Colombia and the final chapter - Este no es la despedida, sino un hasta luego

Colombia was incredible, beautiful, amazing, spectacular! Two other English assistants and I, another Kelly and Lauren, met in Maracaibo, a Venezuelan city four hours from the border. We were told that we could get a direct bus all the way to Cartagena in Colombia, however this proved impossible so we piled into a beat up old carrito with our crazy driver Orlando and some beers! We arrived in the “lawless” town of Maicao just across the border at about 6 pm having had our passports stamped numerous times and no FARC to speak of. We managed to change some money at a poor rate and find a minibus that said it would take us direct to Cartagena in six hours. Direct was a lie because we had to change buses underneath a dodgy overpass in the middle of the night and six hours was also a lie as it took more like nine, with one hour spent driving round Cartagena at four in the morning because he couldn’t find our hostel, until he realised it was in the old walled quarter that he was unable to drive into anyway! We finally got settled and sat looking out over a gorgeous leafy plaza opposite our hotel, surrounded by stunning colonial buildings; the journey had been quite an adventure, but far more exciting than sitting in an air conditioned bus with a DVD!

The next day we went to explore the city. I can honestly say that I think it is close to Paris in being one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen; I was in love. The old walled part of the city was just breath taking; beautifully preserved colonial architecture everywhere you looked, tiny cobbled streets, wooden structured balconies overflowing with pink bougainvillea and most importantly other tourists! It was a bit of a culture shock for us coming from Venezuela, surrounded by police and National Guard who genuinely wanted to help us as oppose to extract money from us, other Europeans actually there on holiday, not to mention the cocaine literally being openly sold on street corners! There were restaurants and bars, markets set up for Easter and shops, lots of shops! Most dangerous of all I could use my English cards out there, God bless student loans. We all spent the first day feeling a bit overwhelmed and just repeating “My God it’s actually like a proper country!” It was amazing to think that just eight hours East there lay a completely different world. We celebrated by having a lovely meal and a bottle of wine in a traditional little Spanish restaurant.

They next day we went to the El Lodo de Totumo Volcano just outside the city. Legend has it that a priest, convinced that the volcano was possessed by the devil, sprinkled holy water over the it every day for years and now it only contains only mud and not boiling hot lava so you can actually go and bathe in the crater. It was a really bizarre experience; the mud was really warm and thick and although it was hundreds of meters deep you could just sit cross legged in it without using any effort. We wallowed hippo like for a good forty minutes. (see photo of me wallowing!)Afterwards you wash off in a lagoon nearby where we were accosted by some local ladies who are there to “help” you wash – without further ado they stripped us of our bikinis, bucketed water over our heads, cleaned our ears out and then demanded money for such a violation! That evening we bumped into some other English travellers and all ended up dancing the night away until seven in the morning! Unfortunately my camera was stolen, however, although I was really disappointed I didn’t lose too many photos and, in Colombia it could have been much worse.

We moved to another hostel, which we have renamed “The Best Hostel In The World.” (a.k.a Media Luna Art Hostel.) A converted old colonial building that was still under construction so we were able to negotiate a really good rate. The people we had met were also staying there. It had a small pool, it’s own bar, roof terrace with inbuilt speakers and the most incredible views of Cartagena all for a ridiculously cheap price. We were some of the first people to stay there and so we christened it with an amazing pool party after watching the sunset at Café Del Mar, a great little joint that sits on the city wall and plays chill out music while serving great cocktails. (Photo of the three ladies in the pool)
We then spent a night on Playa Blanca, a beach near Cartagena with crystal clear turquoise waters, palm trees, pure white sand and cold beers…we felt like we were on a movie set it was that beautiful. We ate fantastic fresh fish for dinner, chilled out by a fire at night while a local man played us guitar, brought some Caribbean pearls for about £5 and then rocked to sleep in a hammock listening to the waves. Life doesn’t get much better than that. (Photo of me in paradise!)Unfortunately we nearly died on the boat trip back to Cartagena; our voyage in the “Death Machine” without a life jacket was probably one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. Other Kelly really hurt her back and we thought we’d have to take her to hospital, thankfully after a night’s sleep she felt a bit better.

THE MEDIA LUNA CREW :)

On Wednesday we moved on to Santa Marta, but it was with very heavy hearts that we left Cartagena and we wished we had more time as I could have stayed there forever! We spent the next three nights in Taganga over Easter weekend. Taganga is a popular fishing village with backpackers located 15 minutes from Santa Marta in a sheltered bay. We managed to get an apartment room with a gorgeous view right on the beach for about £25 a night between the three of us. We had a lovely relaxing few days which was just what we needed after the partying in Cartagena; lots more tasty seafood, incredible juices for breakfast and sunbathing all day long. (Photo of the sunset in Taganga seen from the balcony of our apartment!)

On our last night we headed back to stay in Santa Marta. From there we visited Quinta de San Pedro Alejandro, the house where Simon Bolívar died. It was beautiful, with stunning gardens, an art museum and a huge monument in his honour. That evening we had our final coffee in Juan Valdez Café (Colombian version of Starbucks but far better), final beer on the beach and final Colombian bed time. (Photo of me in the gardens at La Quinta de San Pedro, walking in the Liberator's footsteps...)

