Mochima National Park

Our house is awesome but not all too much different to a boat as there is always something to fix. At least most of them were easy fixes like exchanging light bulbs and throwing away the blender because the fluid we pored in came out of the bottom faster than we pored in, hooking up the hot water to the washing machine and tightening the hoses so it wouldn’t flood the floor anymore. The water pump had to be rebuilt and now it goes out all the time, so it’s going downstairs to turn it off, then walk upstairs to the third floor and turn on water tank. Then when we have enough pressure again it’s climbing up to third floor turn water tank off and all the way to ground floor to turn the pump on again. Well, the guys are doing that for us.

We had a wonderful house warming party last Friday and all our friends showed up, we had a full house and partied late into the night. Everybody loved the house and we have reservations already to rent our guest room when they are in the yard and others will rent the slips in front of the house until our boats come back. Best yet, an old friend Bill Tittle from Venice Anglers came, he lives just around the corner from us, small world.

Last weekend we were invited on an overnight boat trip to Mochima National Park on Snow White a most beautiful 57 foot Nordhaven (used to belong to Gene Hackman “Hula Girl”). It was an overcast day and rather on the cool side, we almost decided to put on jackets. On the way to Mochima we had a big pod of bottle-nose dolphins which played with the wake of the bow. I took 130 photos and managed to catch some out of the water. They must have been on our bow for at least one hour, it was really neat. We also saw a big flock of flamingoes fly along the coast that is a rare sight.

Approaching Mochima reminded us very much of the Channel Islands with the dry brush like appearance and rock formations. El Culto was our anchorage which lies deep in a bay surrounded by islands, very protected and remote. Sandy and I tried to do some noodeling, but changed our minds after dipping our feet into the freezing water. Later when the sun came out we did sit on our noodles, not for long as our skin was hurting and the toes were freezing from the cold water.

For dinner Larry, Dotty and company came over and we had such a good time we decided to stay another night.

The following morning Dale and I took off in the dinghy to a nearby fishing village to see if we could buy some fresh fish but the village was abandoned. Instead we saw this big fishing boat along the rocks with lots of small boats attached to it, so we drove over there to check it out. Between the rocks and the boat was a huge fishing net which they brought in and now were scooping sardines out of the water and into the boat with a huge net, the net was at least 10 feet across and 10 feet high and each dip they filled it up half way. It was amazing to watch. Nobody had any bigger fish than the sardines and one of the guys scooped two big scoops of sardines into our dinghy. They flopped all over the dinghy covering it and us with scales. I fried them up for lunch later on and even Sid was impressed that they tasted better than he thought, for him sardines and anchovies are bait and belong on a hook. I finally convinced him that Sardines are actually very tasty.

After that we all decided to take the boats to the town of Mochima, which is around the other side of the park, a tiny quite village with a couple of restaurants and one little convenient store, actually all we saw in there were coconuts and some bananas in a cooler.

In the evening Dale and Sandy thought us a new dice game “Mississippi Marbles”, I think we kept the whole anchorage awake, well the three boats that were in there anyway. We laughed so hard our faces hurt.

But then it was back to reality, we had to haul out Paradise. It went pretty much without any glitches until they started pulling her out of the water and the cradle slipped, wow almost heart attack, for me anyway. Then they told us that they couldn’t lift the boat any further, that we had to undue the forestay, of course the jib was still furled up on it, so it took a while to get it off as there was lots of tension on the rig. But then it was smooth cradling her to her temporary resting place in the yard, although they want to move her to a better spot for the paint job. Sid took the rudder off today, which needs a new bushing. He said it was tough work to get if off as it is very heavy. He also found a week spot in the steering so we may be in the yard a tiny bit longer then we want to.

