Venezuela #4

Pictures from our trip to Los Nevados and the ride on the teleferico

8/9/05
Hello loved ones,
It´s been a while since I´ve written. Life sped up a bit and I haven´t had as much time. So, I´ll try to update you all on my adventures since the last time I wrote...
I´ve been continuing with my spanish classes. I´ve learned all the grammer there is to know, it´s just a matter of practice now, especially that pesky subjunctive. But, I´ve also made some close friends here with local people who I can only speak spanish with. That´s been nice on many levels. On one hand it´s like having a personal guide for free, on another its constant spanish lessons, but most importantly it´s just plain fun. I really love the people I´ve met here. They´re very open minded, and love to enjoy life to its fullest. During the day we hang out in the park, at night we go out and dance salsa (I´m still learning, but I have some patient teachers). The other benefit to having local friends is that I don´t get hit on as much. While it is moderately amusing sometimes to walk down the streets to men yelling things like Hey Flacka (hey slim! would be the translation) or Hola princessa, it also gets really old after a while. However, just when I think I can´t stand it any more, some guy will yell something so outrageous that all I can do is laugh, shrug my shoulders, and remember, that´s the culture here.
Other adventures I have had....I had my first South American acupuncture experience. Actually I went three times. There´s a lady who works as a part time dentist part time acupuncturist here who I heard about from a friend at the spanish school. She´s pretty good. My favorite experience was when I was being treated at the same time as another Venezuelan woman and the other woman had brought a meditation tape to listen to while we relaxed with the needles in us during the treatment. So, I got to hear the cheesy wave crashing sound of a meditation tape over which a man was telling me in spanish to relax more deeply with each breath and imagine myself in a meadow feeling the sunshine on my skin. And, truth be told, I felt very relaxed at the end of it all. In other esoteric Liz news, today I am going to go to a woman who reads tarot cards with a couple of teachers from the school. I´m excited to do it. The woman was recommended to one of the teachers at the school by the same acupuncturist I just mentioned.
But, I hope you are all still with me, because I haven´t yet told you of my journey to the mountains. Truly fantastic. As they say here, Lo Maximo! Simone, me and a friend from here in town, Coco, all rode the teleferico (similar to a long ski lift, but enclosed and with benches to sit on) way up the mountain. The view was absolutely gorgeous, town giving way to tiny farms, to jungle, to arid mountain coldness and rocks and shrubs. One plant that must be in the same family as mullin was the most common. We harvested some and made a delicious tea. When we got to the fourth stop of the teleferico, we got out, and proceeded to walk five and a half hours through some of the most beautiful mountains I have ever seen in my life to the tiny tiny miniscule town of Los Nevados. I wish I could explain to you all the beauty that exists in those peaks. Jagged rocks, bushes, beautiful bubbling streams pouring out of every hillside. At one stream I decided I had to go swimming (even though it was cold up there). So, in my trusty chacos I splashed up the stream until I came to the most beautiful secluded mountain pool I could ever have dreamed of. THere I proceed to dunk myself into the freezing cold snow melt, I could barely breath, but I swear in that moment all my troubles (as if I really had any to begin with) just got washed right away. Then I just stood there in the middle of that pool, goose bumps, sun shining breathing that clean crisp air and with mountains towering and water rushing. Wow.
Eventually we came to a small bodega, where a woman was sitting, writing in a notebook. SHe had soft drinks, crackers and such to sell and chatted it up with Coco. One of Coco´s favorite tricks up in the mountains is to get nice and friendly with the people who live there, and then he proceeds to take off his hat, out fall is dreadlocks, he proclaims ¨soy un hippie!¨ and all the people can do is laugh. One person even thought his hair was a wig. Through Coco´s conversation we learned that this woman at the bodega, probably in her 50´s could do the same walk that we did in five and a half hours in two and a half, and what she was doing in that notebook was learning to write. It´s never too late.
After we walked about another hour, we finally came to the town of Los Nevados. We found a little posada to call home for the night on the outskirts of town called posada el descanso which Coco managed to secure for us for the amazingly cheap price of 11,000 bolivares each for the night which also included three meals. That´s about $4, maybe a little less. The posada was basically just two extra rooms in these people´s house, which was actually quite nice. I bvecame acquainted with the chickens that wandered in and out of the kitchen, the baby pigs that lived just out side the back door, the runny nosed children who all had colds, and the grandmother of them all who so caringly prepared us a salad of tomatoes, cilantro and onions to eat with our arepas, a bread like thing they make here, these ones made with homegrown wheat.
Los Nevados only got electricity 10 years ago, the only cars are the ones that drive tourists up and down the mountain, they don´t have television, there´s only one phone for the whole town (and no cell reception) and i¨m not sure, but I suspect that there might be more mules than people. At the very least, the mule is the local equivalent of a motorcylce. Not that people there really need them, we rented mules to return to the teleferico (too tired to make the journey on foot) and the owner of the mules walked (very quickly keep in mind, those mules can move) along side the mules while we rode without seeming to break a sweat. I was very impressed. Meanwhile, I was struggling to just maintain myself in my saddle while my trusty steed scaled mountains with me on its back.
But, I have to run...I´ve got an appointment with a tarot card reader after all...
I love you all.
I return to the states on Sunday, I would love to talk with you all, hear your voices before I leave again.
And, for those of you who made it reading this far, congradulations.
Liz