. We are told that the rest of our things (called HHE for HouseHold Effects) are in the country but are awaiting clearance from customs. Things can take a while here. Apparently our car is here too because we were instructed to get liability insurance ASAP.
We hired a maid, Yaneth, and she starts tomorrow and will work two days a week for us. It costs about $10.00 per day. We are thinking of having her come three days a week. It will still cost less than our maid charged in Houston to come for a half day per week.
Last thing: here are some web sites to keep up with what is going on in Venezuela. These are Blogs and news outlets. This is for those who want to get more in-depth information about the situation here. I am providing links for both the pro-Chavez and the anti-Chavez because I would like to keep it balanced (I suspect that the truth often lies somewhere in between) and because everything and everyone in this country is divided into Chavista or Opposition. Use the “language tools” in Google to translate (or any other on-line translation program). Just highlight the text, copy it, paste it into the translator and click “translate”. Here is the Google Translator.
Blogs:
Pro Chavez: Cowboy in Caracas
Anti-Chavez: The Devil's Excrement
News:
Pro Chavez: Ultimas Noticias
Anti-Chavez: El Universial
UPDATE: Late Breaking News!! I now have internet service, which means the “Gringo Phone” is working!!!!! More posts!! More Photos!!! Yippee!!!
Over the long weekend (President's Day) we traveled with a group of Embassy employees to visit Choroni, a small colonial town on the Caribbean coast of Venezuela a few hours west of Caracas. We left about 7:30 am from the Embassy parking lot on a mini-bus that seated about 18 passengers and headed first through the tangled maze that is Caracas and then into the country side of the adjoining state of Aragua (pronounced like the letter “r” and “agua” Spanish for water). Caracas traffic, even at 7:30 am on a Saturday morning is insane. We started by climbing a steep hill to the top of the hill above the Embassy. Then, we headed down the narrow streets, clinging to the hillside, while smaller cars, motorcycles and scooters weaved in and out, until we got to the valley behind our neighborhood. We then got on the freeway and fought our way through traffic until we were out of the city. Even once we were outside the city there was still heavy traffic. Venezuelan drivers approach driving competitively, and they all act as though they are the only driver on the road and everyone will yield to them. They do not stop at stop signs or at traffic lights. You just make sure the coast is clear and run the light or sign. And by “make sure the coast is clear” I mean that you can clear the intersection without being hit. Barely. Most of the time there is so much traffic that the intersection is grid locked and you just push your way through the intersection. You dive right up to the car crossing in front of you and play chicken until one car yields and lets the other slip through. While you are doing this, motorcycles and scooters are zipping around you in every direction without even slowing down. Out on the highway, the “Mario Andretti” in everyone comes out. The cars all jockey for position on the highway, weaving, passing, drafting and at times, driving offensively to prevent others from getting into a better position. Big 18 wheel tricks are lumbering along like obstacles to be avoided in this video game. Don't get me wrong, the trucks drive aggressively , but the cars are much more nimble. The trucks just speed along as the cars dodge in and out. There are not many motorcycles in the rural areas between towns, since the vast majority of motorcycles are small 250cc bikes or scooters useful for city driving only.
From Caracas we headed, first, south of the city and then west through the Central Aragua Valley. As we headed into the mountains south of the city, the vegetation changed from the tropical variety in Caracas into pine forests at the higher elevations. As we came down on the southern slope, the landscape became more arid. Although Aragusomewhat mountainous, it is the northern fringe of the arid llanos (plains) of Central Venezuela. As we traveled west through Aragua, we passed sugar cane fields and banana plantations, a large rum distillery and some light industrial areas. Poverty seems more abundant in the country side. Gone completely were the expensive high rise apartments of Caracas, replaced by the shanty towns (called “Ranchos”) that cling to the hillsides. In areas where it was flat, the shanty towns took on the appearance of scores of tin shacks arranged in rows like the stalls of a vast and very dilapidated flea market.
Maracay, the capital of Aragua, is the military center of Venezuela. It not a very impressive town. It is flat, dusty and industrial. Judging from the graffiti, it is also strongly pro-Chavez. “Por Ahora” is the new catch phrase of the Chavistas. It means “for now” and is a reference to the recent constitutional referendum that Chavez lost. Back in the 1990's when Chavez led a failed coup against the government (before he was elected president) he declared that his coup had failed “for now.” Of course, several years later he was elected president. Now, having failed in his bid to gain the ability to become president for life and to consolidate all power in his hands, his followers are declaring that the setback is “por ahora”.
