Merry Christmas

A lot has been happening in the last month. We’ve been so busy I hardly find time for our Blogg, sorry. Sometimes I wonder how we even fit work into our busy schedule. We had some visitors from Switzerland Peter and Helene. Helene works with my cousin and while traveling in Venezuela they stopped for a visit. We had a wonderful time and it’s always great to make new friends.

We got our quote from AquaVi and arranged to be hauled out by January 15. We thought finding an apartment would be a hassle. The very first place I checked I found an incredible 4 bed/bath condo which comes with two boat slip and is right across from Maremares for $1000 a month. Having lived on Paradise for 20 years, 30 for Sid, the condo is absolutely too big, so we will need a GPS to get around the house. It’s a really cool condo, more like its own house on three levels. It also comes with a patio by the slips, a balcony above by living room, open kitchen, 2 balconies in the bedrooms facing Maremares and a huge terrace on the roof with built in bar and the most incredible view of the mountains. Best yet we have a choice of keeping the maid and for 15 bucks a day we’ll have her twice a week. This is probably the only time in my life I’ll be able to afford one. Terry and I are really excited over this. Yes, we’re having roommates. We’ve known Gerry and Terry on Gymnopedies since cruising in Mexico. They are hauling out at the same time and were looking for a place to live as well, problem solved. We are all really excited. Then of course just when you need it the least something goes wrong. Our car blew up, the dinghy engine melted beyond repair and so we have to buy a new one as it is going to be Sid’s ride to and from the yard.

Other than that all is going well, we have more fun then ever, still meeting every evening under the tree of knowledge and save the world.

After the election life in Venezuela went right back to normal, it’s like there was never an election here, nobody even talks about it. The very next day after the election the stores were fully stocked but there is still no sugar to be found, nowhere. Even the sugar/aspartame mixture is sold out. With Christmas around the corner I wonder how they are going to make Christmas cookies this year, on the other hand maybe they don’t make them anymore.

In the last few months a lot of changes have been going on here at Maremares, several managers have been replace and daily you can see new employees, they are not as friendly anymore as they used to be, nobody seems to be happy working here. They stopped our Happy Hour on Wednesday nights they had for the last 10 years. Marina docks are falling apart and they will not repair them. During the week there are no guests to see at the hotel, it looks like this hotel is financially in shambles.

Ewald from Switzerland, married to a Venezuelan and having lived here since over 7 years, has a good inside of what’s happening. He told me Maremares has just been sold for $500 000, it’s not official yet. He said what happens here in Venezuela is that if a business goes bankrupt the government takes it over, which happened to Maremares a couple years back and ever since it’s been going down hill. So it is supposedly going up for auction. But here is how the government runs the auction. Before it’s posted in the newspaper some El Presidente family, buddies, friends, goons or whatever offer the minimum amount and buy it. Then he waits about three days before the auction is published but of course nobody now has a change to make a bid, but to legally be correct it had been posted in the papers. I guess we just found out how Papa Presidente became to be the richest property owner in this country. They are so corrupt. Ewald also mentioned that when his ex-sister in law came over a few days ago, she was telling him that she just came back from a free three weeks Cuban vacation from her work. You have to know she works for a bank El Presidente owns. He said she was so brainwashed, all she was talking about was Fidel this and Fidel that. Presidente and Fidel have a program where they exchange people for free vacations. He’s on his way to turn this country into another Cuba and will probably get away with it. What we’ve found out in the time we’ve been here are bits and pieces but they are all starting to come together like in a puzzle. I could go on and on how corrupt he runs his country, but I don’t want to bore you any longer.

Christmas is just around the corner, Paradise is nicely decorated in and out, but the Christmas spirit hasn’t set in yet, maybe because it’s still 90 degrees outside? No snow covered roofs for reindeers to land on? No Santa Claus walking around? The cat hasn’t grown her winter fur yet? We’re hanging out at the pool every day? Drinking cold rum drinks instead of hot toddies? No sugar in the stores to make cookies? No eggnog either? Whatever it is I’m sure the spirit will get here when we all prepare our Christmas potluck dinner.

We wish you all the most wonderful Holiday Season and a Happy New Year.

Merry Christmas

Sid, Manuela and Tika

Election in Venezuela

This is indeed a very sad day here in Venezuela as El Presidente was re-elected president. Manuel Rosales had no chance whatsoever as El Presidente controlled all TV stations, waging an unfair propaganda campaign by appearing constantly on state TV, accusing the Manuel Rosales opposition of planning disruption if he won.

During the last two weeks not one channel ever showed any of Rosales propagandas, only El Presidente, there was barely room for regular commercials.

Since he first won office in 1998, El Presidente has increasingly dominated all branches of government and his allies now control congress, state offices and the judiciary. Current law prevents him from running again in 2012 but he has said he plans to seek constitutional reforms that would include an end to presidential term limits. Yesterday rumors had it that if defeated he would not give up power. As the pools opened the pooling stations where it was known to be Rosales followers the pooling was slowed down, causing mile long lines in the streets. I was actually amazed to see that the election was not counted electronically but by hand. As it was shown on TV you either saw one person open vote after vote then showing result to others while one person wrote it down. Some other pooling stations showed the person opening votes but never showing the result to others.

Hugo's campaign was full of lies, one of the gym workers here at the hotel believed and still believes that if El Presidente wins he will give her a farm, so do many poor Venezuelan’s they were told that if he wins they will be given land.

Last week was an intense week for everybody especially for the Rosales followers as many of them will leave the country if El Presidente wins as they will have no future in this country. The black market for money exchange was at an all time high as they all desperately try to get their money out of Venezuela. Foreign property owners are worried that El Presidente will take away their land because he takes it away from his own people and gives them nothing for it.

Grocery stores were busy and 4 days before election shelves were empty. Restaurants are limited as they didn’t get any deliveries this week. Everybody loaded up as there was fear of a strike.

Ever since we arrived in Venezuela we haven’t been able to find sugar in the stores. The only type sugar you can find is a mixture of sugar and aspartame. Sugar consumption is so high that Venezuela cannot provide it and would have to import it, which El Presidente refuses to do.

The unfortunate thing is El Presidente is in the power now to get his wish to turn this country into a dictatorship, indeed a very said day today in Venezuela.

