Isla Margarita

Gorgeous Flowers Everywhere

To start off my birthday week, Walli and I had lunch with our Spanish tutor, Isabel, on Sunday. She is the most thoughtful person you'll ever meet. She invited us to her cute little house in El Hatillo where she fixed us up some vegetarian food. Then she had arranged for us to visit a nearby garden called Topotepuy. She fibbed to the ticket seller and told them that we were tourists on our way from Valencia and this would be our only chance to visit the garden and we were really looking forward to it so they let us come in after the closing time. Venezuela does have its perks: You can get away with things like that.

When you walked into the gardens, you forgot that you were in Caracas. It was so beautiful and so peaceful, it was really enjoyable; perfect for a Sunday activity.

My Favorite Part- The Conservatory

On our way back to Isabel's house for dessert she gave us a tour of one of the really rich areas in the city. There were houses that were so large I thought they were apartment complexes. Around one of the neighborhoods there is a nice walking path along side the road, but we were advised never to walk there because that's often where people get kidnapped from since it's a wealthy area.

We also stopped into La Iglesia Ortodoxa Rumana Constantino y Elena (the Costantine and Helen Romanian Orthodox Church) to look around. It seems extremely out of place, so it was fun to peek into.

Kind of Creepy (This photo was taken
from the internet, but this is what it looked like when we
were there because it was raining)

My actual birthday fell on Wednesday and luckily my little munchkins were good for me. All of my classes ended up singing Happy Birthday at some point. To celebrate my quarter of a century I went out to dinner with a few good friends. We had a blast being the obnoxious gringos in the restaurant and drinking too much wine. Magically, Lane provided the best cake in the world. It was like a chocolate mousse cake with a hard chocolate shell. My friends sang Happy Birthday and then Feliz Cumpleaños and then in Venezuelan tradition I had to take a bite out of the cake. Luckily since there was a shell I did not get my face smashed into it. And it tasted so good, that everyone else started taking bites too!

Just Look at That Cake!

My Infamous Birthday Shoes-
True Venezuelan Style

To really celebrate my birthday I planned a weekend trip to the infamous Isla Margarita. So my partner in crime, Walli, and I took a personal day and headed to the island on Thursday after work. It was a super quick and easy 35-minute flight to get there. We stayed at the Hesperia at Playa el Agua, which is an all-inclusive resort that many people had raved about. We tried not to set our expectations too high...as the island is still Venezuela and we know things don't always work or go as planned, but it turned out marvelous.

Playa El Agua

Friday I woke up early in anticipation for the beach so I walked down to claim some beach chairs. It was near 7 AM and the beach was still empty. It was so great, but a bit eery as well. I would have loved to walked on the beach while it was empty like that, but I knew better. So I lounged in the hammock by our pool until Walli woke up and we got breakfast. We spent most of the day lounging on the beach, napping, reading, walking, and relaxing. Vendors were always walking by trying to sell you stuff. I was asked if I was from Holland, Switzerland, and Germany. I soon learned just avoid eye-contact and forget about saying, “No gracias” if you wanted to be left alone. I did get suckered by one guy selling jewelery but I didn't have any cash with me so he assured me he would return the next day and surely enough he did calling me by name and everything, so I ended up buying a bracelet and earrings.

Not a Crowded Beach

After a nice long day at the beach we had fresh piña coladas and did a little bit of shopping before our dinner reservations. Since the resort was all-inclusive, the food wasn't particularly impressive but it was nice not having to get taxis and figure out where to go and how to pay. And because we had made reservations, we got to have dinner in a restaurant atmosphere instead of the cafeteria buffet. We skipped the discotheque in lieu of a movie and fell asleep early after such a hard day.

Saturday was about the same. The only real difference is we decided to upgrade to a better part of the resort. It seemed like a lot of money but in all reality it was a $6 difference and it was definitely worth it. We got access to the nice pool and jacuzzi, other exclusive restaurants and bars, and a way nicer room. We felt like spoiling ourselves so I took more advantage of the all-inclusive drinks and we got massages in the afternoon. We also got to participate in the romantic dinner complete with live entertainment.

Upgrade!

Sunday when it was about noon and I hadn't made it to the drink stand yet, the bartender delivered me a refreshing beer. Now that is costumer service! I was sad to leave the island just as anyone is sad to leave vacation, especially when returning back to Caracas. If I would have known how easy it was to go there for a weekend I probably would have went once a month! 

Viva Venezuela

Machu Picchu (More Pictures to Come When the Internet Isn't So Slow)

One of the Seven Wonders: Machu Picchu

How did I come to the decision to take a five day trek to Machu Picchu instead of taking the train... Well I honestly cannot remember, and in the week leading up to the trek, I began to ask myself that question repeatedly.