In Maracay we headed north into Henri Pittier National Park. Unfortunately, on this trip we really did not get to see much off the park, we only drove through it. It was enough, however to completely stir my desire to return to explore the park much more extensively. We headed into the rugged mountains up a very narrow and winding road that, at times felt like it was literally glued onto the side of the steep mountains. As we climbed higher and higher, the vegetation changed into tropical jungle, a cloud forest, so called because it is so high it is in the clouds. In this area, the clouds are almost constant as a result of the warm wet air from the Caribbean Sea being forced up on over the mountains into the cool air at the high elevations. You can actually see the clouds form ass the air moves up and spills over the mountain top to the other side. The jungle here is full of Bamboo, in addition to the native trees including ferns, palms, vines and cocoa (more about that later). We came down the northern slope into a valley that follows the Choroni River and through a number of illegal settlements in the jungle. As we got closer to the coast more and more of the settlements appeared until it seemed like every 300 meters there was a small stand that sold beer and Pepsi. Finally we got to the colonial town of Choroni with its narrow streets and pastel buildings built in the colonial style typical of the Caribbean in the 1600's and 1700's. The town of Choroni was set back from the sea about one km to protect against pirate raids. Set back in the jungle, the pirates could not bring their large cannons to bear on the town and would have to row ashore and march through the jungle to attack, leaving themselves vulnerable to the towns defenses. The port (Puerto Columbia) is really just a beach, a sandy spot in the very rocky, treacherous coast.
About a half km east of Puerto Columbia is Playa Grande, another beach, one that is very popular on the weekends. It was packed when we went there. They rent tents for 20 Bs.F. which is about $4-10 (depending on the exchange rate) and people sleep in the tents in the grove of coconut palms that buffers the beach from the jungle. It was a nice beach, with big waves. Ice cold beers went for 3 Bs.F. Which is less than a dollar. Ice cream, on the other hand was about 10 Bs.F. The terrain in this area is fascinating. At the coast, the vegetation is arid, almost desert. Tall cactus and plants that resemble agave dominate the rocky landscape. Less than 100 meters back from the beach, however, the vegetation becomes more lush and tropical and within a kilometer you are in the jungle. We would sit at the beach in the sun, watching a dark clouds enveloped the mountains on either side. Behind us there was a light shower late in the afternoon, but overhead on the beach there was never even a cloud.
After our Saturday afternoon at Playa Grande, we ate a fantastic dinner at a restaurant called “Bambu”. We dined on Ceviche, Tuna Croquettes, (atun) Octopus, (pulpo) and Mahi-mahi (dorado). For desert we were treated to Cocoa Punch, a mildly alcoholic beverage made from the cocoa bean. We stayed at a Posada called Pio Poco which must be Spanish for “there is no water”. Each night the water went out. In the morning the toilet would not flush, and there was no shower, or even water to wash your face. Breakfast the next morning was over 1.5 hours late, which, when compounded by operating on Venezuelan time, meant that we did not even get out for our second day's adventures until about 11:00 am.
Our group of about 14 headed out in a launch with an outboard motor, through the rugged sea, braving swells that were at least 6-7 feet, along the rocky coast for about 2-3 km east to a beach and town called Playa Chuao (pronounced “choo-ou”). This area was wonderful, and not at all crowded since it can only be accessed by boat. All of the cars, trucks and motorcycles were brought by the same type of launch we rode in on. About 10 km up the valley from the beach (playa), in the center
of a large cocoa plantation is the town of Chuao, where the descendants of the African slaves brought to work the cocoa plantation in the 1700's now operate a collective that produces some of the best cocoa in the world. The cocoa beans grow on short trees that require constant shade. The fruit is huge, about the size of a football, and is full of beans about the size of pecans that are coated with the slimy meat of the fruit. The meat, although very slimy, has a very tangy, citrus taste. The beans are dried, roasted and then ground into a bitter powder which when mixed with sugar, butter or cream and other ingredients, becomes the beloved chocolate. The roasted beans taste like bitter chocolate. We bought some of the unprocessed cocoa to try our hand at making chocolate. I'll let you know how it turns out.