On Easter Sunday we got up at six and started the long journey back to Maicao, across the border and back into Venezuela. I arrived home in Coro on Sunday night after travelling in six different vehicles from the minibus along the tank guarded frontier road in Colombia, to the bus from Maracaibo that brought me home.

After such an amazing trip it was difficult to be back in Coro, although there was something comforting about the familiarity of Venezuelan soil. My return wasn’t made any easier by the fact that the university still hadn’t paid me for February or March. Before I went to Colombia the situation was already getting desperate despite calls from the British Council and a formal letter from me. On Tuesday I received a call telling me that I will definitely be paid for the two outstanding months by Thursday but that is the last I will receive because the university has run out of money so they can no longer afford a British Council assistant, so I should make plans to go home! None of the other teachers here have been paid since January either but obviously for me it is more serious as I depend entirely on that money to survive here and so they said it would be irresponsible to continue my contract when they could not guarantee I would ever be paid. I had some very mixed emotions– shocked that this has all finished so suddenly when I was expecting to be here for another three months, sad that I have to say my goodbyes but also relieved that finally this uncertainty is over and I know what I am doing and don’t have to keep fighting everyday for my money and of course I am very excited about seeing good old England again, not to mention my gorgeous boyfriend, amazing family and beautiful friends!

So it is the end of another chapter…I have absolutely no regrets. I have had an amazing, challenging, life changing, eye-opening experience and met some wonderful people who will be my friends forever. I have been lucky enough to travel all over Venezuela, something that if the current political situation persists might not be possible for much longer. I have seen some of the most beautiful places in the world and the shocking contrast of awful poverty, corruption and civil unrest that lies beneath it. Most importantly I have learnt to appreciate so many things that I used to take for granted back in the UK and I have a huge amount of respect for the exiled Cuban family I live with here and thousands of others who can’t just come home like me. I will never forget this seven months, it’s been quite a journey and I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing it with you all.

I’m back to England on Wednesday so I’ll see you all soon.

Gracias a mis queridos amigos de Falcon, saben quienes son, están aqui siempre en mi corazón y nunca los van a olvidar. Este no es la despedida, sino un hasta luego!

An unexpected visit and working for free!

I was on the phone to Mum one Sunday and we were moaning about the fact that it wasn't going to be possible for us to meet in Aruba (which is only half an hour from me) because the deals from the UK were ridiculously expensive. Half joking I asked if she had looked at flights to Caracas...exactly a week later there I was in Caracas airport waiting for my Mum to arrive! I don't think either of us could believe it, especially as we thought we wouldn't be seeing each other until June or July. She managed to find some cheap flights, got all her jabs and there she was in Venezuela. Although we hadn't seen each other for six months it was as though we had never been apart. I went to meet her in Caracas as it isn't really the sort of place you want your white, non-Spanish speaking mother turning up in on her own!

We had an incredible ten days together. I was so lucky to see her and it was lovely to show her around Coro and for her to meet my family here. I had to act as interpreter but they all seemed to get on really well. We walked around the old colonial quarter in Coro, took some fun pictures in Los Médanos (see below), had a few cocktails and relaxed by the pool at the hotel. We even spent a long weekend in Mérida so Mum could see the Andes. On the overnight bus there we were stopped a few times by the National Guard who came on to the bus, machine guns and all, to check IDs. Quite a nerve-wracking experience as here in Venezuela there is always a 50-50 chance they will try to blackmail tourists. Luckily my Spanish and our good looks got us by!

Mérida was beautiful as always. We stayed in a cosy little posada with a terrace that had a view of the mountains. There was a gorgeous little restaurant next door which served fantastic food and red wine (which I have had only once since I've been out here so Mum and I had to make up for lost time!)

It was difficult to say goodbye but Mum had a wonderful time, even though it was a bit of a culture shock and now I know that whenever I talk about Venezuela in the future she will really understand what it is like here. Most important of all she brought me out Cadbury's chocolate and magazines!

More grumbles now I'm afraid...I still haven't been paid since January, hence I haven been practically working for the last two months for free! I definitely remember applying for a job with the British Council and not a volunteering post. Having been to the Department of Inter-institutional Relations every day for the past two weeks and receiving only laughable excuses such as "the roof fell in on to the box your cheque was in" or "they wrote you a cheque for January then realised we've already paid you for January so then they had to rewrite it" (which apparently takes two months!) So I decided that I was tired of hearing "come back tomorrow" especially as I have to pay my rent next week and won't be able to afford it. So I wrote a formal letter saying that if I am not paid for at least February by the end of the week then I will have to return to England as I won't be able to pay rent and then I would be a homeless volunteer! I also informed the British Council who put a call in to the university here. On hearing from them I suddenly mattered to them and a meeting was arranged. I dared myself to hope but alas, in the meeting I was informed that the department had done everything humanly possible but that it is out of their hands. I managed to get them to lend me enough to cover my rent for the next month. However, still no cheque.

On the plus side I am off to Colombia next week for just under two weeks with two other English assistants here in Venezuela. Thankfully I will be able to withdraw money from my UK accounts over there. If they still haven't paid me for February and March by the time I return in mid-April then it looks as though I'll be seeing you all a lot sooner than I thought!

