We spent the day in Calabozo mostly spending time with Suegra and her friends. Talking at her house, visiting her Internet Cafe, seeing her friend’s house, etc.

Suegra's God son Eric

Neighbor Jaxa and her daughter

Flowers from friends and neighbors.

We capped the the day off with dinner at the hotel with Mark, Lethy, Suegra, her god son Eric, Astrid and Nene.

The drive was not nearly as difficult as advertised.

Sure roads were not in the best shape, but the deepest potholes were only 12″

Rock Paintings on the Autopista near Valencia

Every single small town along the way (Calobozo is not along a highway) has at least 3 speed bumps. One town had 20. Astrid counted. It sucked.

A saddle shop in a small town along the road.

A lot of it was just 2 lane country roads and lots of the towns had insanely poorly designed main intersections which resulted in a massive traffic jam. Youtube video of the typical town center intersection to come. Uploading it will take a long time.

The Rocks. Formations not to be confused with Los Roques in NE Venezuela.

Every town needs a Simon Bolivar statue...

Los Llanos = Rice and Cows.

Almost there…

Embalse de Guarico - The man made lake @ Calabozo

Are we there yet?

Bienvenidos a Calabozo

After we quickly checked in, we dropped off everyone – Suegra at her house.

Suegra's House

Then we took Astrid to her parents’ house. Astrid’s mom made us a late lunch while Astrid’s sisters fawned over Lethy. Very tired and hot we went back to the hotel for showers and a quick nap. Having electricity and water (both hot and cold) was awesome. A couple hours later we went to Suegra’s house for dinner and relaxing. It quickly turned into a block party. I got to meet all the neighbors and a lot of Lethy’s childhood friends. Sadly no pictures from the party – we left the camera in the room thinking it would be a simple dinner with Leticia.

Up early. Ricardito off to classes for the day.

Lethy, Leticia, Astrid and Nene will begin the long drive to Calabozo as soon as we can wake up Lethy. She is famous for her sleepiness even after being gone for 10 years! Ricardo and Ricardito will come after he finishes classes.

I’m told the drive is very scenic but that the road is in awful condition. It’s not a highway and apparently potholes can be half a meter deep or more. Oh, and there may be 12 to 25 foot long cayman in the road, especially after the heavy rains last night, they may be out to sunbath.

More later!

We got to sleep in today because all the people we will be visiting are working.

The water is turned off, no word on when it will come back on.

Typical Venezuelan breakfast: Arepas con jamon y queso, mango, pan, y jugo de naranja.

Most of the day is spent talking and playing with Nene. He learns fast and is very persistent for attention. And of course, he has boundless energy.

Late afternoon and it is very hot and humid, little to no breeze to be found. At least we have the comfort of fans, right?

The power gets cut, but as a consolation, we hear the siren that water will be turned on again. Cold showers (there is no other kind here) are a welcome remedy for the heat and it comes just in time too before we head out.

Lethy’s Aunt (on Ricardo’s side) lives on the opposite side of Valencia. 5PM is rush hour – lots of sitting in traffic. Thankfully we have A/C in the car and gas is cheap to not feel so guilty using it.

5PM Traffic in Valencia Cross Town

El mono es muy furioso

As always, plenty of food and lots of meeting with people.

Left to Right: Suegra, Tia Rosa, Astrid, Ricardito and Nene, Prima Fiorella, Ricardo, Mark, Leticia, y Tio Freddi

Mark and Lethy with Tio Freddi and Tia Ana

Mark and Lethy with Tia Mercedes y Victoria

Ricardisimo and Victoria

Lethy and Fiorella

Lethy, Mark, Suegra and Tia Rosa

Time for Cake!


Successfully evading the camera: Victoria’s father, Tio Ricardo and his wife and their son…. Ricardo (yeah, it’s confusing). Also, Tio Roberto and Tia Mercedes’ husband.

Thunderstorms break out as people prepare to head home. Driving in the dark and rain is an experience I’d like to avoid doing again. A quarter of the cars have no lights. Half the motorcycles have no lights… and are still on the road in the dark and pouring rain! And by pouring rain I mean shotglass full sized drops of rain that sound like hail when they hit. Also, a tour bus is stopped in the middle of the highway with MANY police cars surrounding it. Highway is closed and everyone forced onto local streets. Everyone assumes it is a “buy my wares or I’ll rob you” gone wrong. Vendors board buses in traffic along the highway selling fruit or bread or lottery tickets. Apparently if they do not get the sales they want on a bus, it often becomes a hijacking. Yet another reason to be thankful we are driving ourselves.

When we get back both the power and water are on. Despite a couple of hours of very heavy rain, it did not cool off much and the humidity seems to have actually risen. Having to sleep without a fan would have been tough. Ricardo tells ghost stories and then we all head to bed.

Early start this morning getting everyone packed up and downstairs for breakfast.

After breakfast we check out and pile into our 2 cars. I follow Ricardito but he doesn’t know Caracas and we are quickly lost.

A typical Caracas bario built into the hill

Ricardo switches cars to join him. 2 hours later we’re on the highway. Machismo > maps. Downtown traffic is also extremely bad.

Caracas

The drive out of Caracas offered some great views. The mountains are lush greens and then there is the havoc of the city below. The clouds drift through these small peaks. It’s quite a climb to get through the passes there.

Green hills surrounding Caracas and Ricardito's minivan (white, behind pickup).

Once through the pass though, the landscape flattens out except for the occasional stretch of mountains inland from the sea. The highway is better maintained than the streets of Caracas, but they are still “como la luna” – pocked with potholes and large stretches of ground down asphalt waiting to be repaved. The 160km journey took about 3 hours from the outskirts of Caracas (not including the 2 hours of traffic sitting and circle driving).

After arriving in Valencia we went to market and then settled in for an evening with just Suegro + Suegra, Ricardito, Astrid, Nene, Lethy and I.