Welcome to Trinidad, Bienvenidos a Venezuela!
VENEZUELA | Friday, 3 July 2009 | Views [73]
It has been one crazy week. Three airplanes,a ferry, a bus, and many taxis later...I´ve made it to my first destination in Venezuela after travelling from the airport in Trinidad. I saved a bunch of money by flying to Trinidad, but boy was it complicated.
No matter the trouble, I had a grand adventure getting here and met some amazing people along the way. In Trinidad I talked to one taxi driver about petroleum there. I asked him if he was born in Trinidad and he answered ¨I am so lucky to be born here, because Trinidad has lots of of oil¨ then, after explaining what I was studying I asked him what people in Trinidad thought of Chavez and he responded... ¨We are not an angry people, we do not have a military and don´t fight. But, Chavez is a bully. Don´t pay any attention to him, he is just another entity.¨ Abdul, the taxi driver, was very nice and led me safely to the ferry. And on the ferry I met several travellers. One very special woman from New Zealand was riding her motorbike from Alaska to Argentina. She told me about here wonderful travels and helped me through the process of changing money and buying (or not buying) a bus ticket to Puerto La Cruz. Anyhow...I wish her the best of luck with the remainder of her travels, she was such an inspiration for me at the beginning of my 6 months.
So, I´m at Jakera Lodge right now taking spanish classes, hanging by the beach, and chilling with tons of Europeans. Ive met several people from England and Holland, but not many Americans...So now I´m making plans to visit some friends in Amsterdam next year. I am loving meeting all these people.
Also, I´ve been making some connections around the area. The guy in charge of the camp here has a Venezuelan girlfriend whose parents work for Petroleos de Venezuela the state oil company. She is away right now but I am planning to come back later on to meet up with her and talk about it. The cook here, Jackson, has family in Maracaibo, where I was planning on being in November. He has told me that I can stay with his family while I am there.
It´s only been a week and I am making so many contacts already and learning mucho mucho about petroleum. My spanish is definitely improving too. The only downer part of this trip so far is the mass amounts of mosquitos. I´m getting used to the bugs and how to live simply. But, I am not getting used to being sick all the time. I´ve been the most ill Ive ever been in my life. It is pretty miserable and have had to spend a couple of days in bed. But, I´ve been drinking this tea from the leaves out in the backyard and it helps a lot. And, I suppose my stomach will adjust too.
I find that my English skills are suffering a bit since I´ve only been speaking in Spanish...but, I guess thats a good thing.ç
Mucho amor mis amigos. Yo estoy muy chevre.
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