Politics update - Chávez is centralising government and has sent troops into food companies and taken over ports and airports. The opposition are accusing him of Communism. Rice, sugar and coffee were being rationed in supermarkets last week.

I'll blog again when I'm back from Colombia and everyone keep your fingers crossed that I get paid soon!

Since my last blog my little black cloud of self pity has passed! I decided that, instead of continuing to “immerse myself in the language” I would go and see some Brits! I have been on three weekend mini breaks in as many weekends and worked out that I have travelled almost 2000 miles! I spent a long weekend in Merida where another language assistant lives. It was exactly what I needed; the fresh Andean air really helped to clear my head. We spent a lovely relaxed evening cooking spag bol, drinking red wine and eating chocolate whilst watching trashy TV…an average Friday night in for many of you I’m sure but I hadn’t been able to do something like that in so long (due to lack of TV, wine and decent chocolate in Coro) so it was perfect. The next day we went to a beauty queen contest: The Feria del Sol takes place every year in the bull ring in Merida, there were thousands of young people and even three nuns supporting! Live music and great dancing made it a really enjoyable evening. Afterwards we went for some Mojitos in a cosy little bar which felt just like Bath! Feeling really refreshed I headed back to Coro.

The following week I only taught three classes due to a number of quite frankly ridiculous reasons but I didn’t have time to get frustrated because on Thursday night I got the six hour bus to Maracay where I was meeting some other English assistants to go to Puerto Colombia, a gorgeous Caribbean beach. We were quite an international crowd; English, French and Germans, twelve in total. We had a lovely weekend and it was good to catch up with some of the assistants from Caracas who I hadn’t seen since October. One day we paid a fishing boat to take us half an hour to another more secluded beach called Chuao. Sea food and cocktails for lunch on the beach with some really unusual music playing – a mixture of salsa, French rap and the Cure, and a hippy Italian who didn’t seem to know where he was born! As it was referendum weekend it was “Ley Seca” which means that it is illegal to sell alcohol from Friday until Monday…but we still managed to find a little corner shop behind a collapsed gate that was selling beers discreetly…although slightly less discreet when we all rumbled up! (Photo is Playa Grande in Puerto Colombia.)

The referendum, an amendment to the constitution allowing the President and other elected officials to be indefinitely re elected, was won by Chávez and the “Sí” vote with 54%. Hence in 2010 he can now stand for President again and as he has emphasised he hopes to stay until 2021! Although once again the voting itself on Sunday the 15th was free and democratic one can’t help but think that all of the political rallying and pressure from the Chavistas in the streets and the huge amount of state money poured into the “Sí” campaign, as well as denying new student voters to register had something to do with his success.

I only returned to Coro for a few days before I was back on the road with my bags. I travelled 12 hours all along the coast to a town in the East called Cumaná where two other assistants live. We then caught the ferry across to Margarita Island where we spent Carnaval weekend. We saw some of the parades and the costumes were fantastic, we drank cocktails on the beach and partied all night long in a bar called Senor Frog (!) in which a barman with a Spiderman mask jumped on us and poured Sangria down our throats…it all went downhill from there! Sometime in the early hours we had to make a quick exit because about 30 armed National Guard had arrived as apparently Chavez had decreed that no alcohol be sold after midnight all through Carnaval –party pooper! I then stayed a night in their house in Cumaná and we went out for some dinner and drinks in the Marina so I really felt like I was on holiday. (Photo is of me and another Kelly on Margarita Island.)
Back in Coro now. I have finally been paid for January, now that it is almost March. I taught my second French class which went really well and so many people came that there wasn’t enough room in the classroom. Unfortunately I have been informed that the new semester on the main campus will now not be starting until after Easter so I have a month of only teaching French and possibly one other class a week. Not really the fifteen hours of English teaching I signed up for. Nevertheless I am busying myself planning a few weeks travelling the Northeast coast of Colombia over Easter and probably some more weekend trips!

A Day in the Life...

I realise that despite all my blogging since my arrival here in Venezuela I haven’t really acquainted you with what life is like from day to day; the routine. I have told you about my travels, the teaching and the politics but I don’t think I have really explained what it is like to actually live here. In my previous blogs I have recounted all of the exciting adventures and humorous, anecdotal tales…after all we never share the “boring bits” do we? However I thought it might interest some to learn some of the more trivial mundane details; although it might seem that I am constantly adventuring, travelling and dancing it’s not always the perfect palm tree postcard you may have in your heads…

During the honeymoon period of the first few months I had to keep pinching myself to really believe that I was living here, in a little colonial town, ten minutes from the Caribbean coast with a constant temperature of over thirty degrees and not another European in sight. Hence with regards to my Spanish the experience has been invaluable. However, travelling over Christmas and then coming back to start work again, once it eventually did get started, was not easy. The realisation sets in that I’m not in fact on a long holiday but that this really is my life and if I’m brutally honest the past few weeks have been fairly difficult for me. I believe that all the homesickness that I expected to feel when I first arrived and was finding my feet hit me all at once after Matt left. On the other hand the whole reason I came out here was for the challenge and I always knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Stiff upper lip and all that, character building and all the rest of it! In many ways the experience so far has exceeded my expectations and it has been absolutely incredible, much of which I have shared with you all, however every rose has it’s thorns and there are parts of the experience that I never imagined and that I didn’t realise would be so hard.