On another note, we had a little fun with our neighbors yesterday as they currently are in Florida. I received an email from them hoping that all was well for us on election-day and telling us to use their provisions if we had to. These are the photos we sent them and telling them that we think we were OK and thanking them for offering their food.

Other than that, we are having a wonderful time and now that election is over and all went smoothly we’ll get through Christmas and then into the yard. Today we are starting to look for an apartment to move in through the haul out.

Merida Tour

The bus ride was really fun we had a full moon and therefore were able to see quite a bit of the beautiful country side. It was a pretty comfortable ride as the chairs are like recliners. The only problem was that they don’t regulate the temperature, but we knew it was going to be a very cold ride and prepared accordingly but never expected to sit in a freezer. We wore sweat shirts, winter jackets, socks and had towels over us and still were freezing our butts off; result Manuela excited the bus with a sinus infection and we organized a flight back. The drive took 20 hours but is amazingly only about 990 km long, so we must have driven an average of 50 km/30mph. By sunset we drove through Caracas’s rush hour, a two hour drive through the capital of Venezuela. It’s a huge city with rush hour as we know it in our cities. The downtown area is filled with high rise buildings but the suburb is what caught my eye. You cannot describe this area as it is a mess of the ugliest housing I’ve ever seen. One shack is built on top of another like shoe boxes are stacked; you cannot describe it, all I can say is it breaks your heart to see how the poor live here. For anybody that’s been in southern California it looks like a giant Tijuana.

Finally driving up the canyon to Merida we expected to find a small Village surrounded with mountains, instead we found a huge city with traffic worse than Los Angeles. We were pretty disappointed to find such a busy city with rush hour traffic that lasts all day long, instead of the little tranquil village we had expected.

Merida (1577m/5176f) lays deep in the heart of the Andes and is separated by the high mountain from both Colombia and Venezuela. This picturesque city sits on a flat mesa, an alluvial terrace stretching for about 12 km between two parallel rivers, its edges dropping abruptly to the riverbanks. The historic quarter is at the northeastern end of the plateau, easily recognized by the typically Spanish chessboard street layout. The city is filled with Posados, small and inexpensive family-run guesthouses with a friendly atmosphere. Our friends Dale and Sandy on Snow White stayed at the most beautiful Posada Casa el Sol which is run by a Swiss couple. We stayed at Gioia’s house. Gioia is famous with the cruisers as everybody stays at her house. She lives with Sabrina, her daughter and her Mother in the old town of Merida. Her mom is an artist when it comes to decorating cakes as she makes flowers out of sugar which are absolutely beautiful and look very real. As Dale and Sandy arrived (they flew here), we sat down with Gioia and planned our stay. Early the next morning we went to the Teleferico, the highest and longest cable car in the world. It is 12.5 km long and goes from 1577m/5173f up to 4765/15630f (Pico Espejo) in 4 trams and a total of five stations, from where you can observe the highest peak of the Andes Pico Bolivar 5007m/16423f. Plan was to take the cable car up, ride mules down to Los Nevados and from there by jeep back to Merida. But unfortunately or fortunately the cable car had some mechanical problems so we took the jeep ride up to Los Nevados first and at the end of the trip realized that this was the better way to go as it is easier to ride the jeep and mules uphill rather than down hill.

Gioia told us to get a jeep for four people as they load the trucks full with tourist, barley leaving room. We couldn’t find a jeep but managed to talk the truck driver into taking us four alone, or that’s what we thought. As we left he drove into town but before we knew it we were back by the cable car station where he loaded up a whole bunch of construction material from wood to paint, you name it. Then an older man showed up with a bag full of long candles. Then another one with more construction material which they tide up on the roof along with a huge bag full of fruits and vegetables, then we finally left for the 5 hour drive up to Los Nevados. That’s what we thought again. About 10 minutes later he stopped and picked up the one guy’s wife and 3 year old son. Off we went again for another 5 minutes, then another stop where we now picked up bags of pasta, sugar, toilette paper, flour, more fruits and vegetables. Now it was not just the 7 of us but also a load of food and provisions strapped on top of the roof and we finally left for Los Nevados. A half hour into the steep drive up the mountains we had to stop, the poor woman had morning sickness, the whole drive turned into a big adventure. The road for the first hour wound up the hill it was a fairly narrow road with plenty of room for two cars to pass if they slowed down. The view over the valley of Merida was just spectacular. Then we started heading into the valleys above the mountain where the road now turned into a very narrow dirt road, just wide enough for one car to pass with a steep cliff side to the right. It was a very exciting drive and looking down the steep mountain walls gave us the willies. Halve way up the mountain we stopped at a tiny town of four buildings, had lunch and then had to change jeeps as the road was being worked on. I tell you it was tough work to schlep all the food and construction stuff up the steep hill to the other truck. Now there was not just the four of us, the old man, the couple and son, but also another tour guide and two girls from Belgium all piled into one truck, it was tight. The road was even steeper now and more primitive and the truck was listing to the cliff side, not good. I told Dale out of fun that he should move to the other side, five minutes later the driver wanted to know Dales weight and asked him to switch side with Sandy, now that worried us a bit, you have to know the path was just wide enough for the truck and the tire had about another 10 inches before it went steep down the walls to a riverbed that looked a couple of miles below us. We were all glad to finally arrive safe and sound in Los Nevados.

Los Nevados is a charming mountain village, nestled at about 2700m/8856f half way up a steep valley. The inhabitants live of tourism and every house is a Posada. We stayed at the Bella Vista which is the most expensive but also the nicest and cleanest. The view from our bathroom window was just spectacular as we were high up the hill overlooking the wide canyon, just breath taking. We paid 40 000 BS (15 bucks) per person per night which included a wonderful dinner and breakfast, can’t complain. There was another Posado we liked with hammocks hanging on the patio, so we had a couple of beers resting in the hammocks. There is not much to do as the village is very small. It has maybe three little convenient store. We couldn’t find any wine, just beer and rum but they make local hot toddy called Calientada which is a variety of mountain herbs boiled up in hot water and served with liquors, very tasty and each Posada has its unique flavor.