Tracey and I decided that we were conned into the trip by Walli; we couldn't possibly say no to a 75 year old woman who made it sound like a walk in the park. However, hiking 35 miles in high altitude is no walk in the park.

After sleeping on the cold floor in the Lima airport and getting my credit card eaten by an ATM machine, we arrived in Cusco early Saturday morning. Once you start walking, you notice the altitude difference because there is less oxygen in the air and you become short of breath immediately. We all took high altitude pills to prevent altitude sickness and I think that helped a lot.

We rented a really nice apartment within walking distance of the main plaza. The first order of business was showering and napping. After becoming real humans again, we headed to the grocery store to get some food and we ended up stumbling upon a local market. I could have stayed there all day, just shopping; everything was so cheap and interesting.

Next we explored the main square, Plaza de Armas. Cusco is a very cute and clean city, I really liked it. After even more shopping, we had dinner at Numa Raymi complete with real Pisco Sours.

Everything we read on the internet said you should take it easy your first two days in high altitude to let your body adjust. So after dinner we were all exhausted and called it a night.

The next day we went back to the plaza to get some pictures in the daytime and to visit our trek office to finalize the details of our adventure. We had lunch on a terrace with the perfect view of the plaza followed by a walking tour of the city given by our trek guide, Nico. By the end of the walking tour I was tired of walking and wondering how I was every going to survive the next five days of hiking.

We went to super delicious and fancy restaurant for dinner called Cicciolina. It was a restaurant that was so fancy, they placed fresh napkins on the table to cover our mess before dessert. We were all fat and happy afterwards, but Walli wouldn't let us take a cab, we had to walk back to our apartment. Then we got all packed for the Salkantay trek. Side note: Salkantay means “The savage one...”

Day 1

Usually the trek starts at 4AM, but one of the girls in our group lost her luggage during transit and it was supposed to be delivered at 7AM to the Cusco airport. So we delayed our start to go to the airport so she could pick up her stuff, but it wasn't delivered so everyone had to lend her things so she could go on the trek. Since we left Cusco way later than usual, they actually just drove us to our first campsite in Soraypampa. It was a beautiful three hour drive through the mountains; although a little frightening when we were going around sharp turns right on the edge of the mountain. When we got the the site, our tents were already set up and lunch was being served. We were the only ones camping in the surrounding area, which was very nice. We had a crew of four: our guide, Nico; our cook, Luis; the assistant, Primo (not sure of his actual name, but that was the nickname he was given); and our horse boy, Christian. Walli and myself are vegetarians and therefore the whole group had to eat vegetarian all week. Luckily, Luis was such a great cook. It was amazing what he could whip up in the middle of nowhere.

Our "Family"- Primo, Tracey, Walli, Nico, me, Luis, Lane, and Christina

Camp #1

After lunch, we took a three hour hike to a glacier lake, Lake Humantay. This was my favorite part of the whole trip. The views were unbelievable.

Tracey and I ready to go 

Happy Cow

Lake Humantay

Our Group

Couple Selfie

Later we had a nap time and then dinner (we even had a bottle of wine!) and off to bed early in preparation for the hardest section the next day.

Day 2

The second day was by far the most difficult, but has the best views. It was a four hour hike to summit the mountain. Even though it got more difficult to breathe as we climbed higher, I enjoyed the ascent much better than the descent. We made it all the way to 4,600 m (15,100 ft)!

Beginning of a Long Day

Full of Energy

Chewing on Coco Leaves - Yuck

Slowly Losing Layers - Still Trekking

Brrrrr

As soon as we got to the top it started snowing! So we didn't stick around long to rest and enjoy the accomplishment, which was alright with me because I really noticed how it was more difficult to breathe. Unfortunately, the snow turned into rain and you couldn't see any of the amazing views that you knew were just hiding behind the clouds. We walked down two and a half hours before we finally made it to our lunch spot. At that point, I was done hiking. It was cold and rainy and you couldn't see anything!

View of our Descent...

Lunch helped a little, but then it was another 4 hours downhill to our campsite. The rain finally stopped, but the trail was so muddy; I was thankful I had walking sticks, but it was still not easy. The last hour my knees were hurting so bad, I just wanted to stop walking. I was so thankful when we finally made it to our campsite. This one was a compound where everyone was camping. When I sat (fell) down into our tent, I almost cried because of the pain in my lower legs and feet. Going downhill was way harder than uphill and I hadn't had any training of downhill.

We had another good meal, popped some Vitamin I, drank some wine and slept very well.

Day 3

We couldn't take the normal trek trail through the jungle because of landslides that had occurred due to the heavy rains so we walked along a road for four hours to our lunch spot. It wasn't too fascinating or too bad until the last hour when my knees began to ache again. It was really painful. 