From there it was back to the beach where we rented some chairs and umbrellas in front of a little shack that was a bar and restaurant. Normally I would be wary of such a small establishment out of concern that I would acquire yet another nasty gastrointestinal malady, but our guide assured us that this restaurant served very fresh fish. Indeed, when the proprietor brought the fish out for our inspection it was quite fresh, not surprising given that the sea was 30 meters away. Our guide was right, the fish was delicious. We lunched on snapper rolled in salt and deep fried, fried plantains, rice and a delicious carrot slaw. The beers were ice cold, cheap (less that a dollar each) and plentiful. The sea was clear, about 80 degrees f and there were only small waves. The breeze was very pleasant, although the temperature was about 90 degrees f. After a wonderful afternoon at the beach, we went back on the harrowing trip by boat to the relative hustle and bustle of Puerto Columbia and Choroni.
We ate diner at our Posada, which was so-so. Had I not had two truly excellent dining experiences in a row I probably would have been more satisfied with Pio Pico. But after the two great meals, this one was...well, lame. After diner we alternated between a drink made from lime juice, sugar and the local Everclear (pure alcohol made from sugar cane, which one of the Venezuelans in our group told us is what homeless people drink) and strong Venezuelan coffee and talked about politics. One of the cool things about this life is that the people you meet are truly experts in foreign cultures, history and politics. These guys were actually in Panama during Noriega's rule, and in Nicaragua in the 80's when the Contras were fighting the Sandanistas. They know from first hand experience about events that I only read about. Suffice to say it was fascinating conversation.
On Monday, we returned to Playa Grande, which was like a different place without the crowds, and spent to morning relaxing at the beach. We left at 1:00 pm, made a brief stop in the jungle, and headed back to Caracas.
One final note about our trip. In Venezuela they eat “arepas” like Americans eat bread, or Mexicans eat tortillas. In fact, arepas are like a cross between corn bread and a tortilla. It is a round corn meal loaf, shaped like a flattened hamburger bun which can be stuffed with a wide variety of foods from ham, to eggs to cheese to pickled octopus. They are like stuffed sandwiches. And delicious. I had arepas every day on the trip and I am a convert. I had ham and cheese arepas, scrambled egg arepas, arepas with fried eggs, with fresh cheese, and the aforementioned “pulpo”. Yum. Arepas are something that should be introduced to the U.S.
The travel agent just called. We are working on putting together a trip to either Aruba or to Auyan Tepui in March. Personally, I would prefer Auyan Tepui. I'll let you know how it goes.
So far my life in Venezuela consists primarily of sitting in front of our large sliding window in the living/dining room, facing out and surfing the internet with the computer in my lap (that's why they are called laptops!). That is the only spot in the house with semi-reliable wireless connectivity (thank you “Arias Family” whoever you may be). I feel a little like Jimmy Stewart in the classic Alfred Hitchcock film “Rear Window” (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047396/). In “Rear Window” Jimmy Stewart plays a wheelchair bound photographer who sits and looks out a window in his New York apartment building for weeks and he thinks he witnesses a murder in another building. Well, there certainly is nothing that exciting here, but I do spend most of my time sitting in front of the window watching as Caracas goes about its business. We were informed that a Venezuelan couple in a different apartment building in which there is embassy housing was recently robbed at gun point in the parking garage, so who knows, perhaps I will witness a robbery. Frankly, the crime situation has me a little bummed out. Everyone keeps telling us that we must be super careful, not to carry a bag or backpack while walking to the embassy, that we could be robbed day or night while walking on the street, keep all the doors locked all the time, don't go outside a few selected areas of the city and on and on....Without a car and with the spectre of crime constantly hanging over our heads, there is little to do other than sit at home. We have been out a few times, thanks to the kindness of others for rides, but I still feel cooped up. I went to the mall about 100 yards from our apartment, that is a 1.5 km walk or drive (it is down a steep hill through which there is no trail and the road loops around) for groceries and a bathing suit. I have also walked to the embassy several times, but after dark we don't get out much. My command of Spanish is the other factor that severely limits my ability to interact with society. While I can communicate at a basic to intermediate level, carefully formulating questions in my head before asking them, I am always unprepared for the torrent of Spanish words that come in response. I will say “how much is this swim suit?” in Spanish and the answer will be “yadda dadda dad dayada dydayd dydyd, pero, yadad dada dayda yada proque dadyda dadada. Entiende?” Hell no I don't entiendo, but I usuallly smile, nod and act like I understood. I think that approach could be causing