Early the next morning our mule adventure started. Giovanni was our guide who provided us with three mules and one horse. The weird thing was he put the big guys on the smallest mules and us girls on the big ones; we couldn’t understand that and felt sorry for the poor mules. The 5 hour ride was just incredible. You have to know that this is the beginning of spring in this area and all the wild mountain flowers where in full bloom. It was just absolutely breath taking and we savored every inch we headed up the steep mountain. All went well for the first couple of miles, but then Sandy’s, Sid’s and Dale’s mules started fighting over who’s first while my horse stayed behind them. The mules were constantly fighting over the lead position we were laughing so hard our faces hurt. The competition got worse and worse and my horse all of a sudden wanted to be in the lead as well, there was biting and kicking. We caught up with another group of mules and the fighting over the lead involved them now as well. It was a mess, Sid’s mule seemed to like me behind him as he kept stopping and my knee would shove up his butt each time he did that. That wasn’t fun but we laughed so hard as my knee was wet and dirty, actually both of them. The mule seemed to like it as it repeated this over and over. Finally Sandy’s mule got so out of hand, it even kicked a guide and tossed hurdled downhill, luckily it wasn’t very steep and he didn’t get hurt as the mule kicked his back pack. We finally had to tell Giovanni that this was not fun anymore. So he guided Sandy’s mule behind us and we had no more problems and my horse was now in the lead. We took an hour lunch by a pretty stream and from there it was another 1 ½ hour up the hill, this was the steepest part. Sandy’s mule and my horse started playing with each other, racing up the hill. One would stop and wait for the other then they would gallop up the rocks and repeated this over and over, us girls of course screaming. Finally we reached Loma Redonda 4045m/13267f our butts were sore. From here we could have taken the cable car to the top of Espejo but I don’t think Sandy and I could have made it as our lips were blue from lack of oxygen and with every step we did we were dizzy. So we headed down instead. In Merida again we had an early dinner went home and crashed for the day, we were tired.

The third day the boys went canyoning an awesome, terrifying, beautiful, insane but amazing or quite possibly the maddest thing you can do without getting killed is canyoning – climbing, rappelling and hiking down a canyon water fall. The guys had a blast. They repelled down three waterfalls starting at 8m/26f, 14m/46f and 35m/115f, what a thrill.

Sandy and I took a tour with Sabrina from Merida up the Valley through Tabay, Cacute, Mucuruba, Mucuchies to Laguna de Mucubaji and went to see the famous Condors. They had three caged one has been there for 14 years as he cannot fly anymore. He showed off for us with wide spread wings, it was awesome. This bird is really huge, would hate having one come after us as they can run very fast.

Merida is known for trout and so we ended our fun week with a wonderful trout dinner. Merida as busy of a city as it is, it has some of the best restaurants, lots of fun stores and just grows on you. We will be back and stay with Gioia again, maybe even stay for a month and study some Spanish. This was a wonderful trip filled with fun memories.

And now El Presidente Talk: the last day we were in Merida he decided to visit. We found out that he comes unannounced as he is scared of getting killed, wonder why. In his 8 years of presidency he’s never been to Merida. We were caught in the biggest traffic jam as he closed the road off to go out of town in any direction so that his busses could drive in. (Just good we flew out the next day as the airport was closed for the day as well). There were at least 60 busses that were brought in from up the valley where we were headed. I think I mentioned this before, he sends busses to poor villages, bribes them with BS 60 000, gives them a red T-Shirt and hat and takes them to where he has a speech, then the media will be there filming all of the now supporters cheering for El Presidente, so that the rest of the country believes they all like him. Some on the trucks were cheering for him because they got a day off from work and got paid almost a week’s salary for it. So we witnessed he’s crummy little deal here in Merida. He usually feeds them too but not this time, so the locals were a bit anxious as they feared a riot. Military was staged in all corners, just glad we all were out of town for this. He has done all his speeches around the country and decided that it was enough for both, Rosales has not even been around yet. El Presidente also mentioned already that on election-day it is only necessary to count 55% of the ballots publicly to determine who wins the next election. He does not know yet that Rosales has tough followers and they will make sure that every ballot is counted. As of now it looks 50/50, so El Presidente is starting to worry. Last week his opponent Manuel Rosales was at a football game which was shown on TV, as the crowd started chanting his name, the screen went blank, El Presidente pulled the plug. El Presidente has about 3 TV channels he’s on every morning with his lying speeches, Rosales has one channel and guess what, it has been blank for a week now. We also heard that El Presidente’s dad used to be a teacher in a small village, with a salary of an average of 2oo bucks a months. Now he owns the most property in the country, wonder how he got it? The latest slogan of El Presidente is: Election for Amore (Love). Vote for MY Venezuela. I need your vote, I need your AMORE. There is not on tiny bit of room left in his heart for even a tiny bit of love. He was married twice, but no one knows who and where his ex-wifes are. Rumors have it too that he is gay as most of his goonies are, they just haven’t been able to proof it yet that he is as well. This is the second time I’ve heard this about him. Most of the business owners here are so worried that El Presidente will win and are ready to flee the country if he is. The dollar exchange on the market is rolling high as they all want their money out of the country, for us it’s good as we get an incredible rate. As you see there is a lot going on here, a lot is at stake and if El Presidente wins he’s going to turn Venezuela into another Cuba. He tells his people that he wants a socialistic country like Italy, France, Germany and Switzerland, but does not tell them that he only wants one political group in Venezuela which is copying Castro.

We’ll be here for the election and it will be interesting to see what will happen.

Us bored???

It seems to us that life in Venezuela is getting busier and busier, time is just running away and before we realize it another week or two have passed. Here is what’s been happening the last two weeks.

All the hard labor Sid and the other guys did to help Zeny build up her hot dog stand was for nothing. Her next door restaurant neighbor saw a threat in her and called the police telling them she had no permit. They came and sent the guys home. The next day Zeny bought a permit from Lecheria and the guys were back in business and all that was left to do was to finish the roof when the police came again telling them to stop. This time she found out that the permit she just bought was only good for Lecheria and since the beach she is squatting on is Government property she has no right to build. She also was told to have everything the guys built removed within three days. Zeny tried to get a permit but was refused. In the mean time the three days had passed and now she was told if it wasn’t removed within the next day she would be arrested. So at 3 PM all the guys returned and demolished all the hard work they had done. The really bad part is, she’s been there for 15 years and had the OK from Lecheria, the Government on the other hand had no idea that she was there and this could eventually cause her to loose her hot dog stand. I can’t tell you how disappointed the guys are.

