Tuesday, March 19, 2013

The Dry Law

This past week we had a couple of cool and crazy things happen here in Venezuela.  The dry law of no liquor sales or bars was extended another week by the government starting this past week's Monday.  It ended up being lifted on Saturday after all.  Which also happened to be the day that the presidential candidate, Henry Capriles Redonski came to Merida.  The election is currently between vice president Nicolas Maduro and (Chavez previous opposition) Henrique Capriles Redonski.  These are the two main candidates of the six that declared candidacy.  Maduro is a Chavista attempting to follow in Chavez's footsteps and use his predecessors success to catapult himself.  Capriles is revolutionary advocating change and better things.  I also played basketball this weekend in a Venezuelan league after one of them saw me play around and wanted me to be on their team.  It was interesting to play basketball in another country in a real game using the international ball.  They also are a lot softer when they play and call more fouls.  They say that any kind of contact is foul which is crazy compared to how people play at the YMCA in Wauwatosa.   
Playing with them at the local park



Could of been a scene right out of the fast and the furious

Venezuelean Mcflurrys

The day the dry law was lifted 



An expensive bottle of local rum 




This delicious but very spicy salsa I made with food from the local market


Thursday, March 14, 2013

Chavez Dead! And Home-stay pictures

So of course with our Socialist Dictator/President dying I have to include it in my blog.
The best way to summarize it is that I was in class when the Dean of my school came running in saying we (all the white students) had to go home for our safety.  Earlier this day on the national Venezuelan news had been reports of two U.S. ambassadors being expelled from the country for trying to stage a military revolt.
So the death of Chavez was already bad enough, but following what the American ambassadors did just directly connected us with everything.  Also many officials such as the vice president, who became interim president, Maduro tried to blame America for Chavez having cancer and for his death.  On our way home we saw people crying and people rejoicing.  That night there were many supporters that rushed to the center of the city to mourn and the capital was full of supporters.  We had a week of mourning where all schools, bars, and liquor stores were closed.  Unfortunately, the dry law has continued and liquor stores/bars still are closed.
Chavez died Tuesday March 5th 2013 and lived to be 58 years old.  He actually did do some great things with the country but tended to control the country with an iron grip in his most recent years in power.

Here are some links:
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/11/us/venezuela-diplomats-expelled/index.html
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2013/03/12/chavezs-death-leaves-venezuelans-with-hard-choices/
http://rt.com/news/chavez-cancer-conspiracy-probe-164/
http://www.wnd.com/2013/03/iran-blames-chavez-death-on-cia/

And now for some pictures during the mourning of Chavez in the centro, our stay at a cabin in the mountains and my home-stay.
My bed in the room I share 

Memorial set up in the centro for Chavez

Our Closets

Chavistas downtown mourning the death of Chavez

Memorials for Chavez

Notice all the red, chavistas



A big Chavez memorial banner

Letters upon letters written to Chavez taped to church



Buying Beats on the street 

Street Food

A big viaduct I walked down


Playground in the mountains

View of cabins at a resort we stayed at in the mountains

Living the life as usual



One of our cabins

Puppies being sold on the street



Hitting the jackpot at Mercado Principal


Saturday, March 9, 2013

LOS LLANOS

We went on a big trip to "Los Llanos" in Venezuela last weekend and I also have a couple side notes on culture and living in Venezuela.

One big thing I have learned being outside of the United States is that we do have many lazy people, many people that litter or don't recycle, and many ignorant people BUT so does the rest of the world.  When I get home if people start freaking out how our pollution is dooming the world or we need to stop forest fires, I will just point at other countries.  There are many countries where the pollution is much greater and forest fires are natural daily occurrence.   I have friends in America that love our country and never want to leave.  People think they are ignorant but there are many people just like that in Venezuela and other countries.
      Example---- While on our trip in Los Llanos, our resort also had some guests from Germany and a group of 20-some boys from Netherlands (Dutch) that were there on a trip for their fraternity.  After talking with quite a few of them while partying a little bit on Saturday I as shocked so see how narrow minded and ignorant their views of the United States were.  Majority of them were shocked we were skinny.  They firmly believed all Americans are extremely lazy and that we worship and eat at Mcdonalds every day.  They said that majority of our country is obese and overweight and lazy.  This made me laugh hysterically considering that I hate Mcdonalds.  They also didn't realize the work ethic for jobs and athletics in America is unbelievable   Hence why we have one of the world's greatest Economies and blow out every other country in the Olympics every four years.

