What I`ve been up to lately

My time here in Mèrida is coming to an end, I have finished my Spanish classes and need a rest day after a hard weekends trekking, so I have a bit of spare time to write about a few of the things I`ve been up to here in the past weeks.

Telefèrico

Mèrida is home to the worlds highest cable car at about 4900 metres. It`s the obligatory thing for gringos to do here, so of course we did it. An amazing view from the top, and we felt a bit light headed after gaining so much altitude in under 30 minutes. But the Cornish part of me couldn`t help thinking it was cheating a bit - getting a lift to the top I mean.

Mucuchìes

Mucuchìes is a quaint little town that time seems to have ignored (kind of like Indian Queens but with good weather ... and quaint), perched in the almost desert like landscape de Los Andes at somewhere above 3000 metres.

I initially went there as a short day trip just to soak up the atmosphere of one these typical villages. But after talking with some locals, it turns out there are some natural hot springs about 30 minutes jeep ride and 2 hours hiking up the mountains starting just outside of town. Far too good to ignore right? On my quest to get to the start of the trail leading to the springs I ended up making friends with a local guy, Yonathan, he`d just clocked off work on a local farm at midday and was already a bit drunk with a bottle of vodka in his coat pocket. Anyway, he ended up joining me on my adventure, and despite me not being able to understand a word of his accent and dialect we became friends.

The springs were amazing, just a pool of hot water fed by a natural stream poking out of the mountain side with an epic view across the valley. After 2 hours of bathing in the hot water, we returned all the way on foot, to Yonathan`s house/shack balanced on the side of the main curving road running through this part of the Andes. This was just a hut made out of wood and mud with a corrugated iron roof; everything was basic but he had everything he needed to live - very down to earth.

The following weekend I returned to visit Yonathan again. This time I met his cousin and family who lived in the houses near to Yonathan´s. I went on another little trip with Yonathan and his cousin Roger up into the mountains to a lake. In the evening we went to the local basketball court; which like all good basket ball courts, had been turned into a 5 a side football pitch. It seemed like the place where all the kids from the houses scattered on the local mountain side went to hang out on a Saturday night, it had flood lights, and even some changing rooms, some cars had been brought down to pump out the music, and there was a little Sangria flowing. I had a great time chatting with the locals practicing my Spanish, and playing football until the early hours of the morning. Although I have to say the locals weren`t over impressed with the quality of this visiting English football superstar, I was a shadow of my former self, and far from dominated that mid field role. I blame it on the altitude, the poor lighting, and the ball was too small..and...and...

I stayed the night in Rogers hut, it gets surprisingly cold at that altitude at night. But it was a great opportunity to get to know people who are part of the poorer side of Venezuela. They have a very simple life, I guess surviving from week to week on the money they have. It was strikingly obvious how different our lives were, and it was awkward at times as conversations all ways seemed to return to money and the cost of things. And there was no getting around the fact that I had the money to go off on a 6 month holiday on the other side of the world, while they struggled to get by eating basic foods and hitching lifts everywhere.

Zoo

I was ill one day, and had nothing to do, so I went to the local zoo. Which was pretty appalling, with tigers and lions kept in very small cages, with just a concrete floor to play with. The big cats were constantly walking in a small circle, they had obviously gone crazy. And the zoo didn`t even have the decency to put signs on the outside of the cages to tell you what the animals were. Pointless cruelty.

Plaza de Toros

Well you`ve probably seen the photos and video, I`m not a fan of killing a bull like this, but nobody else seemed to have a problem, so when in Rome... After the event I ended up on a night out with some university students, somehow, I can`t quite remember how (oh to be a fresher again). But everyone was really friendly and interested to talk about everything with me, despite my appalling Spanish.

Theatre

I went to the local theatre to see a comedy, and understood very little, but enjoyed the atmosphere a lot.