Halloween seems to go around the world as it is now also celebrated in Europe and even here in Venezuela. Bahia Redonda Marina had a huge party, pretty much everybody was dressed up, the music was rolling and booze was flowing. We went there for a couple of hours to catch up with Chris but went back to our marina as the hotel had a Halloween party as well. This place was pretty empty and instead of fun music they had a life Jazz group playing and at 11 they announce the winners, just like that. Kind of boring, but we had fun chatting to all our boat neighbors and Manuela won first price for her skull face. She won a dinner buffet for two at the hotel.

Last Saturday Jim the unofficial Mayor of Maremares celebrated his 70 Birthday which was a blast. Jenny made Sloppy Joes and everybody brought a dish to share. Beer, wine and booze was provided and Jim even brought a huge bag full of Halloween stuff out and everybody had some sort of mask or hat on. Now days you don’t even need DJ’s anymore as the I POD took over, we had the best variety of music and danced half the night through.

On Friday Rosalva, wife of taxi driver Leo, gave us a cooking class in typical Venezuelan dishes. We learned to make Empanadas and Guasacaca, which is nothing else but Guacamole. The way she makes it is a bit different, she places two garlic clove in a blender, one onion, lots of parsley, one big avocado, 2 teaspoon of salt and about a quarter cub of oil and blends it. It’s a bit soupier than the guacamole we’re used too but it tastes creamier and is also served with grilled meats. We had so much fun listening and watching Rosalva while Mimosa was passed around. The recipes are fairly simple but for the ones who need to have the exact measurements they will not be able to cook it as she never gave us any, she just mixed and blended by feel. They tasted yummy but were a bit too greasy. In two weeks we’re learning to cook the traditional Venezuelan Christmas dinner, can’t wait.

Evita the kitten is doing really well; she survived her ordeal and does nothing but play. She’s pretty wild. Her parents are back and so we planned our trip to Merida. We’re leaving on Monday by bus. Dotty took me to the bus station earlier this week to buy our tickets but were told that we couldn’t get them until one or two days before departure. We also learned that they don’t sell round trip tickets we have to get them again one or two days before leaving, kind of odd. In order to buy a ticket you also have to have a passport. I would hate to think fighting for a bus ticket around Christmas to visit family.

Getting money here in Venezuela is a bit different than in any other country. Using credit cards and ATM machine here is a big no-no, which makes it tough on some countries. Luckily the black market here wants the US dollar and so it is easy for us to exchange our dollar in either cash or personal checks. Everybody changes it on the black market as the current bank rate is 2144 Bolivares for one US Dollar, while the black market rate is anywhere from 2700 to 3200, depending on the amount. Most of the boat businesses here accept checks. The only problem with that is, sometimes the checks don’t get cashed for a couple of months.

So on Monday we’re taking a sleeper bus up to Merida, the trip is 20 hours long and we heard it feels like sitting on your recliner chair in a freezer. Time to dig out our winter cloths, all three of them.

Hectic weeks

 

Where do I start? It’s been a hectic few weeks and lots has been happening. The same day as Sid came back from the States, our friends Joanne and Ken on Rusty Bucket arrived as well. We haven't seen them since Cartagena. Amazing how small the cruising world is, no matter where we go we run into old friends. Chris on Colonel’s Lady is here as well, we met him in Mexico. On Joanne’s first morning back as she stepped out of the boat our neighbor Collin from England was sitting near her boat sweating profusely. Asking if he was OK she ran back inside and brought him a glass of water and as he started to drink she noticed the droop in his mouth and called the hotel nurse right away. By the time he arrived at the hospital he was in worse shape and a few hours later we learned that he was paralyzed from his chest down and was in an induced coma. Later on that evening as we had dinner with Rusty Bucket on Changes of Attitude we received the info that he needed surgery immediately, he had suffered a stroke and it was very serious. At that time it was a life or death situation. Poor Joanne had no idea what she was getting into as she speaks perfect Spanish (she was involved for 4 weeks straight). The hospital needed somebody to take the responsibility which none of us was risking to take, as this type of stroke was eminent that he may not make it or may be a vegetable for the rest of his life and such a responsibly was not what any of us wanted. We needed to find family members in England now to get the OK. Larry and I went through his boat to find an address book or something, nothing. We looked and looked, while Joanne contacted the British Embassy. We could not find any info on his family, except for some doctor’s names as he was a diabetic. Weeks later we found out that the marina staff left his address book on a chair at the hospital which disappeared. It took Joanne, the British Embassy and Collin’s doctor 5 days to get hold of his family. In the mean time we found out that it was not a stroke but a severely compressed disk, an ongoing serious problem where he missed seeing his doctor and that he still needed the surgery as he was paralyzed from his chest down and still in an induced coma. 10 days later his ex-wife arrived and surgery finally went through. Vanessa has been here for almost three weeks now, Collin is alive but he will remain paralyzed and is just learning to move his hands. They now are trying to get him back to England which is a huge process as it is hard to find an airline to transport him. We all learned valuable lessons, hospitals here will not take a patient, no matter how serious the illness, unless they get paid in advance. Luckily Gordon and Thelma, our next door neighbors, Collin’s British friends, came up with roughly $ 4000 so the hospital would keep him. Imagine that, they don't even want the money back. The second thing was to have some papers available who to contact in case of emergency. I made a list of contacts and taped it on the mast so it can be easily seen.

          Two days after the incident Changes of Attitude left for two weeks to Merida to study Spanish. I offered to take care of their kitten, who was recovering from being spayed and needed medication. The second day kitty-sitting she got so ill we had to take her emergency to the vet. She had a kidney infection and hadn't eaten in four days. Now instead of having to give her 2 different type of medication she had 5 to take at different times. She looked awful and refused to eat. Every couple of hours we injected her with some water, so she wouldn't dehydrate. Sid spent the first night with her, sleeping on the couch with her next to him. I spent the following three nights with her, also sleeping on the couch, giving her water and food every three hours day and night. It was a 24 hour a day nursing job. We thought she was not going to make it and had to force feed her with a syringe. Day 6 finally a bit of a progress, she tried to lick some water, a good sign. Then mom came back as she was worried about her baby. Evita by then was doing much better and we got some well deserved sleep. Two days after Dotty came back Evita took a turn to the worst again but recovered within a couple of days. Now Dotty had to go to Florida so we took over again, still feeding Evita with a syringe. After a further 3 days Evita is finally eating on her own, actually she turned into an eating machine and is finally putting some weight on. She was a rescued wild kitten, who witnessed her parents and sibling getting chewed up by a dog and was badly malnourished when Dotty and Larry took her on. She’s doing fine now and is as wild as ever and all she wants is to play. She spent all her toy-mice allowance and bought us a trip to Merida for 3 days as a thank you for saving her life.