Therefore I thought I would share with you a few of the day to day things one has to deal with out here. I’m sure most of you sitting at home with the wind and snow outside will have little sympathy for me, but I’m not intending to invoke any sympathy, I merely thought I should expel the myth of a sun drenched paradise!

Firstly, despite what you may think, it is a lot more expensive than the UK. Venezuela does little else except oil, oil and oil hence the majority of food items are imported, making prices rocket. Add this to steeply increasing inflation as well as decreasing oil prices and you find that a trip to the supermarket burns a large hole. For example last week a packet of ham (or rather “ham” as it tastes more like limp plastic), cost me over five pounds and fresh fruit and vegetables are even dearer. There is often no bread or milk. On the other hand chocolate custard mix was forty pence, bargain!

There is no postal service. I have not seen a single post box and people do not have letter boxes on their doors. I don’t even have an address. Which sadly means I can’t get my Mummy to send me Vogue and Cadbury’s every now and again. How a girl suffers!

Every Wednesday Coro is without water from 6 in the morning until 5 in the evening. Which means very early showers…but at least an excuse not to do the washing up!

Banking…if there’s a financial crisis in the UK at the moment, just thank your lucky stars that it isn’t structured the way the system is here. Obviously there is no Internet banking. I have a small book that looks a bit like a World War II ration book, that they stamp and put through a machine every time I make a deposit or withdrawal, of course under my new name Kelly L British Citizen. To make a bank transfer you have to first withdraw all the cash and then go to the desk to deposit it in the payee’s account, which isn’t ideal as Venezuela isn’t the sort of place where you want to be carrying around a lot of cash. This is further made difficult as my card will not allow me to withdraw very much per day, so paying for anything substantial is a no no. At the beginning of December I sold dollars on the black market and the man paid the bolivars into my account via a cheque, which bounced. The bank called me last week to inform me of this, about two months too late, after I’d resolved the problem myself. At the end of the month when everyone eventually gets paid the queues stretch all the way down the streets and people spend the entire day waiting to withdraw all their money as they don’t trust the banks. The cash machines rarely have any cash.

My staff room, or rather the staff postage stamp, is used by all members of the education department, numbering well over fifty people. It consists of one computer, one broken computer, three desks, and a cupboard full of useful grammar books to which no one ever seems to have the key. It’s about the size of the kitchen in my student house in Bath.

The mosquitoes are evil. I had three bites on my right foot that became really infected and have only just healed. Furthermore I think I had an allergic reaction to the cream the pharmacist gave me. My foot was very swollen, and I could no longer see my ankle. Decided to brave Venezuela’s healthcare system and went to the clinic. I had a lot of accumulated liquid on the joint, doctor tried to drain it, most excruciating pain ever, couldn’t really walk hence I had an attractive hobble-hop gait going on…no salsa for me for a while. I had to go back to the clinic everyday to change the dressing and was taking three different medicines which cost me nearly seventy quid! It ain’t the NHS…The cleaning lady in the lobby had a rusty mop, only one nurse on duty who was also doubling up as receptionist, waited over an hour even though there were only four other people waiting, the bottles of iodine and other substances used to clean my wounds were labelled with stuck on written stickers that were peeling off, the nurse didn’t wash her hands or put on gloves to treat my foot …I made a quick hobble exit…five minutes down the road the whole bandage fell off. Back I hobbled, swearing.

On a grander scale there is a shocking lack of education, or rather of being correctly informed of the facts. It is common knowledge here that some people pay for their degrees instead of studying for them. I was told by a grown man who works in journalism that there are only four continents. I suppose this is not surprising when you consider that text books do not exist and lined paper costs you ten pounds a pad. A large number of seemingly educated people really do believe that the United States has imperialistic intentions to invade Venezuela and that the US government is constantly undermining Chavez…needless to say the President more or less does that for himself and furthermore the US is in fact the only country in the world that pays Venezuela the full price for its oil! I understand how and why Chavez came to power and I certainly agree in theory with many of his proposals to increase education and literacy and reduce poverty, however ten years since his ascendance to power there is arguably little to show for his progress and corruption remains rife.

On February 15th there is to be another referendum to amend the Constitution and allow Chavez to run for re election indefinitely, to which the opposition are crying “dictator for life.” At the moment he will have to leave in 2010. The population already voted on this matter and a number of other constitutional amendments in December 2007 and Chavez was defeated. The student body was key in supporting this defeat and it is clear that Chavez fears their influence so this time he has attempted to prohibit student protests, which has all sorts of implications on human rights and freedoms, echoing Castro’s regime in Cuba. Furthermore he has closed the electoral register meaning that all those who have now turned 18 since the last elections are unable to sign up to vote this time because he knows most of them will vote against him. Last week tanks entered university campuses in Caracas, Mérida and Tachira and the peaceful student protests were quelled with tear gas. So far all has been peaceful here in Coro, although some friends asked if I wanted to participate in betting for when the civil war is going to break out?! I declined…

This morning the newspapers are plastered with the awful photos of the main synagogue in Caracas that was vandalised on Saturday night; religious artefacts were destroyed and anti-Semitic graffiti sprayed on the walls, the place was ransacked. It bears a sinister resemblance to Kristallnacht in 1938 Nazi Germany. Since Chavez launched his tirade of criticism against Israel’s position in the current conflict it appears his supporters have taken it upon themselves to grotesquely manifest this view here in Venezuela…although of course Chavez has immediately blamed the “oligarchy” saying they are trying to smear his image ahead of the elections.