But a nice surprised awaited us at lunch, Luis had baked a birthday cake for Tracey over a fire! So we sang and celebrated, it was fun. 

Thankfully we didn't have to walk anymore that day. Instead, we took a van to the hot springs in Santa Theresa where we would camp for the night. We soaked in the hot springs, had dinner, and soaked in the hot springs some more. It felt soooooo good on my legs. My calves were extremely tight and they hurt so bad, but the warm water helped a lot.

In the Hot Spring

Day 4

The group split up on this day. Walli and Christina walked to the lunch spot, Tracey took a van (she dislocated her knee the day before), and Lane and I decided to go zip lining. I had never been zip lining before, but I had always wanted to try. When we got to the first line, I was pretty nervous, but it was still worth it to have a break from walking; and it turned out to be really fun! We went across five zip lines and finished with a suspension bridge. The bridge was not fun. There were a few young men who thought it was funny to shake the whole bridge and jump up and down and I did not enjoy that. 

After that little detour we took a van to the lunch spot and met up with “the family.” For the afternoon, we split into two groups, Walli and Christina walked to Aguas Calinetes and the rest of us took the train (Lane and I are just such great friends that we couldn't let Tracey go by herself). When we got to the small town, we checked into our hotel and took a real shower! After cleaning up and turning into real humans again, we went out for pizza, beers, and really bad karaoke. It was so great to sleep in a bed that night.

Day 5

We woke up at 4AM on Friday to catch a bus to Machu Picchu. When we got the the bus station there was already a long line of people ready to go. But it wasn't a Venezuelan line, they transport thousands of people to Machu Picchu daily so it was efficient and we got to the park in no time. The morning clouds were still burning away when we got in, but it was still incredible to see the whole city on the top of the mountain. Nico gave us a tour and history of the Incas. The more I learned about them, the more I was impressed. Only about 500 people lived at Machu Picchu and only over a 100 year span, but the work they did is amazing. At 10 AM, we had tickets to hike to Huayna Picchu. Again, I had booked this for us, without realizing that it meant that we were going to hike the high peak behind Machu Picchu that was 45 minutes of straight stairs. But we made it to the top and from there you could see the whole ruins. After coming back down, Lane and I went too see the Inca Bridge while the others took the bus back to town. The bridge wasn't anything too exciting, but it really illustrated how dangerous some of the Incan trails were; they were extremely narrow and right on the edge of a cliff. We got back to town around 3PM and were so ready to sit down and eat. Then we wasted time drinking and eating and playing Jenga until our train left at 10PM. I passed out on the two hour train ride and then on the two hour van ride and then when we got back to the apartment, I was exhausted.

Saturday we slept in! It was much needed after our trekking adventure. Then we went to a late brunch in the main plaza for the last time and said our goodbyes to our guide. Then back to our apartment to pack and send Lane off to the airport :(

That night, Walli was really sick. Somehow she had gotten double pink eye and a horrible cough. So Tracey and I went out to get her medicine and pick up some food. The only bad thing about staying in the non-tourist area, is that not one single restaurant would take a credit card. And since we were leaving the next morning, we didn't want to take out more local currency. So we went home tired and grumpy. The landlord saw us on the way back and insisted he could help somehow. I am telling you, Peruvians are the nicest people ever. First, he exchanged money with us, then he called to order us pizza, and then he even delivered the pizza to us.

I was sad to leave the next day. I will definitely visit Peru again. It is a gorgeous country with such kind people. Not to mention, they speak beautiful Spanish that even I was able to understand. 

"Yankee Go Home"

Front page of a local newspaper

I have officially made my decision that I will not be returning to Caracas next fall. I will finish out this school year and return to the States for good this summer. It was a very, very tough decision to make and I stressed over it a lot. I love my teaching position, my coworkers, and my school; however, I am not really enjoying the unstableness of Venezuela. I do not want to live in a place where my job has three emergency plans in case “shit hits the fan,” excuse my french.

Plan A: Hold in place. Do not leave your apartment.
Plan B: If evacuation is necessary, take a private boat to Curacao and stay with their international school staff until you can get flights to the States from there.
Plan C: Call in the private security company SWAT to evacuate you out of the country.

If it is not necessary that I put myself in an uncomfortable and stressful living situation, then why should I put myself through it for another year? I will be moving back to Jacksonville Beach; and I know I will be so much happier just knowing that I can go places myself, get the medicines I need, and not worry about what actions the government might decide to take against Americans.

"If you aren't killed in the street, you will die without medicine."

“Holding on is believing that there's only a past; letting go is knowing that there's a future.” - Daphine Rose Kingma

While I have to hold on for two more months, I will try to make the best of it, but that does not stop me from counting down the days until summer...