          While all this has been happening, Sid has been involved in some charity work. Jenny and Jim on Three Keys (known as the Mayor of Maremares), have been here for 6 years and know this place in and out. Jim has been helping a local women, who’s husband abandoned her and her 2 kids, to build a hot dog stand on the beach. This has been an ongoing two year project. Now he’s fixing a new roof for her and Sid and a couple other guys have been helping him the last couple of weeks. Sid said its hard labor and comes home pooped every day. They are having fun.

          We still meet every evening at 6 under the tree of knowledge, Sundays we have our potlucks. The girls go to the local market on Tuesdays and daily around four meet in the pool. This coming Thursday Rosa will teach us to cook some local dishes. Beer is still under 30 cents and rum is still abundantly available, so life couldn't be better.

Oct. 10. No Rum in NC, TN and GA

I heard rumors that Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina ran out of Rum; just glad Sid came back on time as there is plenty rum left in Venezuela. A huge thank you to all our friends who made sure that Sid’s rum level was kept at the norm. He had a great time visiting you all and as of today he is starting a detox program and we hope you’re liver have recuperated as well. Sid had a long but good trip back to Venezuela and had no problem coming through customs in Caracas. Just as he thought he could recuperate from all the drinking and eating he had to do I surprised him with a 60 birthday party. It was a huge hit. Larry, Toni and Ken pretended that they needed a sports bar fix, of course the easiest way to lure Sid away from the crime scene. In front of our boat is the “Tree of Knowledge” or “Talking Tree” with a blue outdoor carpet beneath where we gather for cocktails at six and have fun potlucks on Sunday evenings. On the days of the potlucks tables with green table cloth are set up for us as well as the BBQ. When the boys left for the sports bar the tables were set up already, now minding you it was Saturday, with red table cloth and the seats were covered in white, it looked very festive. Sid always very observant had to question it. Luckily Denny came up with a real quick answer, that there probably was a wedding at the hotel and they usually set extra tables here in case they needed them. Sid looked at the BBQ and Denny reading his mind quickly adding: “Oh, wow, they delivered our BBQ already for tomorrow, that was nice.” Ugh, that went fairly well. I had just about two hours to get the decoration up, lots of balloons and Sid’s caricature face which I had doctored up, hanging all over the tree. All the guests arrived at 5 and we were barley done getting all the food organized when the guys came around the corner and up the dock towards us. Halve way Sid noticed a lot of people under the tree, but thought it must be a wedding until he saw me, that’s when he knew he was had. At this point we all placed his caricature face in front of ours, it was too funny. Everybody brought their own stuff to throw on the BBQ, a dish to share and I made sure plenty of wine and beer were iced down for everybody. Larry’s wife Dotty made his favorite BD cake pineapple upside down cake. We had a wonderful time and partied until two in the morning. At 10 we met already again where I passed BM’s around, which many of us desperately needed.

While Sid was having fun visiting friends in the States, I had the chance to get to know Venezuela a whole bunch more. Every Tuesday Dotty and I take the “porpuesto” into town and enjoy buying the freshest and most tropical fruits and vegetables at the local market, wander through town and have lunch in any of the many wonderful restaurants along Paseo Colon the board walk of Puerto La Cruz. By the way a porpuesto is what cruisers call a poor man’s taxi (used by the middle class), costs 1000 BS (40 cents) no matter where you drive and will pick up to 5 passengers and drop them off anywhere along the route. Unfortunately a lot of cruisers think it’s below them to use a poor man’s taxi and spend 5 to 10 bucks for a taxi which looks just a bad as the poor man’s taxi does. But most of them use Raul, Leo or Andy as they speak English and can be hired hourly but pay a much higher price. I like to use the poor man’s taxi as it gives me a chance to live the real live in Puerto La Cruz and to meet the locals. This is a big eye opener and I find out many times we are misinformed and of course learn a lot about Chavez’s politics.

I think I mentioned in a previous Blogg foreign vessels cannot get fuel here in Puerto La Cruz. All the cruisers think it’s the act of Chavez, which didn’t make sense to me as only Puerto La Cruz is affected. Gas prices here are really cheap but if a vessel fuels over 1000 liters the price doubles, so instead of paying 18 cents a gallon it’s 36 cents, which is still dirt cheap. The workers at the pump station took advantage by writing lot of bogus receipts for the liters over 1000 and stuck that money into their pockets. Not just that they filled fuel into the fish holding tanks of local fishing boats and sold it on the islands, so a stop was put on this and no boat is allowed to fuel more than 1000 liters. I also had a lot of talks with locals about Chavez, only the very poor like him as they are given money. Here at the hotel a worker makes roughly 110 000 Bolivares per week that’s 440 000 a month which is around 170/180 dollars but if an employer has more than 18 employees they have to give them food stamps as well. I tell you 440 000 BS is not enough to buy food and get by, even with food stamps. Food is fairly expensive here as a 14% tax is added to everything.

Chavez also has some busses he now and then sends into very poor villages, they load the bus up with the poorest of the poor, give them money a free T-shirt and take them to an amusement park, movie theater, zoo or whatever and make sure they have a good time for the day, then at end of trip a news group is organized to film the now happy poor who by now are chanting for Chavez…… and the rest of the country who sees that on the news have no idea that they got bribed. It’s all so deceiving, this guy is so corrupt.