I realise this may have been a rather cynical post, but despite these difficulties I really enjoy being in the classroom teaching, (when classes aren’t cancelled,) which is why I’m here after all! I’ve even been asked to teach an eight week beginners French course! Most of the time I take things with a pinch of salt and a smile, even though I often feel terribly sad at the prospect that, if things continue the way they are here even fewer tourists will come to visit Venezuela and it will remain a hidden jewel beneath an impenetrable, murky exterior.

NB. In the process of writing this post I have just been informed that work and classes have been suspended again across the country due to a Presidential Decree: Chavez wants to commemorate the tenth anniversary of his presidency, so once again I won’t be working…I probably taught less than twenty classes in January; it’s an extremely frustrating situation, especially after working full time in la belle Paris!

Christmas Holidays

Happy New year everyone! I hope that you all had a lovely Christmas and that it doesn’t seem like a distant memory just yet. Matt and I had the most fantastic time; an amazing travel experience. There were some trying times due to the quite frankly ridiculous Venezuelan banking system, transport system, in fact perhaps just the entire infrastructure, and also having stomach problems in possibly the most remote and uncivilised place I have ever been in my life! Regardless, overall it was truly eye opening in many ways and we did some crazy things, saw some incredible places and met some really interesting people.

After spending a few days here in Coro we took a twelve hour bus to Mérida, a town in the southwest of the country up in the Andes. We arrived at about five in the morning on a Sunday so everything was rather sleepy. The town is beautiful and has quite an Alpine feel, very different to anywhere else I’ve been in Venezuela. We stayed in a great little posada right in the centre at the bottom of the cable car. Unfortunately the cable car, the longest and highest in the world going up to a height of almost 5000 m, has been broken for 3 years and there was certainly no sign of it being fixed anytime soon. Venezuela in a nutshell really! On our first day we went paragliding which was a thrilling experience.

The actual descent, over 1000 m took about forty minutes and was a lot slower and smoother than I was expecting. The main adrenalin rush was at the beginning when your pilot says, “Right now just walk forward off the edge of the cliff…!” We floated down whilst admiring the beautiful scenery of a crisp Andean morning and chatting away to my pilot in Spanish who had actually spent a year living in Mile End would you believe! We spent the afternoon swinging in hammocks on the terrace staring up at Pico Bolívar, the highest peak in Venezuela. The following day we went canyoning, one of the most popular adventure sports in Mérida. It essentially involves abseiling down waterfalls, the highest being 35 m, along with various other jumps and slides, with or without ropes. Dressed in wetsuits and helmets we spent the day hurling ourselves four km down the river. The Lonely Planet describes it as “just about the maddest thing you can do without being killed!” I told Mum about it afterwards.

From Mérida we booked a four day tour to Los Llanos, the low flat plains of Venezuela that also stretch west into Colombia. It’s pure cowboy territory, savannah flora dots the horizon and it’s very very hot – almost forty degrees when we were there. The drive from Mérida took ten hours but it was incredible. In a Land Cruiser we ascended to 4000 m in a canyon where two tectonic plates meet; the South American and Caribbean. We stopped at a beautiful lake to admire the breath taking view. From there we took the Trans Andean highway down into the high plains and it immediately began to get more humid and foresty. Through the town of Barinas and into the low plains, across the Apure River and on to the family ranch we would be staying at. Our accommodation was a hammock strung up in an adobe hut. The shower had a tarantula in it. Various animals; chickens, stalks, puppies, ducks and lizards ran about the place. During our days on the ranch we took a safari boat trip and saw caiman, capybara (the world’s biggest rodent), Mata Mata turtles, river dolphins and lots of exotic birds. We also went horse riding at sunset, piranha fishing and then ate them for dinner, anaconda hunting in the swamps and I even learnt to dance joropo!

From Los Llanos we went to Barinas, a humid dirty town in which we had an eleven hour wait until our bus to Ciudad Bolívar on the other side of the country. We’d picked up some other friends in Los Llanos who were also going to Ciudad Bolívar; a lovely German called Markus and two slightly mad Slovenians, both called Mojce! We decided to get a cheap hotel room between the five of us so we could dump our backpacks and have somewhere as a base instead of wandering around the slightly dodgy looking town. A sign in reception kindly informed us “Yes we have condoms!” It was that sort of cheap hotel…God knows what they thought about the five of us wanting a room together! After a fourteen hour bus ride we were in Ciudad Bolívar which is situated in the south east of Venezuela on the Orinoco River. We stayed in a beautiful hostel which was actually a recently converted colonial mansion in the old quarter with a courtyard, high vaulted ceilings and an excellent little antique bar with cold Brazilian beers.