Last Monday Manuela got talked into a job, she’s teaching English every Monday and Wednesday in a private school. She has two classes the first one with 9 kids ranging from 4 to 8, for as little as they are they sure wear her out, kids now days are just not as behaved anymore. The second is the fun group with 8 teenager girls all 14 years old. She just had her first day last Monday when the principal asked her already if she would extend her classes to adults. I don’t think so!!!!!!! But it’s fun to do it for a while and it will give me the chance to better my Spanish as well.

Oh, can’t forget to talk about El Presidente, I guess he screwed up last week by eliminating the TV stations as the Venezuela stock market plunged and the Bolivares was for one day at 5000 per 1 US dollar. It’s now at 3300. He also announced that he wants to change the name of Venezuela to Republic de Bolivar. A lot of cruisers feel like it’s time to head out of this beautiful country.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
We hope you all had a wonderful Holiday Season, we sure did and again we have no idea where time went. So much has happened and I probably will forget to mention one or two things.

First to catch you up on El Presidente, it took him exactly 10 days after the election to pass a new law which is not in favor of his people. His congress of 167 people voted 167 to 0 to pass the new law. Of course nobody would even think voting against it, they either loose their seat in congress or much worse. The new law is every citizen of Venezuela age 15 to 50 has to volunteer 5 hours per months to the government or have the choice to go to a school for two years (must be a brain washing school). Citizens not following the law will have to pay a fine which will be deducted monthly from there already measly salary. I think some citizens are finally starting to have a rude awakening. “VOLUNTEER???”

There was finally some sugar in the store, but of course sold out after just two days at two bags per person.

Yesterdays rumor was El Presidente eliminated a TV station that is not under his control, starting to sound very communistic to me.

Lots of cruisers left to spend the holidays with their family. It got really quiet on the dock as only a few remained. Denny on White Tiger came up with the most unique Christmas decoration for his boat, empty beer cans wrapped in colorful shiny Christmas paper. I asked him if we could steel the idea for the tree of knowledge, me wondering how the heck we’ll manage to drink two or three cases of beer on time for Christmas, which was one week away. The next morning when I stepped on deck I found a trash bag full of empty cans, Denny was so happy that somebody liked his idea he donated the cans. He also had a good time harvesting them. Later that afternoon I had all the kids together and we decorated the tree of knowledge. The kids had a blast.

Sid’s buddy Jim (the unofficial “Mayor” of Maremares) are busier than busy running around town, helping Zenny with her hot dog stand, shopping in hardware store, fixing up things on the dock, building a BBQ for the boaters or having coffee early in the morning with a “Sicilian mafia gang”. The Gang wanted to cook a pasta dinner for all of us cruisers and so they did. I tell you it was awesome. First they cooked us a Pasta Carbonara which was served in a wooden bowl that was about 5 feet long, looking like a cattle trough. We ate it all and surprise, they cooked more pasta and filled that trough up again, this time it was Spaghetti with seafood on a marinara sauce. I don’t think anybody cared that they were full already because we ate all of that too. It was an incredible evening.

A couple of days before Christmas Jim and Jenny invited Dotty and us to Los Altos, about two hours away from here up in the mountains. What a beautiful place, very remote and each house with the most spectacular view over the coast line and the islands.

Christmas Eve we had a comfy get together with the left behind cruisers and shared appetizers and played some games. Jim’s friend Darrin invited us for Christmas Day to his house. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner with his Venezuelan friends. New Years Eve we celebrated with a wonderful Fondue Bourguignon Dinner under the tree of knowledge and enjoyed the most incredible fireworks show at midnight. There must have been 20 individual firework shows all around us. Most of us partied until 3 am, Sid, Joanne and Natalie and family danced until 5 am and I think they were still drunk when we started our New Years Brunch at 11. We had a wonderful time.

Venezuelans love fireworks and since Christmas we been watching several each night. On the 8^th was the last day of celebration in Venezuela so it got a lot quieter here.

And finally on the second of January we moved into our new home for the next few months. The condo is incredible and so are the many stairs to schlep everything up to the first, second and third level, we are all very pooped but in good shape now.

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.