When I dropped Sid off at the airport my taxi driver who drove me home asked me if I was German and as I told him I was Swiss he said that we was glad as he hated Americans. That didn’t sit too well with me so I asked him the reason. He could not tell me really why he “hated” us but I got a really good idea how Chavez brain washed these poor people. Chavez tells them that the US is planning to invade the country and take over and that it would be the end for them all. By the time we arrived at the hotel we discussed a whole bunch, where I assured him that the US has no plans, nor interest to invade his country. I also asked him if Chavez tells them that the US donates monthly money to his country (as a matter of fact the last donation by the US counselor was 280 million, the previous months some 57 mill, if you go online and check out the Venezuelan Embassy, you’ll be shocked how much money we pour into this country. It will make you so mad that we pay millions to the sorry sob Chavez and who slanders us all over the world), to which he was very surprised. I also found out that Chavez tells the poor already that if his opponent wins the election in December that he will take the food stamps away from them. Then when we parted at the hotel he told me that he liked our conversation and that I was a very nice person, to which I answered that I was an American Citizen. He took a moment to get over the shock, apologized to me and said that he will listen to other info now too not just Chavez. From opponents I heard that Chavez is planning, if he wins again, he wants only one party in this country, sound like he wants another Cuba, kind of scary, but enough of politics.

Life in Puerto La Cruz is great, people are very friendly, the weather is hot and humid, we live the life of the riches and pay just a portion it and I guess when Sid depletes this country of rum it’ll be time to leave.

Sept. 23. Having fun in Puerto La Cruz

OK, OK, OK, we're sorry to have neglected all of you!!! After getting bombarded with all your emails, we realize how many of you are following us daily. That puts a big smile on our faces, thanks. Well, this is what’s been happening here. We’ve been busy scraping months worth of salt crust off the boat, finding our way around in Puerto La Cruz, organizing Sid’s flight to the US and getting settled in.

We love our new home and learn every day something new about this beautiful country. The marina is awesome and our neighbors just wonderful. Every Sunday night we have a BBQ potluck on the dock. Wednesday nights the hotel has a Happy Hour for us with free drinks and waiters walking around with platters full of wonderful appetizers, while a piano player plays soft music in the background, very ritzy.

Sid has left for North Carolina to visit his ailing mom. He arrived a few days ago and saw his Mom. Unfortunately it was a sad visit for him as his Mom did not recognize him anymore. He’ll be in the States for 2 ½ weeks and will visit friends in Knoxville, TN, Ellijay GA, then off to Oriental and New Bern, NC, from there to Wilmington and finally back to Raleigh to catch his flight home on the 4. October. He’s going to be a busy guy, but he will have fun seeing all our friends. While he’s gone I will get to know the area better and find an apartment or house to move in while we’re on the hard getting Paradise painted. Of course shopping is on the list too, as you probably figured out by now that my passion is shopping for food. You’d be amazed how many fruits I’ve found that I’ve never seen before. Each one of them has its unique flavors and are on our menu now daily. Food is fairly cheap here, but then the Government adds a 14% tax to everything and if you eat out in a restaurant an extra 10% service charge is added, which we were told is not the tip for the waiter, but it is still a lot cheaper than in the States or any of the Caribbean islands.

For all of you who are worried about us being in Venezuela, it’s quite safe where we are. We are in a very upscale neighborhood and the marina has 24/7 security staff, they are everywhere. Besides, Isla Margarita and Puerto La Cruz are safe. It’s actually safe to walk around the neighborhood too and the other day when I went downtown it didn’t feel any different than in Mexico. We actually felt less safe on some of the islands than here. As in any big city crime rate is of course higher, you just have to pay attention what’s around you, just as we have to do in US cities. So far we learned not to get money at banks, the exchange rate is very low (2100 to the US dollar). There are plenty of sources where we can exchange money for a rate up to 2600, depending on the amount we want to change. The best about that is we can write personal checks. A few years back the Government forbid the Venezuelans to own US dollars. So for a while it was tough to exchange money here, but they found a way around it, personal checks, as they are easier to get out of the country as cash. Using Credit Cards is a big no-no here as there is a lot of fraud, even when using it in Banks and ATM machines.

The Venezuelans we’ve met have been just wonderful and the majority in this area does not like Chavez and what he does to their country. Amazing how much power he has, the news here is rigged by him, they don’t hear what’s happening today, they get the news the following day and only what Chavez wants them to hear. Rumor has it that the election December 4^th is already rigged. It will be interesting to see the outcome.

Well, we should be here for about four months and I will try to keep the Blogg going once a week, but no promises, besides we don’t want to bore you with the daily life in a marina. In the mean time I’ll be cleaning out all the lockers as Sid is out of my way LOL and keep myself busy so that I don’t miss him too much. Hugs and kisses to all of you

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.

Sept. 6. Punta de Escarceo

Red sky in the morning, sailor takes warning. Red sky at night, sailors delight..... and once more it proves to be true. We left before the sun came up and watched the most spectacular sunrise with the shadows of the mountains reflecting in the red clouds. Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning. It was flat calm as we rounded the corner of the island and started to head towards Puerto La Cruz. Around the corner pods of dolphins greeted us and flocks of Pelicans were sitting in the water watching the dolphins herding up some fish. The water was as smooth as a mirror and a cloud cover hovered over us. We had a total of 50 miles to go, the wind was right on the nose and we were motoring with 5 knots through the calm water. About 15 miles down the road the wind started to pick up, the prognoses called for 5 to 10 knots of wind, so no problem. A further couple of minutes later the wind picked up some more and the water turned a bit choppy. Amazing how fast a flat sea can turn into the nastiest churning water. Within minutes we had 5 foot wind chops and we started to pound into them slowing us down to 1.2 knots. It got even worse, so both Paradise and Welsh Rover changed direction and headed to Punta de Escarceo. We're anchored snug but the wind is still howling. We had winds up to 29 knots. We are not sure either how safe this anchorage is, so we're planning to abandon it around midnight and head for Puerto La Cruz. Doug and Lisa on Highland Light we met in New Bern are in Puerto La Cruz and are leaving tomorrow for San Blas, I guess it was not meant to be to see them, what a bummer. In the mean time we're sucking on a tasty Bloody Mary and are waiting for the wind to calm down.