A bit of a Trek

So this weekend I ended up on a two day trek into the mountains with a friend/guide. I met Rolando on another short day trip into some near by mountains. He was a part time tourist guide, who seemed to do what ever job he could to make ends meet. He was a strong supporter of the government, and his English was better than my Spanish so I thought it could be a great chance to find out the views of these kinds of people, whilst making a trip into the wilderness, and help give some work to a local who clearly needed it.

On the first day we hiked for six hours, constantly up hill of course, with food and equipment to last us for three days. We ended up staying in an abandoned shack (as it turned out Rolando`s tent that we had carried all that damn way wasn`t particularly good if it rained - which he was too embarrassed to tell me about before we set out). That night, and all the following morning it rained. Our shack was water proof thank god. Rolando had also neglected to tell me that he had no water proof jacket or trousers. Bueno.

By mid morning we had run out of water so I went to collect some from the local river, which was now swelling up from all the rain; the water was much darker than the previous evening, I thought due to all of the mud, horse and cow crap covering the surrounding land that had been washed into the river by the rain. I decided not to drink this water, however Rolando was less cautious. Within an hour and a half he had stomach cramps, a headache and diarrhea. So we decided to head back the way we came the previous day. This time thankfully, most of it was down hill as I was having to carry both rucksacks. We made it back to a jeep track at about 8pm, when it was completely dark and we were both dehydrated and Rolando in tears with the pain. By some miracle a jeep was returning to the local town from a nearby mountain lodge. Needless to say when we returned to safety, I pointed out to Rolando how he could improve the quality of his guiding for future customers. But despite all this it was an exciting trip, in some great remote scenery with an interesting person.

Language

Oh yeah, I`ve been studying some Spanish as well. Its going OK although I`m still fairly useless, and I know I have a long way to go. But I`m speaking some form of Spanish all the time here; I don`t know anyone who speaks English, which helps, and I was staying with a local family. I`ve now just about covered all of the 175.4 tenses of this damn language, so the understanding of the grammar is there, but the vocabulary is still fairly weak, and I think the brain needs time to let it all sink in properly. I`m becoming fairly fluid speaking in what they call the `simple tenses`, but I`ve got to work on developing that `subjunctive mind` I think. But if you give a monkey a type writer, and enough time, then he will eventually reproduce the works of Shakespeare. So I`m holding on to this fact, and I will keep at it a little longer before I throw away my typewriter.

Any advice on the best way to progress in learning a language from those of you who speak a second language would be very welcome. I am very interested in learning how to learn a language if you know what I mean, if any of you have any references to articles on the web regarding this topic, that would be great.

I have also been working on another little project recently that maybe some of you can help me with, I`ll let you know about it soon.

I plan to leave Mèrida tomorrow morning, I`m still staying with the family in Mèrida until then. I`m still waiting on certain things to happen to know exactly where I`m heading in the next few days, but I have a rough idea of where I´m heading in the next few weeks .... I`ll leave it as a surprise. In three weeks time I have a flight up to San Josè in Costa Rica, where I will continue my trip up through Central America by land possibly finishing in California to eventually get a flight back to Kingdom United.

Venezuela in Stereo

Here are a couple of songs that are really popular out here at the moment, and are played everywhere you go. I`m hearing these at least twice a day.

"something something something telèfono!"

"something something something ...."

Bull fight video!

Here`s a little clip that I took at the bull ring the other day, although not sure if this is gonna work. You can get to it on "you tube" here as well.



This guy was really smooth, not that I agree with slowly killing a bull like this, but you have to admire these guys; they have skill. Watch how at the start of this clip he taps the bull on the back with his free hand, and then towards the end, he drops his sword to the ground and taunts the bull un-armed. Though the synical part of me, couldn`t help but notice that the Toreos only started to get cocky when the bull was knackered after 20 minutes of chasing thin air with 5 big spikes stuck in its back whilst bleading to death. Also note how the lesser Toreos just look like little girls with pink skirts compared to the stylish and composed star of the show.