Another perspective on being here is the hard times Venezuela has been and still is going through.  I was sitting on the bus one day and just like many bus rides, a young will hop aboard with a bunch of cheap snacks and pass them out to everyone.  He then gives a spiel on them (which I don't understand since its in Spanish) and then sees if people will pay for them and eat them or give them back.  I was always amused by these street vending kids and asked the girl sitting next to me how old she thought he was and why he wasn't in school.  She responded with the answer that in my ignorance never thought of; he was out selling goods on the strees because the economy is in hard times and his parents can't bring home enough money. This experience made me extremely thankful for what I have and the freedom I was born with in America.
Showing our support for Chavez while raging

Dinner one night







Los Llanos
First off I forgot to charge my camera for this trip so I only snapped a couple of pictures.
Los Llanos is a vast tropical grassland plain situated to the east of the Andes in Colombia and Venezuela, in northwestern South America. It is an ecoregion of the Flooded grasslands and savannas Biome.
The Llanos' main river is the Orinoco, which forms part of the border between Colombia and Venezuela and is the major river system of Venezuela.  Los Llanos is one of the two biggest trips we will be making this semester and was an experience of a lifetime.  
We had a 12 hour bus ride to where we were staying which was a sort of ranch in the middle of the plains with a farm and animals.  They had various buildings for guests and we all got to stay in rooms full of hammocks which was pretty sweet. 
 





At the farm there were baby chickens, ducklings, and puppies.  We even were able to pick up and hold ducklings, which were very, very cute.  Being classic Venezuelan, which is known for having ice cold beer (its their country's staple and pride), they only had warm drinking water in jugs but had two big ice chests full of beer, Polar specifically (the official beer of Venezuela).  This was interesting considering they didn't have a television much less a refrigerator but had ice cold beer.  
Standard beer here
Snack I had on the bus ride

On the 12 hour bus ride home we passed the time by finishing over 100 beers and playing drinking games
On our way there we drove through many poor and poverty stricken areas with people living in huts and shacks selling various things along the side of the road.    
We had a whole weekend planned out at our stay and did some fun activities.  We went on a couple safaris and off roading and got to ride on top of the jeeps.  We many native animals such as Cayman (crocodiles), Capybaras (large rodent that looks like a giant guinea pig), iguanas (as big as my leg), and macaws (big parrots) up close.  We went Cayman hunting and one of the guides caught a couple for all of us to hold.  Later a couple of us went out with him at night to catch our first Cayman.  I got to catch one with my bare hands right out of the water.  That was sweeet!!  But it was actually pretty easy and I only caught a baby to be safe.
The next day we went horseback riding on some trails and later went anaconda hunting and after a couple hours the guides caught a couple of anacondas for us to hold and take pictures with.  
The last day on Sunday  (we got there Friday and left Sunday  we went a long boat ride on one of the rivers.  It was absolutely breathtaking how much wildlife we saw in their  natural habitat from Cayman  to Capybaras, to iguanas, and big hawks and birds.  At the end we went Piranha fishing and all got to catch a couple.  It was pretty fun and easy catching the piranhas using meet.  Although it was a bit tough because we were given huge hooks when the fish have small mouths so it was hard to set the hook.  I don't think everyone realized that but that was something I had learned about fishing with my Dad.  The smaller the hook, the easier it is to hook a fish and set the hook; small fish, small hook.
The fishing part was tough for me because it really made me miss fishing at home with family and going up north during the summer and spending the whole day on the lake.
On the Safari

The Plains


Sunset
                            



On the river





Another Sunset


Friends