April 1.

The good news is Manuela’s nose is still attached and hasn’t fallen off yet, but it’s still as crooked as ever. Steve and Marsha are long home again and so are Shanna and Roman. We had so much fun with all of them and for us it was a welcome break from all the boat work. We kept our guests really busy, Steve and Marsha mainly testing all the Rums Venezuela has to offer, I think they are now on a liver cure. They all came for just a week, which really isn’t enough time but we did the best. We took them all to the El Morro Hotel where they have the best pizza ever and had a lot of fun with Karaoke, with Steve and Marsh we left early because the place was too smoky and too crowded. When Shanna and Roman were here I was ill that day and Sid took them. (Sid was sick for three days when Steve and Marsha were here). They had so much fun and sang Karaoke till 3 am. Even Sid sang some songs, poor crowd.

Each Thursday Jim drove us to Los Altos, which is up in the mountains about one hour east of Puerto La Cruz with the most spectacular view over all the islands and on a very clear day you can even see Isla Margarita. Each time we enjoyed a wonderful fish lunch on the beach, toes digging in the sand. The second trip we were lucky to find banana flowers, Tamarind and even a Cashew tree.

Both Fridays we took our guests on a fun boat ride to the Mochima National Forrest Islands filled with Cuba Libres, swimming, snorkeling and fun. Both times we had the same boat captain and mate and the second time they treated us to a special tour on the El Farro Island to see the fossil cemetery. One of the sights is a cave which the boat actually drives into, it’s pretty neat, the wall is very steep and flat and swallows nest in it. It was high tide and the driver was able to get way back into the cave and I happen to see light shining through the top of the cave in two small wholes. When I told our guide about it, he got goose bumps when he saw it and he told me he had been going here for 15 years and never saw that. He named them Las Velas de Manuela (The candles of Manuela) as they look like two burning candles.

Our guests also had to learn to play Mississippi Marbles and are hooked on that game now. It’s really a fun dice game we play every Thursday evening under the Tree of Knowledge. Sunday nights of course they enjoyed our fun BBQ potluck.

One afternoon relaxing on the balcony Marsha and Steve watched a cloud fly towards the house. Marsha though it was a swarm of moths and didn’t think anything about it. About five minutes later Gerry came running upstairs saying: “Manuela you have a serious problem with Paradise”, since we just replaced the shaft I was sure the boat was sinking and ran downstairs when I noticed a swarm of bees circling the companion way. There was no way to get on the boat so I observed the intruders from Gymnopedies. I couldn’t believe what I saw the whole companion way was covered with bees. They were not settled yet so there was nothing we could do at the moment other than get the camera to get a prime shot. By the time I returned with the camera most of the bees were inside already and some of the companion way was uncovered. Poor Sid was sick in bed and of course got up when I told him the bad news. We both put our black fly suits on and Sid got the fogger ready to kill the intruders. Of course when you really need it, it doesn’t work. Terry gave us some good stuff and Sid braved his way onto the boat to terminate the bees, while I watched form the balcony ready to jump into action if needed, from the second floor of course. He started spraying them and they now were flying wildly around him, glad I was watching from a distance. He finally found a huge bee he thought was the queen and tossed it in the water, that should get read of them right. Nope, the next day the whole inside was still covered. Sid fixed the fogger and went inside. He couldn’t believe what he saw when he stepped below; the whole middle hatch was covered with bees with yet the real queen. In all it took him four days to get read of the bees. You should have seen the inside, bees everywhere there was not one inch not covered with a dead bee. Now imagine being in an anchorage by yourself just coming back from a fun snorkeling or fishing and you find your boat taken over by bees, what do you do??? We were pretty lucky too; they were just honey bees and not the ferocious killer bees.

In the mean time Gerry and Terry have moved back onto their boat and are cruising again and currently in Trinidad. The day our last guests left we went right back to work, Sid on the boat and me inside the house sewing up a storm. It’s nice to have the house to ourselves, it was fun having roommates but nothing beats being by ourselves. Life goes on in Venezuela and we enjoy it as much as on our first day here and actually hope to be so lucky to have more friends for a visit while we still have the house.

Now politics, I finally saw one store with a whole wall full of sugar and a line out the door. Can’t find any chicken or tender beef other than meat for stews or ground beef, El Presidente put such a cap on the price that nobody wants to sell it under cost. I guess you can bribe the butcher to sell it if you know him well enough.

A couple of weeks ago the taxi driver who drove me to school was nearly in tears when he told me that El Presidente closed all the Casinos down because Fidel does not like gambling. He then said that he voted for El Presidente but that he hates him now and does not want him to be his president anymore he is not giving them what he promised. I couldn’t believe how upset this poor man was.

This weekend starts Semana Santa and lasts 10 days a huge holiday here in Venezuela. Most businesses will be closed for the holiday and yet another blow from El Presidente, yesterday, Friday, he announced that there is a ban on selling and drinking liquor on all the Semana Santa days from 5 PM till 6 AM. Poor restaurants, what are they going to do. Guess we’re not going to Karaoke either next Wednesday, the bar can’t just sell water and sodas.

I wathed TV the other day and found House, of course in Spanish and wathed it when the series was interrupted by a El Presidente biography whih lasted for 25 minutes. Every single TV channel had his biography on. With Radio the same, several times a day all channels get interrupted with a El Presidente speech.