some problems. For example for two weeks I have been trying to get bottled water delivered to our apartment. Don't worry, we have water delivered by the embassy, but I need to get a service set up because the embassy water is temporary. I have spoken to the building manager about this three times and as near as I can tell she has assured me each time that water will be delivered next Tuesday between 8:00 and 9:00 am. But it never happens. When I ask her about it she says “dios mio” and assures me that it will come next Tuesday. I think. She could just as likely be telling me that she is the manager of the damn building not the water delivery service and to call them my own damn self and schedule the delivery for next Tuesday like everyone else in the building and to quit bothering her about the water. Another example: Supercable, the internet and cable TV provider, just called. They called just about everyday last week to try to sell me internet and cable TV. I think. Each time I told them we would secure internet and cable through the embassy. We were finally able to set that up and are awaiting installation. When they just called, not understanding what the young lady on the phone was saying, I informed her that we already had Supercable, internet too. I even gave her the contract number. She had a puzzled tone in her voice as she asked my name and then thanked me. It dawned on me after I hung up that she might have been calling to set up the installation and I just assured her that we already had cable and internet. I don't even know if I screwed up or not. In a country with already notoriously slow and inept service, I just injected an element of confusion that did not previously exist.
Mary has been working on the NIV line (Non Immigrant Visas) doing as many as 100 interviews, in Spanish, per day. For the most part these are people seeking tourist (B-2) visas or business (B-1) visas but she has been seeing a number of professional baseball players, including some major leaguers. Unfortunately, the celebrity of baseball players and sports figures in general is lost on her. She came home the other day and asked if Detroit and Atlanta had baseball teams. I told her they did and asked why and she said that two of the ball players she interviewed played for those teams. She was interviewing major league baseball players and did not even realize it. She just made sure they really were employed by a baseball team (they get a lot of minor leaguers as well) and were legit. The NIV line is pretty tough, mentally exhausting work. The line of people is relentless, they get very few breaks and everyone desperately wants a visa, most of them professing a desire to go to Disneyworld. She has about two minutes with each one to make the decision to issue a visa to the US or not.
Tomorrow we are going on a group trip to Parque National Henri Pittier, (http://www.parkswatch.org/parkprofiles/slide-shows/hpnp/hpnp01_eng.pdf) which is in an area much like Caracas, only unspoiled (o.k., less spoiled). It is a high range of mountain cloud forest (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_forest) that rises about 8000 ft from the Carribbean Sea. It boasts one of the largest concentrations of birds in the world, and we are likely to see all sorts of parrots (loros), macaws, and other exotic tropical birds as well as tree sloths and monkeys. The coast has some beautiful white sand Carribean beaches and the area is known for its cacao, which is the base ingredient in chocolate. I have heard that there is a wonderful chocolate maker that is on our itinerary.
Our apartment is right down the street from the U.S. Embassy, about 20 minutes away on foot. Walking to the Embassy is slightly strenuous since it is uphill most of the way, but the hill is not terribly steep and the midway point, the redomo, has a fantastic view which acts as a sort of reward for making it that far and encouragement to continue on (the last third is downhill anyway). Our apartment building is about 7 stories tall, from the front, which is deceptive because it is built into the side of a steep hill.
Our kitchen is long and narrow and the most remarkable feature is that the refrigerator is at one end of the kitchen and the freezer is at the other (yes, they are separate). We do not have a dishwasher or disposal (bummer), but hopefully we will be able to get a housekeeper to handle those chores. Right now I am the housekeeper. We have a laundry room that adjoins the maids quarters, which could also serve as a somewhat spartan spare bedroom. There are three formal bedrooms, the master, and two others, one of which has an attached bathroom. The master bedroom has a large walk-in closet with built in cabinets and shelves and a large master bath that features two sinks, separate shower and bathtub, and a bidet (which I am still trying to figure out how to use.) The den is really just a very wide hallway which opens into our huge covered patio. I paced off the patio and it is at least 1200 ft. of covered space with marble floor. There is also a garden, which is really just a patch of grass, where the dogs do their business. The patio is ideal for the dogs because it is very secure, much more secure than our yard in Houston. It is covered so the dogs don't get rained on, and is cool because of the marble. We could also throw a fantastic party on the patio, hell there is room for a live band and dance floor!