More Profound Graffiti

The different graffiti that gets pasted around is interesting in a politically charged country like Venezuela. Here´s a few more examples I´ve seen, and managed to take a photo of without appearing too much like a Japanese tourist.



















"An ignorant population is a blind instrument of its own destruction"
Simon Bolívar

Si was the bloke who liberated half of South America from the Spanish, and he was a Venezuelano, so he is a bit of a hero around these parts. This statement takes on a bit of a twist in modern Venezuela as the uneducated majority continue to vote in and standby a hedonistic and power crazy (allegedly) president who doesn´t always seem to have all of the country´s best interest at heart.

"30,000 children die every day through hunger as a result of capitalism. Who said capitalism is a good thing?"

Source Unknown

I´ve seen in several publications now the president, Hugo Chavez, use the term ´capitalism´ to refere indirectly to the west (i.e. North America and Europe), followed by arguments that capitalism is inherently an evil thing. Chavez and his government are self proclaimed socialists, and are always ascerting this fact. By constantly stating that an ideology is evil, and defining yourself as a practioner of the opposite, you are automatically implying you are on the right side. And with ´publications´ like this one springing up everywhere, you are constantly building up and enforcing the peoples opinion of yourself and the enemy. Clever stuff. Also, to the right hand side you can see the faces of some important socialists from history, though I can´t remember what all of the obscured writing said.

Venezuelan Food so far

So I´ve been trying to sample the different foods typical of Venezuela, and here´s what I´ve found so far. I have been staying in the mountains mostly so my experiences admittedly are limited, and I hope there is better food to be found else where. Food doesn´t seem to be at the top of the cultural list here (although that´s a bit rich coming from an English guy), I think it links back to that lack of sophistication thing. Anyway, here´s whats gone down my throat so far:

Empanadas
They are essentially a stuffed deep fried corn flour dough, tenuously ressembly Cornish Pasties, but in Venezuela at the least, they are not so good. There is a standard selection here: chicken, meat, cheese, vegetable. They are partly let down by the fillings (the cheese is more like a piece of chewing gum that´s been chewed for two hours; tastless and pointless), and partly by the over greasy deep fried casing.

Arepas
These are like smallish looking but thick pancake things, but made out of maize or wheat. They seem to be the most common and most typical food of Venezuela. Everyone eats them for at least one meal a day, and if they´re unlucky, two. I spoke to a guy the other day who was proud to tell me he ate them 3 times a day. In a nutshell they are dry and tasteless, so its up to the filling to save them... which is the problem. The family I´m staying with take them with ham and an excuse for cheese, and sometimes for a real treat sometimes they add a bit of margarine. If all of these fillings were of a decent quality, and the whole thing was cooked properly, then they might be edible. I´ve had them with avocado and salad which was bearable, but still not worth eating everyday.

Churros
These apparently originated in Portugual and Spain, which might explain why they taste so good. They are like little sausage shaped deep fried dough things, with sugar sprinkled over them. They are a great when dunked in a Chocolate Espeso, which seems to be just melted chocolate in a cup. Divine.

Jugos Naturales
Fruit juice made from fresh fruit in front of you. You can usually choose from orange, pineapple, mango, strawberry.... A great chaser to a nice strong coffee.

Meat Dishes
Disappointing. Stake knives here should come with a battery in them and a small motor to help you cut them. I´m sure there must be good stake some where, I just haven´t found it here yet. The most interesting meet dish I´ve had, was a stake with a dark sauce with bits of strawberry and peach in, sounds odd, but tasted interestingly good.

Chicken Dishes
Quite literally nothing to write home about, so I won´t.

Fish
I´ll wait until I get nearer to the coast before I tell you how below average the trout dishes in the Andes are.

Soups
One of the dishes that are done reliably well here. Always with coriander, and usually with potatoes, vegetables and sometimes stewed meat in. Nothing drastically different from an English vegetable soup, but the coriander gives it a nice twist, and its a reliably good choice wherever you´re eating.

