Sept. 7. Mare Mares Marina, Puerto La Cruz

The wind kept howling with 25 knots and gusts up to 30 until well into the afternoon and finally died down by sunset. We checked for holes in our eyelids for a couple of hours and pulled anchor at midnight and brought the last 43 miles behind us. We had a smooth motor trip, sails never had to go up. Had the most spectacular sunrise with dolphins dancing on the water. Approaching Puerto La Cruz was exciting and also somewhat overwhelming to see this huge city. We are in the El Morro Development which has lots of canals and is the home of at least 6 marinas. We were absolutely positively surprised to drive through the narrow canal surrounded by the cutest and most colorful houses, a miniature Venice, actually it reminds us of the Disney ride "it's a small world after all". Can't wait to get the dinghy down and cruise through it taking pictures. The Mare Mares Marina we're in is a five star hotel and marina and we found out that when Chavez comes to visit Puerto La Cruz he stays here and they kick all the boats out during his stay. Not that we want to see him anyway. You should see the pool here, it's huge and absolutely beautiful and every 15 minutes the wave machine comes on. Oh by the way, Doug and Lisa were delayed too, they are waiting for canvas work to be done and may leave tomorrow, so we had a great time catching up with them and enjoying the wonderful buffet here at the restaurant. The marina also has a spa (I think that will be out of my league), gym and a two minute walk away is an awesome mall. There are no slips in the marina, everybody is med moored, which makes it tough for us to get on and off the boat, but they had a solution already and placed huge steps in front of our boat. The best about that is the name "Bird of Paradise is written on it". This marina is top notch and it does not seem like we're in Venezuela at all. The air-conditioner is on, the ice machine is hooked up, all the sunshades are in place and in a couple of days we should be settled in. We'll look for a flight for Sid to finally fly to North Carolina to see his mom, hopefully next week and in the meantime we'll just get the boat cleaned up and check out our new home for the next few months. Also looking for a place to store our boat junk while our boat is in the yard. From what we know it will take at least a couple of months to paint the boat properly. No problem, don't have a schedule and don't have a job. Besides I need to perfect my Spanish and Sid needs to learn to order more than just 10 cervezas or rum. Labor here is so cheap, for 30 bucks a day somebody will spend 8 hours on your boat, washing, waxing, varnishing, polishing, whatever you need. Almost as good as Colombia. An average salary here is 200 bucks a months, not much to live on. Our rent here for the month is 460 including utilities and use of the hotel, the other marinas are cheaper.