Last night we had dinner at La Feria again, sampling the traditional Pabellon of roast shredded meat with rice, beans and plantain. Super tasty! The six of us, Esther, Vivienne, Bex, Isabelle, Eleanor and I, wandered a block and found a large and empty basement restaurant where there was music. We grabbed a table and a bucket of ice-cold Polares that slipped down the throat deliciously, and playing cards, we giggled away in high spirits. A little later a live duo played some salsa and a guy approached and asked us each to dance in turn. Others arrived in the bar, and very quickly we'd taken our first Venezuelan salsa steps, and then there was another bucket of beers on the table and we were having a great time, marred a little perhaps by the realisation that it was barely 10pm. Now the time was rushing by and when we left it was almost midnight.
Walking the block and a half back to the hotel was needlessly eventful- and the girlish shreik emitted by half the group when an (in truth, sizeable) rat scurried past, served to draw a little more attention to us than I'd have liked- not that anyone around even batted an eyelid. We all collapsed into giggles, and in high spirits all came to Esther and my room to watch music videos and chat for another hour before turning in.
Today we finished training at 3 and the girls headed to Sambil, leaving Steve at the hotel to crash out. First time on the metro- we figured out that 900 Bolos buys you a return ticket and we managed to all get onto an air conditioned wagon, and negociate the system well enough. We have our mobiles sorted now and still had a little time to wander about the largest shopping centre in South America. It wasn't overly swank- no marble or fountains, but plenty of shops selling clothing at UK prices.
We've found that quite a bit- that although our wage is probably between 20-25% of a minimum wage in the UK, many things cost about the same, or, at best 20% less than at home. The maths just doesn't work, and that begins to point to these people who I haven't seen, whose existence is betrayed by rickety houses on unsafe hillsides and who are perhaps finding a voice in the early steps of the 5th Republic.
