Venezuela #5

Simone and Rachel in Choroni, our hotel in Merida and the area around the hot springs







8/13/05
To all you special people out there...
Right now I am in Caracas, my last night here on this continent. I´m staying with Katie Lahey, who those of you from Santa Cruz might know. She´s got this great apartment with some other activists from all over the world right in the heart of down town Caracas. Right now the place is especially full because people from all over the world are staying there in order to attend the international youth conference. (In other news, the man next to me just blew his nose into his hand, wiped it on his pants and continued typing). But, as I was saying...it´s cool to be surrounded by so much politically conscious youth all of a sudden. I´ve gotten to hear a bit about the conference, people are into it, but aparently it´s a lot of rhetoric and many participants are hungry for more talk of what actually can be done.
At any rate, Caracas is crazy. It´s HUGE for one thing, and we´re right down town. To get to this email spot we wound our way through crowds of people, past empanada and hot dog stands, streetside fruit vendors, blaring horns, sirens and huge drops of water falling out of the sky. Quite a change from peaceful mountain Merida and the beautiful tropical beach from where I just came.
Before leaving Merida I spent my days going to school, being with friends, and went to a beautiful hot springs one morning. The hot springs was definately a high light. I didn´t have time to go to the really really nice ones, so I went to some closer to town. However, I did manage to avoid going to the main area which is more like a swimming pool than an actual hot springs complete with blaring american music and lots of beer. Instead, I walked through these people´s little farm, under fruit trees, past a very skinny cow, eating wild berries very reminiscent of strawberries. Eventually there it was...a beautiful little stream of hot hot water trickling right out of the side of the mountain, surrounded by green fuzzy moss hair. Slightly further down the stream, a little pool had been built up, perfect for laying in, lounging. I LOVE HOT WATER. And, here I have definately missed it. I think I´ve been lucky enough to have about 3 hot showers since I got here, but I still had been feeling the absence one of those super relaxing showers or baths. But, here I got my fix, surrounded by jungle, with a little view of the mountains peaking out through the trees. Perfect.
Thursday night, my cousin Simone and our friend from language school, Rachel and I all got on a bus to Maracai en route the beach. It was a bus cama, meaning, the seats lay back pretty flat and you can kind of sleep better than you might on a regular bus. The man next to me seemed to agree with this statement, his rhythmic snoring only interuppted ocassionaly by one of my sharp elbows. Not too hard, just enough to stimulate a pause.
We got to Maracai early in the morning, slightly confused and got off the bus to collect our bags. Standing around wondering where to catch the bus to our next stop, Choroni, I started chatting with some taxi drivers about it. They soon informed me that we were not in Maracai, but Valencia, my snoring buddy had been wrong when I asked him on the bus. Luckily the bus was still there, and mishap averted.
In Maracai, we got oursleves on the right bus and rode another two hours on the tiniest mountain curve road ever. It might be barely big enough to consider a one lane road in the states, but here the bus drivers seem to consider it equivalent to any other main highway and zoom around blind curves and hair pin turns blaring their horns. Passing people is especially exciting. We got to the sleepy town of Santa Clara at about 11 Friday morning. Lucky for us, it was the one day a year when they celebrate their patron saint. We quickly found a room in these people´s house right off the main square where we made ourselves comfortable in the ridiculous heat and prepared to spend the day at the beach. The beach was gorgeous, just like you would expect a Carribean beach to be, coco palms, warm water, white sand. Lots and lots of people, beautiful Venezuelan butts hanging out of thong bikinis, speedos, beer. Plopped in the shade of a coco palm we spent the day relaxing and doing nothing.
Night time at the beach is more exciting. The local people (and tourists of course) gather in the main square and play drums and dance. All day people had been asking me if I knew how to dance tambores (drums). I replied yes, of course, and had been planning to dance all day. Unfortnuately I discovered that dancing tambores means you are in the center of a huge crowd of people all watching while you freak dance a guy until another guy comes and pushes either the guy or you and the guy out of the circle and starts dancing. Not my idea of dancing to drums, so I just kind of hung back and watched which was exciting enough.
I also made friends with an older Argentinian man selling rings. We ended up engaging in one of the most intense philosophical conversations I´ve had in a long time (who would have thought I could do it in Spanish!). We debated whether having an open mind was more important than having an open heart... I won´t tell you either of our opinions, good dinner conversation for those of you so inclined.
At any rate, tomorrow I go to the airport at five in the morning. I´ll be back in the states tomorrow, four weeks older than when I left, more able to speak spanish, and excited to talk to as many of you as I possibly can in a week.
Lots of Love, Liz