Sept. 5. Isla Cubagua

Porlamar where we were anchored is the biggest city on the island of Isla Margarita and we were actually very surprised to find such a big city with hundreds of high rise buildings on an island like this in a third world country. As I mentioned before the shopping here is just amazing. The island is known as the vacation island and since it is duty free everybody from the mainland comes here to shop, especially liquor. All the days we spent here I think I rested only one day the rest was spent in shopping, mainly grocery shopping and I even managed to drag Sid into one of the stores and he was very impressed. The funny thing on that trip was we were sitting in the taxi headed towards a traffic light and witnessed a car blow the red light. On one side of the intersection were two traffic cops on foot. One immediately blew his whistle and pointed at the first car coming across the intersection to pull over, ran to the car, hopped into the passenger seat and made the driver chase after the traffic violator. We sure thought that was funny, but don't know if he ever got to write him a ticket. Our anchorage had the clearest water we've seen in a long time and it was more of a teal color. There were anywhere from 90 to 100 boats anchored and most of them French, German and Swiss and were told that the Americans all go to Puerto La Cruz. Venezuela has it's problems and you have to pull the dinghy up every night, lock it or loose it they say. Sure enough the last night we were there an expensive Boston Whaler with a 40 bhp outboard got snatched. We also were warned to be very careful when using ATM machines or using the credit card and one boat had problems with that as well. They tried to warn the fleet about not using ATM machines, but wouldn't go into the details until they were asked several times. They admitted that when they approached the machine a guy told them the machine was not working and for them to use the machine next to it, where a women was standing. She then told them that they had to swipe the card first in a separate swipe slot and then the ATM slot. Hello, it's a scam!!!!! Well, they got suckered into it. Anyway, we're having a wonderful time and are not letting these stories ruin our stay. We had some wonderful meals in local restaurants and enjoy not having to pay much for gourmet meals. Today we lifted anchor and are finally headed for Puerto La Cruz with an overnight stop at Isla Cubagua. We had to motor the whole way as there was no breeze, but we enjoyed the view as the mountains and clouds were reflecting in the almost mirror like water. The island is pretty barren with red rock lined shores to sandy beaches with cactus in the background. Kind of reminded us of Mexico, we feel right at home.

Sept 1. Still in Margarita

Shop, shop, shop til you drop, that's seems the be the motto here. Ever since we've arrived I've been shopping all day long. Found the biggest fabric store ever, Sid was even impressed. We bought 30 yards of nice Suede for our salon, 10 yards of nagahyde (can anybody tell me how to spell this and what is a naga?) and 4 different fun colored rayon fabrics to make some dresses and the total was 190 bucks. The grocery stores are awesome too and make our biggest grocery stores look like mini markets and offer the most incredible gourmet foods. Rattan has 4 isles with just chocolates, most of them Swiss chocolates so I felt right at home. The thinnest T-bone steak I could find was 1 1/2 inches thick and cost each 3 bucks, now it can't get any better than that. The restaurants are wonderful and incredibly cheap. Unfortunately we're told that in Puerto La Cruz everything is a lot more expensive, booze can be almost double the price. So we will load up here. Getting money in Venezuela can be tricky, they want the US dollar but will only exchange 20 to 100 dollar bills, forget the tens and fives. Best ist to exchange the money on the black market as the banks don't give the real value. One also has to be very careful to use credit cards or ATM as there are a lot of scams. On the mainland we will be able to use our personal checks and are the safest way to make payments. This is the place to shop for bottom paint for the boat too as it is a lot cheaper than on the mainland. So we'll be here a couple extra days to do all the shopping. By the way the position report is down for the moment and couldn't be repaired due to Ernesto, so not sure when it will be fixed. If you like to find out where we are go on Google Earth and find our position there, we are at 10'56'94' N and 063'49'69' W.

August 28. Yeah, we're finally in Venezuel

Yeah, we're finally out of the hurricane belt and it feels good. We had the best sail ever, we left Prickly Bay yesterday morning at 9:30 and as soon as were out of the channel we pulled the sails up and turned the engine off. From the get go we had a half to one knot current with us that lasted almost all trip long. Our speed was anywhere from 5.5 to 7.5 and we even saw an 8 on the meter. As we left the lee of the island it was spinnaker perfect and we sailed with full spinnaker all day long and didn't take it down until sunset. The wind calmed down a bit during the night and when the jib started flopping around, Sid attached the whisker pool to it and we averaged 5 to 6 knots all night long. Getting in to the Los Testigos Islands we sailed through a weird current which tossed us around for a couple of hours. Then it was smooth sailing again. In the morning the wind finally died down but we didn't give up yet, pulled the spinnaker up again and waited about 20 minutes and wouldn't you know in no time we were up to 5 plus knots again and sailed all the way into the anchorage in Isla Margarita. You should have seen the starry night, the milky way lit up the sky, we saw lots of shooting stars and the water was sparkling with phosphorescence as well. This was by far the most stars we've ever seen and the best sail ever. Just a perfect passage in and on Paradise and Sid said: "that's why I bought a sail boat for!"
Welsh Rover and Maja left Grenada 3 hours after we did and said they didn't get the wind conditions we had, so they motor sailed all the way. Neos and Lyoness, both catamarans left last night at 6 and they arrived a couple hours after us. So as tired as we are, in a few minutes at 5 we all are going ashore for Happy Hour, cheers!

August 26. Tropical Wave over Grenada

We knew that the tropical wave we've were waiting for was going to be a strong system and prepared accordingly for it. It was a huge system and we knew that we would have bad weather for a couple of days so we also did some provisioning. I think everybody else in the anchorage did the same. Then the report came that the system split in two, just before it arrived in Grenada. One part went south and dissipated and the other went slightly to the north and over the day started strengthening and as soon as it was passed Grenada built into Tropical Depression 5 and later the same day into Tropical Strom Ernesto. As it now was slightly north from us it brought us wind out of the direction we really didn't want to get it, out of the S and SW as our anchorage is not protected from that direction. As the direction of the wind started changing to the SW our boat started swinging towards shore and we finally had 6 feet of water left behind the rudder and had to pull anchor fast not to go aground. A couple hours prior several boats left to find a more protected anchorage and left us plenty room to re-anchor with nobody even remotely around. The flopper-stopper was in position and we were ready for the incoming swells which were now around 3 feet and later grew to 4 with an occasional 5 footer. As Depression 5 was strengthening it kept the wind coming in from the SW and chances of the swells for the night to slow down was slim to none, even though towards the afternoon the wind started to turn back to the E, the swells still came in and as the boats started to swing back to the E the swells hit the boats on the beam. I tell you the flopper-stopper is an incredible tool to have, it breaks the rolling motion of the boat and makes it more comfortable. We had one roller big enough to make some noise down below, so Sid immediately jumped into the dinghy, I lowered the stern anchor down to him, he set it and we were facing again into the swells and had a comfortable night. We had a good night sleep while everybody else in the anchorage was being tossed wildly around in the swells, poor guys. The swell kept coming in the following day as well and still everybody was bobbing around very uncomfortably. Even Welsh Rover which is a 50 footer rolled from ear to ear, Toni finally called Sid to help him set a stern anchor before sunset. After that was set they help Maja do the same as they all started to feel a bit seasick. This morning all was back to normal and every boat was comfortably resting in calm water in this beautiful anchorage as nothing ever happened, except for the very exhausted sailors. While Ernesto is headed for Jamaica still strengthening, we will pull anchor tomorrow, Sunday and finally sail to Isla Margarita in Venezuela. The forecast has 12 to 15 knots of wind out of the E for us, we should have a comfortable sail. It shows how powerful mother nature can be and how fast she can turn against you, we consider ourselves very lucky that it did not strengthen into a stronger system before it came across Grenada.