We managed to book a tour with the hostel to Angel Falls. We left on Christmas Eve and took a small prop jet to Canaima which is an indigenous, air-access-only village, situated next to a lagoon and three stunning waterfalls. From there we joined up with some other tourists and hopped in a long canoe boat for a four hour ride up the river to the Angel Falls base camp. The river trip was amazing; the most incredible landscape I have ever seen. Tepuis are flat topped mountains that rise up hundreds of meters from the earth, one of them; Auyuntepui has a plateau of over 700 metres square. It was this mysterious and overpowering landscape that inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write The Lost World. It’s so strikingly desolate and wild that you really can imagine dinosaurs creeping around in the rainforest! Luckily the sun was shining and the sky was clear so as we rounded a final bend in the river we saw Angel Falls, the tallest waterfall in the world at 979 m, it was truly impressive; it seems to makes everything man has achieved pale in comparison when you see what nature has created.Luckily there wasn’t a T-Rex in sight. We hiked about an hour to the lookout point and by this time the clouds had closed in which made the Falls seem even more impressive and we were still able to get a glimpse of the top. Even though we were over a kilometre from the Falls (we couldn’t get closer due to the sheer amount of water as it is wet season), we were being constantly sprayed with the mist and water that it felt like it was raining on us all the time! On the descent it started to get dark and then pour with rain, hence the path we had used to ascend now became a river in the space of about ten minutes. Our “guide” had no torch but somehow we managed to find our way back to the river, it was a bit sketchy though, to say the least. Our camp across the river was a hut with no walls and our hammocks strung up inside. Christmas Eve dinner was already roasting over the fire. We were quite an international crowd so everyone shared their native festive songs and then there was a group jolly to Jingle Bells! We woke up on Christmas morning with an incredible view of Angel Falls, descending from the clouds that were nestled on top of it. Some other people wandered down from another camp and there we were, in the middle of the Venezuelan rainforest yet we still managed to meet a mother and daughter from Essex! After breakfast we took the boat back to Canaima where we visited the lagoon and its waterfalls. We were even able to walk behind one, which was the most exhilarating experience ever. Due to the immense amount of rain overnight the water level extremely high. Sometimes we couldn’t even see where we were going and it felt like we were going to drown standing up! When we got back to the little hostel we finally got to have some Christmas drinks…Venezuelan beer and Spag Bol for Christmas dinner, with two Germans and a Swedish bloke – different, but memorable!

Our next adventure was a five day trip along the Caura River, a tributary of the Orinoco. We headed up the river in the direction of the Brazilian border, stopping along the way to visit indigenous communities based along the banks. We stayed two nights over New Year at El Playón, another Indian village located next to a small lagoon by two waterfalls with a gorgeous river beach, surrounded by rainforest; it was paradise.

From there we hiked to Salto Para, a series of five enormous waterfalls, at the top of which we went swimming! We visited a community of the Sanema people and found a group of boys all crouched around a hole in which they had trapped a lizard and were attempting to kill it by throwing stones and wooden spears. Who needs TV when you have a lizard in a hole? They then became fascinated with our cameras and we spent the next half an hour swinging them around and lifting them up. They were so adorable, although playing with them is probably how we ended up ill! Our guide Miguel was born in Santa María de Erebato on the Brazilian border and he had some amazing stories. He said that before Chávez came to power the indigenous people, anticipating a new President, spent two years working on a proposal and plan, with the aid of international NGO’s, to define their territories, protect their communities and most importantly to ensure that the beautiful virgin forest along the Caura River cannot be exploited by the government or foreign investors for its mineral and gold reserves. Chavez told them ten years ago that he would recognise these rights…they are still waiting.

Getting back to Coro was a challenge. Due to the holiday period the buses companies were in a mess. When we were back in Ciudad Bolivar on Saturday we went to the bus station to get tickets, we needed to go via Caracas as you can’t get to Coro directly. After queuing for almost two hours the ticket office finally opened. Of all the companies in the terminal only one seemed to have any buses going to Caracas before Tuesday. The “queue” became a free-for-all and I, being English, was indignant that the sacred queue system should be respected so off I went to the front and told all the people who were pushing in that there was in fact a line and hence started organising rowdy Venezuelans into lines for various destinations. After all that it turned out they were only releasing ten tickets to Caracas, we were about twelfth in line. Much swearing. Luckily a man saw our peril and told us his company had some. We arrived in Caracas at about four am in a rather unpleasant area that certainly didn’t seem to be a bus station. We made a quick judgement of taxi drivers and chose the one who looked least likely to mug and kill us and off we went to the terminal. At first it seemed that no buses were going to Coro at all but somehow we managed to find tickets, find the gate, avoid corrupt police asking to check our passports and then make us pay to get them back and get to Coro by night fall!

