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!