August 23. Still in Prickley Bay, Grenada

Where does time go, we've been almost one month in Grenada and it's been so relaxing that we simply forgot to update our Blogg and position report, sorry about that. We attempted to leave several times already but every time another tropical wave stops us from doing so. In the mean time Carnival has passed, which we and most other cruisers missed. We had many reason for missing it:

1. The music known as Soca, a dance music which is a mix of Trinidad's calypso and Indian music and rhythms, as is often said, a fusion of soul and calypso, unfortunately with modern age turned into a nerve wracking reggae rap and is blaring on every bus, so that by the time Carnival came around we had enough of it and didn't want to listen to one more tune of it.

2. All the locals we talked to stay away from Carnival as people drink themselves silly, have fights and is not anymore what it used to be. They even told us to actually see the Trinidad Carnival instead, which is a lot better.

3. The parade we really wanted to see involved a group called the Chub Chub which grease themselves down with black motor oil and hug anybody in sight ruining their cloths. Some cruisers went and were actually very disappointed in the parade itself, they even mentioned that it is not what it used to be.

4. and last, we were too relaxed to even think of leaving the boat. There you have it our reasons for not going, besides we'll be coming back to the island again and will have another chance to see it.

We also took a tour around the island and are most impressed. This is yet the prettiest island and is recovering well from hurricanes Emily and Ivan, even though there is still a lot of destruction to see. The west side of the island is steep to and overgrown with a lush jungle. To which a question pops up: What's the difference between a weed and a house plant? Simple! The house plant costs a lot of money as it grows here all wild. Some of the potted little, colorful plants sitting in our living rooms are here giant lush trees. On the west side also is the Nutmeg Farm, which really took a beating with the hurricanes, as they nearly whipped out all the nutmeg farms and they slowly are growing back and it will take at least another 6 years to fully recover. The good thing about that is, they are growing a new type of nutmeg tree they say will withstand hurricanes. The Nutmeg Farm mainly runs for tourism now until it is back to normal. Walking through the farm filled your nostrils with the pleasant aroma of nutmeg and it was interesting to know the history of how it is farmed, dried, packaged and finally shipped around the world. Of course we loaded up on some too, as it is a wonderful spice to use especially for soups.

The north sides vegetation is more on the dry side, but has the most spectacular view to the islands to the north and on a very clear day St. Vincent can be seen. The east side is more populated and has a beautiful charm. The south side where we are is low lying land and is the home of expensive homes and resorts. On our tour around the island we also visited the River Rum distillery, which is the only one left running with a water wheel. It was an interesting tour and of course afterwards we got to try the rum. Then we visited the chocolate factory, which was a bit disappointing as we hoped to see the coco plants and beans and the process of it, well we learned the making of chocolate bars instead and of course bought some too.

Not just are the locals here very friendly but there is a lot to do here and the cruisers organize many fun activities as potlucks with karaoke. As many of you know Sid is not a very good singer and couldn't carry a tune in a wheel barrel and would NEVER step up to a microphone to sing a song. He even told us on our way to the potluck that there is not enough rum on this island to get him up there and sing. WELLLLLL, you have to know that the rum here is a bit more potent than anywhere else. The Grenadians believe that the stronger the rum is the better it is, the rum here is actually so strong that when you take a sip it evaporates immediately in your mouth. So with 79 % = 158 proof rum Sid was one of the first in front of that microphone singing away. We had so much fun and since we're stuck another week due to weather, I think he will sing again. The boys also had a day to themselves and participated in Hash House Harrier. For those who don't know (like me) what that is:

The Hash House Harriers is a more social version of Hare and Hounds, where you join the pack of hounds (runners) to chase down the trail set by the hare or hares (other runners), then gather together for a bit of social activity known as the On In or Down Down with refreshment, humorous camaraderie, song and sometimes a feast. (http://www.gthhh.com/) . He liked it so much he'll participate again this coming Saturday. I've had my fair share of fun as I love to go to the local fresh market shopping for the most tropical fruits and every time I go I find something new. In the mean time I can tell we've been here too long as all the locals at the market know me by my name now and there is always a friendly welcome for me and most of them throw something extra into my shopping bag.

Since we left the Dominican Republic I've been trying to get a banana flower (burgundy tear drop looking flower hanging below the growing bananas) without any success. Finally within 2 days I ended up with 4 banana flowers. The banana flower makes a wonderful salad, so I brought each one who gave me one a sample along with the recipe and added a new food source to their table as they throw the banana flower away.

It's easy to prepare:

BANANA FLOWER SALAD

Slice flower and soak in salt water at least one hour. Drain.

Cover with salt water and boil 5 minutes. Drain and cool.

Mix 1 cup each soy sauce, oil and vinegar with crushed red peppers and garlic. Heat.

Mix flower with 1 chopped onion.

Pour on warm dressing. Stand one hour. Chill and serve with sliced bread or crackers. Holds well in refrigerator

Hopefully we'll catch good weather this weekend so that we can finally head to Venezuela. One more waves is headed out way and may turn into a Tropical Depression but is not expected to build stronger than that until it passes us. In the mean time we'll be relaxing some more and we'll try not to forget to keep you posted on what's going on.