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.