It was hard to say goodbye to Matt and it has taken me a week to get back into the swing of things here –this particular educational institution certainly doesn’t make it easy, mostly because there doesn’t appear to be any swing to get back into! No one seems to know semester dates or timetables. Yesterday, over three months since my arrival, someone thought it might be a good idea to give me a username and password to access the online teacher’s forum that apparently they all use and which I didn’t even know existed! I was also “welcomed” and introduced to the director…three months late. But fingers crossed it will improve and maybe by Easter things will have settled down, just as we’re about to have another break! Every day I am more and more amazed at how this country is still on its feet. Despite that, Matt and I were incredibly lucky to have seen so many of Venezuela’s beautiful attractions and it was a Christmas that I will remember forever.

Democracy without coffee

On Sunday 23rd November Venezuela voted. Alina told me that I should stay inside the house all weekend and she started to stock up on water and toilet paper in case the country went into crisis; slightly unnecessary precautions on all counts. The media in Britain and the United States have portrayed the results of these local and regional elections as a victory for the opposition, who gained key positions in the capital Caracas, Miranda State, Nueva Esparta and Tachira. However, in reality although the opposition did have some success the population here still voted overwhelmingly for the revolution. Defying expectations and despite increased criticism of President Chavez and his party PSUV, Venezuelan’s are still confident that this socialist experiment has a future and they are still investing their hopes in 21st century socialism. Some critics believe that an interventionist policy is required in order to oust this “crazy” dictator, but whatever your view on President Chavez you cannot question his legitimacy; these elections were free and democratic, with some polling stations staying open late into the night if there were long queues so that everyone could exercise their democratic right. The Venezuelan people chose to put their faith in Hugo Chavez almost a decade ago and it will be the Venezuelan people who will decide when they want change, but for the moment this country is still painted red.

I spent the Sunday of the elections in nearby town Cumarebo and went to the voting centre with my friends. There was a fantastic festive atmosphere with everyone out in the streets; both Chavistas and opposition side by side with no threat of conflict. The polling stations were vigilantly controlled by the National Guard who were a forceful but encouraging presence. The queues to vote were incredible; my friends waited four hours. I find this incredible; in Britain many people of my generation don’t bother to vote because they have no interest in politics, yet here two 24 year olds waited patiently in line in order to have their say. “If I don’t bother to vote then I have no right to comment on politics,” my friend told me, which here in Venezuela means that you would be excluded from most conversations! Unfortunately I awoke the next morning to fireworks being set off across the town, which I at first thought were gun shots! The opposition candidate for mayor had beaten the Chavista candidate who had held the position for the past few years. Fights broke out in the square and bottles were thrown. I stayed inside with my tea and paper! The difference was only 50 votes, so a recount was demanded and the Chavista candidate won eventually; the same mayor I mentioned in my last post who I met a few weeks ago who is apparently an alcoholic! However, across the entire country there were only 106 arrests due to violence or interference with voting materials. Some 66% of the population voted, the highest turn-out in non Presidential elections and certainly one of the highest rates of voter participation on the continent, if not the world. Most impressive for me was the automatic computerised voting system which has been widely praised as one of the most advanced and accurate in the world. There is certainly room for improvement with regards to reducing the queues to vote and having more machines on standby to replace those that malfunction, but from a democratic perspective and from everything I witnessed that Sunday these elections were transparent, free and fair. However, there are still some teething problems with this version of socialism…we haven’t been able to buy coffee anywhere in the city for over a week. If I can’t wake up in the morning without my cup of coffee how can an entire country function without caffeine?

It’s illegal to drink on Election Day in Venezuela, but my friend owns a Tasca and it was his birthday so we locked up the front doors and everyone came in via the back entrance and we had a private party! There were almost 100 people in there by midnight. My friends are in a band and they played so we even had live music all night…they dedicated a Beatles song to me. I tried a local rum called Culebra, which looks a lot like cloudy toilet water and has a dead snake in the bottom of the bottle! If you try not to look at the rotten reptile whose juices you’re drinking and try not to think about how long ago it was alive you can just about not throw up. Apparently it has curative qualities…I can safely say I felt worse not better.

Political observation, conversation and contemplation takes up a lot of time for your average Venezuelan, but I have had time for other things! In other news…I went camping in the Sierra de San Luis, a National Park up in the mountains. A friend is writing a thesis on how the local communities can adapt to tourism whilst still protecting the natural environment there. The night was spent playing guitar under the stars with the neighbours, one of whom was a local author who gave me a signed copy of his latest book and another who apparently cooks the best soup in the Sierra – I was convinced as it was delicious. I also met my first tarantula, three in fact, all worryingly close to my tent! The next day we went exploring and bathed in a natural spring next to a ravine, it was absolutely freezing. From there we saw the most incredible view right down to the city, the lake that supplies most of Falcon state, the Peninsula and out to sea we could even make out Aruba. Neither photos nor words can ever do it justice - it was breath taking. We hitched a lift back to Coro in the back of a pickup truck along with a man called Freddy who was drinking rum from a coke can and insisted I take his photo because he’s never been “pictured” before! (see photo)

At the university there was an English festival and I was asked to be the presenter. It was a really fantastic event and so rewarding to see my students performing plays, songs, poems or reading stories. There were judges and prizes were awarded to the best student in each level. At the end the students did a surprise thank you presentation for the teachers and it almost brought a tear my eye!

