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 4th 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
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