The furniture is straight out of the Ethan Allen catalog, which suits us just fine. In fact the dining room furniture looks just like ours from Houston. The bed in the master bedroom is a queen and is pretty comfortable, which is good because as soon as our king size bed gets here, the queen is going into the guest bedroom for all of you that are intrepid enough to come and visit. There are marble floors throughout the whole apartment, except in the bedrooms which feature a fake hard wood floor (it looks pretty good though). All of the walls are concrete, which will make hanging things, like pictures, a challenge. I did see a nice impact drill at the local version of the Home Depot (called Epa) that I might have to acquire.
As for shopping, so far we have been to a very upscale supermarket (think Central Market, only smaller, and without sugar, milk and eggs) a small farmer's market, a small fish market, a big farmer's market and, as mentioned above, a hardware store. Mary went out to a near by small town called El Hatillo and shopped for cool knick-knacks...er...folk art. Many things cost either the same or less than they do in the States, but some things cost much more. A little explanation is necessary here about prices. Through a completely legal process of trading bonds for currency (that I don't yet fully understand) we are able to get local currency at a very favorable exchange rate. The official rate is 2.1 Bolivares Fuertes (Bs.F.) to the US Dollar. However we are able to get Bs.F. At about 5.16 to the Dollar. Even with the good exchange rate, most things cost about the same as they would in the US. For those who cannot take advantage of the exchange rate (like people who are paid in Bs.F.) things cost about twice as much as in the US. Even with the good exchange rate, Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup costs about three times as much here as in the States (no soup for you!!!). On the other hand, two fresh salmon steaks and two tuna steaks from the fish vendor cost about $8 total. Vegetables are very inexpensive, meat is a little pricey and sugar and milk are not to be found. You can get sugar in things, like cookies or chocolate bars (which are really cheap and really good!) but there is no granulated sugar to be found in the store. We found some eggs at the Vegetable stand and from the looks of them they were taken from the hen house that morning. It was about $5 for 24 eggs. But there are no eggs at the major grocery stores. Go figure.
Our neighborhood is surprisingly quiet during the day, I would have expected more city noise. At night is is relatively quiet, but there is always a raucous party going on somewhere with live music and cheering crowds. One night it sounded like a stadium full of people were singing “Happy Birthday” to someone. The day I typed the “big” blog post there was a huge event going on at the mall that featured a live Carribean Jazz band (but it was Carnival after all!). All of the other buildings in the area, or at least on our street have armed guards at the heavily fortified gates which is a constant reminder of the out of control crime problem in Caracas. At the school up the street, drivers (like chauffeurs) line up to pick up the kids as teachers with radios call ahead the name of the kid for the next driver in line, all under the watchful eye of armed guards. The guard at the Hardware store was carrying the biggest gun I have ever seen. I think it was actually a shotgun pistol. It was about two feet long, and he had shotgun shells in holders on his belt. When the guard (they're called “vigilantes”) caught me staring at his gun he put is hand on it, which made me quickly look away. Oh, and he looked to be about sixteen years old.
So, to recap...nice apartment, good building, outdoor living. High prices, good exchange rate, but food shortages. Nice neighborhood, loud parties, armed guards.
This sign indicates that, for some reason, they don't allow "wiener" dogs here.
I have applied for two jobs at the Embassy...fingers crossed...
Going Away I got to Houston on Friday January 29 and Mary got in about 10:00 pm that night. We stayed at the Mabry's (James & Marion) who were wonderful, wonderful hosts. We were well fed and well cared for the entire time we were there. The breakfast of fried eggs in toast with heart shaped holes was just one of the highlights. Marion is an over-the-top good cook. The Mabry's also hosted a party for us and many of our beloved Houston friends were there. Jim & Margaret, Carrie & Jerry, Mark & Maureen, Rusty & Linda, Jamie from Dallas, Becky and Taylor, Linda & Gary and, of course, James & Marion, made it a wonderful party. Marion arranged for some of our favorite foods to be served (Good Co. BBQ and Jalapeño cheese bread, chips and salsa from Papasitos, Ceviche, and, of course, cold Shiner Bock beer. A special note to Rose Mabry: Thanks so much for letting us have your auxiliary bedroom!
We miss Houston, and all of our wonderful friends so much! I was great to see y'all!!