Yesterday I helped Lorena and Pipo decorate the Christmas tree, which made me feel very festive, especially seeing how excited Pipo was that this year he could finally reach to put the angel on top. The Christmas lights were turned on in town last week and there was a big street party with everyone dancing until the early hours. My salsa and meringue are greatly improving; I appear to be treading on fewer Venezuelan feet, which is always a good start. Strictly Come Dancing 2009 watch out!

Matt is flying out to join me next week when I finish teaching and we’re going to travel around the country for a month over Christmas - I’m very excited! So far our plans include mountain biking in the Andes, Christmas day on a Caribbean beach in Mochima and waking up on New Year’s Day in a hammock opposite Angel Falls plus many more adventures…until the money runs out and he returns to England and me to Coro!

Redefining libraries and bars

Teaching has finally begun; in fact I’m almost into my fourth week now. I’m really enjoying it so far although it is certainly proving to be a challenge due to the lack of resources and poor access to materials. It is actually quite shocking and sometimes extremely frustrating. For example the “library” on the literature and education campus consists of four shelves in the corner of a large room, mostly with books on civil engineering. However when you come away from a really fantastic class there’s a real sense of achievement, it’s almost addictive and I can see why people do it for living, (as oppose to an excuse for travelling Latin America!)

A few classroom highlights:

Lesson 1: Somehow I ended up explaining the rules of cricket. I apologise in advance for the gross discredit this may have done to the sport. With the aid of some atrocious stick men and flamboyant acting I think they got the general idea…however I then endeavoured to explain the intricacies of test series and one day internationals and it all went downhill from there.

Lesson 2: There was a power cut, in a classroom with no windows; me versus 50 students. My reading activity was a no go, they were restless and hungry, so quick improvisation resulted in a game of Chinese whispers. “But why are they Chinese….” I don’t bloody know just pass the message on!

Lesson 3: Discussing “problems young people face” we brainstorming ideas on the board; drugs, teenage pregnancy etc. A boy shouts out conduct, as in behaviour. Due to his mispronunciation I heard condom and wrote this on the board, due to everyone’s amusement. I am then asked if this is a sex education class and will there be a practical?!

On the extracurricular front things have also been equally exciting. In order for my blog to be fully informative it was necessary for me to visit the clubs and bars that Coro has to offer – on Thursdays girls don’t pay! I approve. I have spent the last two weekends in Cumarebo which is a little fishing village on the coast about twenty minutes away, where some friends live. Waking up to a view of the clear blue Caribbean Sea only three streets away is pretty hard to beat. The boys decided to take me on some “adventure tourism” which involved a very ancient Ford Dodge with no windows or seats and a trip up to the mountains that dominate the coastline. We hiked up a hill to see the Colombiana Cross at the top which was put there, as legend has it, because on that crest the devil once appeared and the cross protects the village in case he returns. We bathed in a natural pool and I saw a spider as big as my hand. After stopping for some refreshment in a rural shack that had gallantly been labelled a “bar,” we continued on. We climbed on to the roof of an old blue and white colonial church in this tiny village and from there saw the most spectacular view: the lush green rainforest of the mountains contrasting beautifully with the crystalline blue sea in the distance and the landscape peppered with colourful towns. Every village was named after a different saint. My friend’s parents live right by the beach, a little secluded bay that no one else knows about. We went at night and when we turned the torch off all we could see were the millions of stars above us, the lights of the town twinkling in the distance behind us and the occasional sharp flash of clarity from the lightening of a storm out at sea. We went swimming and the sea and the sky seemed to join in a warm blackness in front of us, it felt like you were diving out into the universe every time you jumped a wave, which made me feel very small and very alive all at once…it was one of those unforgettable moments.

The local and regional elections take place on 23rd November and although Commandante Chavez’s position as President is not under threat, it’s going to be a huge event. Politics infiltrates every aspect of life here. You can’t even wear a red t-shirt without being labelled a Chavista. He’s a bit like Marmite – love him or hate him. He unites and divides. A friend works for local government, supporting the socialist missions. I attended a rally he was working at last week. On first appearances it looked like a summer village fete with cheap food being sold, live music and games for children; a second look and you see the soldiers holding back the crazed mothers trying to grab the most free flour and milk, the wheelchairs and prams given out in exchange for loyalty, and the face paint on the children buying the votes of the future. I’ve had many a debate with my friend and in truth I respect both sides of the argument. Peel away the corners of the media portrait and you can see the positive intentions of 21st socialism, but there are many who believe the President holds too much power and that the next step is Communism. For example electricity has been nationalised and last week our house was without it for two days! However I did meet the mayor at the rally who told me I had beautiful eyes – he’s got my vote!

On the domestic front I somehow managed to explain algebraic equations to Lorena, the 12 year old daughter of the family I live with, in Spanish. For those of you who are acquainted with my questionable numeric ability, you will understand that this was possibly my greatest achievement so far! The second being finding some Cadbury’s chocolate, which cost me a small fortune, but well worth the effort for a taste of home, all I needed was some PG Tips to dip it in. I hope November isn’t too gloomy at home, I do think of you all when I’m lying on the beach in 30 degree sunshine…!