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.