Caracas
So we got to the airport in Houston for the trip to Caracas with a heaping helping of help from James and Marion. Mary and I drove first with Daisey and Lola to drop them off at the animal shipping office. James and Marion followed with our luggage. As a side note, the dogs almost did not make it because the crates were too small. Thank god it was a one way trip and it was the middle of the night when UDSA inspectors are not around. Thank goodness the folks at Continental were cool about the dogs and the crates. I was stressed to the max!
Upon arrival to Caracas we were met by Mary's sponsor, Danielle and Alejandro from the GSO office who walked us through Immigration and Customs. Continental Airlines misplaced one of our bags (how did they get three out of four there but loose the fourth bag?!?) That was a little stressful. We had to pay a little extra to “bail out” the dogs (welcome to Venezuela) but it was not too much (un poco mordita). The drive in to Caracas was wild. We headed up from the Carri bean Sea, through the Avila (the mountains between the sea and Caracas). As we got into Caracas during rush hour we got a taste of Caracas traffic. Forget all my complaining about traffic in DC or the New Jersey Turnpike. Caracas takes the cake. Traffic crawls along while motorcycles and scooters zip in and out. I made a video. These guys are nuts!!!
Our Apartment is nice, we have a great view, but not a spectacular view, and the dogs are loving life. Here is the view from our window:
That is great. Here is the view from another apartment (Danielle's).
That view is spectacular. Our Apartment is close to the Embassy, I have walked home on several occasions, and the other day we walked the dogs up to the Redomo (Traffic Circle) near the Embassy. Here is the view from the Redomo (that is the traffic circle about .5 km from our apartment):
That is also spectacular. Caracas is like a cross between Maimi and Los Angeles. It has the climate of LA: warm, but not hot during the day and chilly at night, although I think it rains here a lot more than in LA. Culturally it is very Carribean/Latino (duh, right?). The part of town we are living in is very American. They have malls (McDonalds is at the mall) supermarkets and nice restaurants. All of the buildings have gates with security guards (aka vigilantes). It is pretty quiet for such a large city, a lot quieter than our street in Washington D.C. One of the nicest things is that our living room converts into a giant balcony. I am sitting basically outdoors right now, listening to Carribean Jazz from a party in the plaza on the next street over from our apartment (about 200 feet below us) watching as small brightly colored birds swirl around and watching as a rain storm drenches the mountain across from us (it is sunny here).
My next update will concentrate on Caracas and our apartment.
Ciao!!!
The packers came and packed and moved everything in our apartment on January 9, 2007. They got our car on January 10 and I left D.C. for good on the 11th. The pack out was not nearly as bad as the move from Houston, but it was a hassle nevertheless. Of course it was preceded by a full week of shopping for things like jeans, shoes, pants, dog food, and the staples we are bringing to Venezuela like flour, sugar, cooking oil, rice, boxed and powdered milk, toilet paper, Pop-Tarts, Pringles, Fudge Sticks and flavored Oatmeal. Finding bedding for twin beds proved to be particularly daunting and required multiple trips to Target, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Tuesday Morning, and, finally Target again where we found suitable bedding for twin beds. (Gracias a Dio!)
As noted above, we shipped a car to Venezuela. Specifically we shipped the BMW, the one that says “rob me I am rich”. I'll keep y'all posted on how that goes.
The Waltz Across Texas
So, I flew out of D.C. with two huge suit cases, and two severely over weight carry ons and arrived Houston arriving at 9:00pm. I got the car we rented (an orange Chevrolet thing that looks like a PT cruiser, which was actually a score because we rented an “economy” model, but, since they were out of “economy” cars we got a mid size). 
I then drove to Austin where I picked up Mary at the Austin airport at midnight (you are wondering why she did not fly with me to Houston? It has something to do with government rates for airplane flights but I never was really clear on that, I was just following instructions). We spent the night at Mary's parent's house, and left the next morning at 8:00 for Big Bend. Along the way we stopped in Ozona, TX (www.ozona.com) which is where Mary's Grandmother and Grandfather met and lived for a while. Mary's Grandmother was the first Kindergarten teacher there. Here are some nice pictures of Ozona. We have a bunch of letters from Mary's Grandfather to her Grandmother written on letterhead from the hotel in the pictures.
