The Great Blog Update, Part III

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!!!