Hello Everyone,
It seems to be birthday season. Last weekend I had a fantastic trip to Puerto La Cruz and helped celebrate a friend´s birthday party there. Then Wendi´s birthday (my sister-in-law) was this week, and I hope that she got to have a great time with her folks. And today, I went to yet another birthday party. The party today was a joint party for one of the nuns and for one of the little girls who lives with the nun. She is now 10 years old and a wonderful help in practicing my Spanish.
For example, she loves to ride around on my back-shoulders and I get to practice understanding directions and giving directions. :-)
Pureto La Cruz
Pureto La Cruz is the big beach town here in Venezuela. It is currently THE place to go and be and it seems like everyone wants to be there. I noticed that they are building apartments like crazy and I saw a lot of VERY expensive homes, especially the ones on and near the water. Unfortunately, according to my host, there hasn´t been any city planning and so the traffic is abismal and I suspect that eventually the rich people will become sick of spending hours in traffic to drive 10 miles and will either move to the next new fantastic place. Or some additional infrastructure will be added. ... growing pains.
My adventure started off with trying to buy the bus ticket to Puerto La Cruz. It took me three tries, on three different days to actually find the the bus station but I managed to get some help and go and purchase my ticket on Thursday. I got a ticket for 2:45 pm on Friday.
(I had a fantastic Friday morning and I´ll tell you about Friday morning in a little bit.)
Anyway, the bus that goes from Caracas to Puerto La Cruz is a double story tour bus, complete with onboard movies. I was warned that the bus would be freezing cold and I should literally bring a jacket and blanket with me, however this trip wasn´t very cold. When I got on the bus, I realized that I wanted to sit in the very front with the windows, so instead of going to my assigned seat, I went up to the top floor and sat in the front corner. Other people came up and I ended up having to move to the other corner, however they didn´t make me go to my assigned seat. So I had a fantastic view leaving the city and for most of the country side until it got dark. The bus arrived in Puero La Cruz around 8:30 and my friend and her boyfriend picked me up.
We then went to his mother´s house, where I met both Moms and a cousin and where I was fed wonderful Italian lasagna. ... I had said that I wasn´t hungry, but who can say "no" when a plate of fantastic lasagna is put infront of you? My trip to Puerto La Cruz drove home how large the Italian-Venezuelan community is here.
My friend and her boyfriend are renting some rooms in a house very near his mother´s house so we eventually went there and slept.
The next morning I woke up early because I was SO excited to be there and I knew that they´d want to sleep for a while so I went out for a walk. First I walked around the community where they live. It consists of many colorful townhouses that are all very close to the water. (I could walk to the water and the dock.) A number of the houses have a tree or two in their front yard, including one house that had a mango tree with a monkey chained in it. I felt sorry for the monkey because he was obviously going crazy walking back and forth on his chain in the tree waiting for anyone to come out of his house.
While I was watching the monkey, a ripe mango fell out of the tree near me, so I took it home and we had it with breakfast on Monday.
Then I went out and walked by the water and looked at the boats until my friend called me asking where I was. I was only a few minutes away so I walked back to the house and the three of us went out to go shopping for party supplies.
First however, we went to the marina because her boyfriend has a boat there that he needed to take care of.
Then we went by a building that my friend´s boyfriend and his mother are turning into an Italian restaurant. They have a beautiful golden lab that is helping to guard the restaurant building while it is being renovated. I am sure that it will be a very successful restaurant when they are done with the renovations!
Then we stopped at a street vendor and had an empanada for breakfast. (picture and description is at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empanada) and picked up two extra empanadas and drinks to take to the security guards where she and her mom are starting their new business. (Yes, both she and her boyfriend are starting businesses with their Moms. I was very impressed with how the whole family is involved and helps each other.) It was interesting for me to see the town and what the buildings in that area look like, etc...
Then we did some shopping to get supplies for her party that night. We were planning on going to the beach in the afternoon, but as we were leaving the store, it started pouring rain so our beach plans were scrapped.
We also stopped by a fish yard and bought some fresh seafood including jumbo shrimp.
Then we took the food back to the boyfriend´s mother´s house and I hung out while everyone else was in the kitchen, cooking. At one point I was amazed to see a circular metal pan, that was literally at least 3 feet wide. Her boyfriend is apparently a very good cook and he used the pan to make a traditional rice and seafood dish as a main course for the party. It was fantastic.
Later in the afternoon I went with my friend and her little brother to the mall. They had their hair done while I walked around and looked at everything. Her little brother got done before she did, so for a while he kept me company and we explored the mall together. One of the things that they had was a computer kiosk with tourist information. He showed me a bunch of pictures of Venezuela and later on in the evening, he very excitedly told me that we were in one of the places that we´d seen in the pictures.
The birthday party itself was held at a friend´s townhouse house in the marina. It was a very nice house and they had hired a DJ for the party so there was lots of good food, drinks, and lots of new people to meet. It was very much a family affair with aunts, an uncle, cousins, and 4 kids, as well as friends. Everyone had a blast and I really enjoyed meeting her friends and family.
Of course, I learned some new words that evening and unfortunately made the mistake of innocently using one of them in a conversation with my friends mother. ooppss ha ha
We got home at about 4am and then got up sometime between 9 and 10 am to go to the beach. I got to sleep a little extra, they only slept for a few hours and then went and cleaned up from the party. Then we went back to the marina and I suddenly learned that "going to the beach" didn´t actually involve sand. Instead they brought her boyfriend´s boat down and put it in the water for us and we went out and anchored near one of the islands. Yup, living the high life.
We went with a friend of hers who now lives in Miami who was home visiting and her mother, brother in law, and brother in law´s girlfriend. So there were 7 of us in the motor boat which was just perfect for goofing around and playing in the water.
I swam 3 times and forgot to reapply the sunblock so I ended up being a red raccoon. oopps
....
back to Friday morning- One of the people that I´ve been meeting with weekly to practice my Spanish did a really nice thing. Instead of meeting at the University, he asked me to meet him downtown. I warned him that I would have 2 bags with me because I was going to leave town after meeting with him. (One was a duffle bag with a blanket in it.) Anyway, we met up and he took me on a really neat tour of some of the old buildings, the old constitution hall, several museums, and one place that had wonderful little models depicting life and materials from 100 years ago in Caracas. It was absolutely enchanting! And a wonderful way to practice my Spanish!
....
I am going to cut things short for now. Yes, I am still a week behind in my posts, however I am getting tired. I hope that you are all doing well!
Big Hugs
M
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