We continued on to Marathon (way out in the middle of nowhere) and we were supposed to stay there but I got talked into going to Marfa which is about 1.5 hours away. When we got to Marfa we met up with Mary's Sisters (Joan & Amy) and their men folks (David & Alex) 
and it was decided that we would drive on to a little place called Chinati Hot Springs (www.chinatihotsprings.com) near the Mexican border. I did not get a vote. I should also mention I had a cold and was not feeling well. So, on we went to the hot springs. To get there we had to drive about 60 miles, the last 30 of which were on a dirt “road” (as Steve would say “this looks like a good place to build a road”) that winded down a mountain side, around hair pin turns, over huge rocks an through treacherous gullies. The orange Chevy thing I was driving has the clearance of a regular car and more than once I thought I might have taken out the oil pan. It was a scenic but harrowing drive. David (Joan's Man) had to take a leak. Here is a photo:
Also, we saw an old ice cream truck out in the desert:
We got to the springs at dark. The “springs” are hot water that smells a little like an egg-fart, piped into bath tubs in little out houses. The place was run by some hippies that looked perpetually dusty.
We left the next day for Big Bend (http://www.nps.gov/bibe/) (this began my third consecutive day of traveling). We drove over the dirt road again, only in a different direction, to a ghost town called Ruidosa (not to be confused with the New Mexican resort town of the same or similar name). The only thing in Ruidosa was a general store. Mary and her sisters (the boys and girls were in separate cars) stopped there to buy beer, one case, 24 beers, and the proprietor tried to charge them $48.00. He justified the high price by pointing out that he had to drive over 80 miles with the beer (Dude, I feel your pain, I have made that trip!) and kept the beer cold. Now I am certain that we were the only people that passed through that “town” that day. To get there you have to travel by dirt road through some of the most rugged terrain in Texas. It is not like he had a line out the door to buy beer. So Mary told him to keep on keeping he beer cold and we got beer at a supermarket down the (paved) road in Presidio for a more reasonable price.
The drive from Chinati Hot Springs to Big Bend was long (about 4.5 hours, exacerbated by stops along the way) but beautiful. It took us through the little known Big Bend Ranch State Park which is next to Big Bend National Park. 
Of course, once you get to Big Bend, you still have about 60 miles of driving. We left the springs at about noon and arrived at Big Bend at exactly 6:37. The best part of the trip was when Amy heard about a restaurant called Kathy's Kosmic Kowgirl Kafe and declared that she absolutely had to eat there. It was a BBQ joint! (for those of you that don't know, Amy is a militant vegetarian. Doh!!!)
The next day, mercifully, was spent hiking in the Chisos mountains.
I did the South Rim Trail (12.5 miles) by myself because everyone else were wimps. They (everyone but me) did the 9 mile Emory Peak Trail. I took some photos along the way with the aid of the “Gorilla-pod” that Mary got for me. It is like a tripod but has bendable legs that can grab onto things. Here are cool pictures from my hike:
The next day we were back to driving again. We left the Chisos Mountains Basin and drove to the extreme Eastern end of the park, to go to some more hot springs. I decided to do another solo hike, this one a 3.5 mile jaunt through the desert along the Rio Grande. We then drove back past Panther
Junction, to the extreme West side of the park at Terlingua. From there we headed north through some stunningly beautiful country to Alpine, then west to Marfa (www.marfatx.com) (again!) where we stayed at the Hotel Paisano (www.hotelpaisano.com), which, for you trivia buffs, is where Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean stayed while filming “Giant” nearby. It is a cool older hotel, but Marfa is, in my humble opinion, overrated. It is a blend of small west Texas town with Santa Fe. The end result left me flat. DQ and overpriced art. Groups of people that look like they belong at a New York gallery opening alongside West Texas ranchers. By no matter what you do to Marfa, no matter how much lipstick you put on that pig, it is still a dusty West Texas town acting cool. Frankly, it would be a lot cooler without the artsy posers.
After spending the night in Marfa we left the next morning Mary and I headed for the ranch, while Joan and David headed for Midland/Odessa to catch a flight back to Portland OR and Amy and Alex headed for Arizona. The drive to the ranch was at times very scenic. We went through the heart of the Davis Mountains, past Ft. Davis, and on up to San Angelo. Along the way we stopped in a little town called McCamey TX to eat. It turns out that Mary's Grandfather worked in McCamey for a while and operated a feed store there back in the 1930's. Finally at about 9:000 pm we arrived at the ranch. We were up bright and early the next day and headed to Austin.