Pasteles (Pastries)
You can find some great pastries in some of the cafés here; usually covered in sugar, you can find them with different jams in (guayaba, strawberry), or pieces of different fruits. A great accompaniment to a coffee...

Coffee
Hit and miss. If you miss, you get an overpriced cup of instant. If you hit, you get a big hit of caffeine. The coffee is nice and strong here, you can get either a generous sized espresso or a large sized espresso, which is the size of an average cup, which results in a great caffeine rush. Qué Bueno.

A Quick Quiz

Here´s a chance to learn a little Spanish without having to touch a dictionary. So relax, take a few minutes off work, Dad, make a cup of tea and get a chocolate biscuit for dunking. Can you guess what song has been translated into Spanish and painted on this wall in Mérida, Venezuela?

You can click on the photo to go to my photo album, where you can either download the photo using the link on the right of the screen, or zoom in using the zoom button in the top right.

Here is a little vocabulary to get you started on the right verses:

• ´paises´ means ´countries´
• ´tienes posesiones´ means ´you have possessions´
• ´soy un soñador´ means ´I am a dreamer´

I guarantee you will have the song in your head for the rest of the day.

First Impressions of Venezuela

On first impressions, the towns in Venezuela appeared much like those I had experienced in Ecuador (an apparently relatively poor South American country). The places are busy, full of big trucks, highly polluting old 4 x 4´s, and a bus every 30 seconds. The old English adage ¨You wait ages for a bus and then two come at once¨ doesn´t apply down here, its more like ¨You catch a bus.¨ full stop.

As I made my way through the country in my first week, it became clear Venezuela is, or was a bit more than what I had experienced before. At first glance, the people and the culture seemed very similar. The constant music, the smell of trucks, small market stalls that all sell the same pointless sweets and banana chips that no one seems to buy, crap cheese, the same two types of beer (read ´lager´) that taste the same, and every where you look, health and safety laws are being broken. But then in Caracas you have a very clean air-conditioned metro station. In the second city Valencia, the bus terminal appears to be in the middle of a cross between a theme park and an out-of-town shopping centre. And lots of people are walking around with mobile phones. I sat next to a guy on a bus the other day who had an IPod Nano; I mean, an IPod Nano for god sake! (that's an expensive mp3 player for those not in the know). I´m glad I didn´t have my player out, he would have probably dropped some money in my hat in pity.

Venezuela was a pretty rich country at one point, the richest in South America back in the 70´s, then due to the fall in oil prices, the world recession in the late 80´s and the obligatory corrupt governments, that kind of changed. But the legacy of these glory days has left Venezuela with a sizable and noticeable middle class. They shop in air conditioned shopping malls, drive new western cars, listen to mp3 players, live in pleasant ´urbinazaciónes´, and are known to take holidays in the U.S. or Europe. But they are still stuck in this developing country, and are surrounded by the poorer majority. For example, in the urbinazación that I am currently living in, there is a guy who grazes his (very thin looking) cow on the various patches of grass that are dotted around the neighbourhood.

There is very little hint of any sophistication here, I guess you could say I´ve struggled to see any middle class culture so far outside the possesion of material things. I´m still not quite sure what they do in their spare time; they don´t hang out in cafés in the evening (they all close by 5pm), they don´t take walks in the countryside, they don´t go to the theatre (there aren´t any), and they aren´t out eating in restaurants (they always seem to be empty apart from a few people who are on holiday themselves) and they definately don´t have an appreciation of good food.

Though there is one small point of refinement here that I do like; and that´s the freshly squeezed ice cold fruit juice - and it´s as standard, you can´t get anything less. Something that you would need to take out a small mortgage to buy in a café in London´s West End, costs less than a postage stamp here (more on Venezuelan food will follow shortly).

This country is intriguing so I´m enjoying my time here, and a look at the politics makes it even more so...