Big Post Comming...Stay Tuned

Hola Amigos! I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya, but I got a lot on my plate these days (Are there any "Onion" readers out there? Jim Anchower?) I have been really busy. Seriously. Full time work, being a rock star, traveling, parties, happy hours, diving...there just is not enough time in a day. Since my last post I have been diving several more times at Chichiriviche, got my PADI Advanced Scuba Diver Certification, started working on my PADI Rescue Diver Certification (course work is complete, I just have to finish the in-water training) went on several wreck dives in Puerto Cabello (road trip!), our band,The Blueberry Jam (I did not choose the name), played two more gigs (another happy hour and at the Marine House Halloween Party in front of a very lively crowd of about 400). I went to see R.E. M. and Travis at an outdoor music festival at Universidad Simon Bolivar (a beautiful campus nestled high in the mountains surrounded by pine trees full of parrots and macaws), hosted a dinner attended by the charge d' affairs, went scuba diving in Parque National Mochima (another road trip!), took the Foreign Service Exam, hung out at a rehearsal with some guys in a Venezuelan band that I met, started taking Spanish classes again, and got a new job (I am going to be the new Community Liaison Officer...yeah! no more fingerprinting).

But...the Angel Falls post is almost finished. To set the stage I am recycling something I put together for the embassy newsletter back when I was the editor. The following article is about the origin of the word "Canaima". Angel Falls is located in Parque National Canaima, so this will serve as a bit of background on the subject.

Canaima

To the Pemon Indians of the Gran Sabana, “Canaima” is the name of an evil spirit which lurks in wait for them in the dense forest. Canaima, the Indians say, takes many forms. He is a jaguar in the forest, or a spirit who passes through their huts at night. Every mishap that ends in cuts and bruises is laid at his door. Canaima is the poisonous snake in the underbrush, or the sharp branch that catches them in the eye. According to Venezuelan writer Jose Berti, the Pemon, "like most pre-Colombian tribes don't believe in a natural death; and in order to explain their eternal disappearance from this world, they have created a symbolic character, Canaima, who pursues them without rest and who in the end defeats and kills them. If an Indian suffers from pneumonia, they say that Canaima has blown on his chest, if he has a stomach ache, it is put down to the evil work of Canaima, so that Canaima, or Death, is his implacable and eternal enemy."

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