In Austin we attended to affairs, moved things around and generally got things in order for our move. two days of hard labor in Austin, I headed to Arlington to visit Paul & Lori and Avery and Ansley. I have to say, Avery and Ansley are the two cutest girls I have ever seen. I had a wonderful visit with Paul & Lori. They fed me very well (thank you Lori!!!) and I had a great time playing with Avery in her Barbi Palace and at the park:
A special thanks to Avery for letting Uncle Mike have her room.
From Arlington it was on over to Dallas to visit Mom & Dad at their new Condo at Turtle Creek (it is nice!) We had a nice, mellow visit and it was time to head on down to Austin to get the dogs, take them to the vet, get them certified by the USDA for the trip to Venezuela and get them and me on down to Houston.
It has been a while since my last update. I apologize. I have a lot of excuses: (1) we were having all kinds of issues with the Internet (not working, working slow, not having Internet, leeching off other people's Internet (thanks “Gavin”, “Arias Family”, “Cascats” and others for letting me bum your bandwidth)) (2) we were really, really, really busy (3) we were moving (4) we were out of town, and at times, out of cell phone range and, well, honestly sometimes I (5) just did not feel like updating. But now I am going to make up for all of the lost time with a comprehensive update. Frankly, the last two months have been a blur. We have traveled, moved, traveled more, moved more and left the country. So, here is what we have been up to.Christmas in Killington, Vermont
We decided to head up to New England for a little skiing instead of staying in our little 400 sq. ft. apartment over the X-mass holidays. We had been to Killington (www.killington.com) before and we were familiar with the Birchridge Inn (http://www.birchridge.com/about.html) so we decided to go with what we know. We left about 4:00 am from D.C. and we encountered no traffic at all on the trip up to Vermont. Although we paid what seemed like about $100 in tolls along the way the trip was otherwise unremarkable. It was a really nice drive. When we got there the snow was good and most of the mountain was open. The first day was foggy and it rained (yes rain) but the snow was in good shape. The second day the temperature dropped and it was very icy. The third day was the best of all, although still cloudy. We left the day after X-mass thinking there would be no traffic since it was the middle of the week and there was no traffic on the way up. We were wrong. On the way home, we ran into the traffic jam from hell. Everything was fine until we got about 20 miles south of New York City in New Jersey and then I saw tail lights. I was on the phone with Paul for part of this, he can verify that it was causing me a lot of stress. From northern New Jersey to Baltimore, Maryland about all we saw were tail lights. We were in a traffic jam, stop and go, the entire length of New Jersey, through Delaware (near Philadelphia), and all through Maryland until Baltimore where the traffic suddenly and mysteriously... vanished. It was like everyone on the road was going to Baltimore. When we left Vermont we anticipated arriving in D.C. at about 6:00 pm. Instead, we pulled into our parking garage at about 10:30 pm. I saw things along the way that made me shudder, like a line almost a half mile long for a gas station on the New Jersey Turnpike. It was good to finally be back to the little shoe box we called home, but the big move loomed on the horizon.
New Years Eve at the Kennedy Center
As the title of this section implies we spent New Years Eve at the Kennedy Center (www.kennedycenter.org). The place is huge. There is a symphony hall, opera house, and theater all under one roof. All three were in full swing on New Years Eve. We saw a symphony and then there was a huge party for about 10,000 people in the Grand Foyer. The symphony was just the price of admission. The real attraction was the party. Here is a picture:
We (Mary and I) took the Metro home and we were starving, so we tried to go to the Wendy's but only the drive through was open. We tried to walk to the drive through but they said it was only for cars so we walked home, got the car, drove around the block to the Wendy's across the street, got burgers and fries, drove the rest of the way around the block, went home and ate. In hindsight it seems like a lot of work for a burger and it really made me miss the semi annual breakfast the Mabry's threw on New Years in Houston for all of us hungry revelers. The party was quite fun and I am glad we got to see the Kennedy Center.
Antietam
On the way back from Hagerstown MD, where I went to check on our worldly possessions, I stopped at Antietam Battlefield. You can read all about it here: http://www.nps.gov/anti/ and here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Antietam
In the picture below, our worldly possessions are in the row of boxes along the wall at the left. Sorry about the poor quality of the photo, but I was not supposed to be taking pictures and I snuck this one when the guy was not looking.
