Weblog » 2005 » March

I have arrived in Madrid… alive!

I have to keep this short because the Internet cafe costs a fortune here, but I believe that the restaurant below me might have wireless access so that I can actually use my laptop! Otherwise I’m now on the search for somewhere where I can do that and a cheap hostel.

The place in which I am staying is actually smaller than the place in Venezuela… I didn’t think it was possible. It has a bed that is smaller than any bed I have ever slept in… it is most certainly smaller than the twins in college (extra longs) and smaller than the regular twin I remember from childhood. The rest of the room features equally tiny things, like a tiny desk and tiny closet. Fortunately, they believe in hot water here and everything is very cozy and quaint. So I’m enjoying it very much… even if it is costing $100 a night.

Which brings me to the main point of this post. Besides the dollar only being worth 70 cents over here, the time is completely off. I am 6 hours ahead of NYC time, and spent all of yesterday and a bit of today trying to get used to it. I decided in houston that because I am travelling so much, I wouldn’t bother playing with my watch at all… so its 6 hours behind the actual time here… the rest of my things are up-to-date though, so don’t worry.

Hopefully, I’ll get to see some of madrid tonight and tomorrow and find a cheap hostel for a few more nights. Then I’m not sure whats next. I have to be in Casablanca on March 19th, so there is over a week left to roam Spain and Morocco.

The one thing I’ll be sure not to do is to visit Portugal. When I arrived in Portugal, they had this list of passengers and they pulled me aside to talk to me. I was at the very top of the list and had quite a few remarks under my name. Apparentlyfrom what I could decipher from the code on the paper (because he went in order and checked them off as I answered the questions) I am suspicious because, I was the only american, flying one way, from a country that I do not live in, have no onward journey, and am travelling alone.

It was quite an experience… they searched my luggage both my carry ons and my checked bag. They did not, however, make me go through customs because I wasn’t staying in their country… and for some fluke of the computer system, they didn’t send me through customs or immigration in spain.. not sure whats happening there.

anyway, times running out. I’ll update soon.

Well, apparently all keyboards in Venezuela are weird. Its like one big universal “every language” keyboard… minus arabic and the asian languages… I guess I’ll see those in China and Morocco.

I leave tomorrow and have to be at the airport (aeropuerto) 3 hours before my flight because they overbooked it… why I have to suffer I don’t know, but oh well.
Speaking of flights has anyone noticed the little intricacies in my itinerary? Due to the wonders of time zones, this next set of flights is going to take a day or so, even though I’m only flying for like 10 hours.
Wait till I fly into LA… then I actually arrive before I leave.

But anyway, let me tell you about my days here so far. I found a nice internet cafe, but I still don’t know if I can plug in my laptop to get my email and update my travelogue portion of the website… It might just have to wait till Spain.

Two days ago, I visited all of the historical sites in Caracas. I took pictures of the outside of most of them, but there were lots of guys with semiautomatic weapons that didn’t seem happy about my camera, so I wasn’t able to take pictures inside. The places were nice, alot of churches, which explains why I wasn’t able to get online yesterday (the whole city was closed) and there were lots of statues of El Libertador who is like their George Washington.

Yesterday, while the city was dead, I went up to the top of the mountain next to Caracas. I was wrong about the funicular… it was a cable car or teleferico… the people here just like to agree when I say funicular… not sure why really.

Anyway, I went up to the top and took some pictures. Unfortunately, the mountain is so high that you can’t see the beach on the other side because of the clouds below you. I’ll try to get the pictures up asap so you can see just how small of an area there is between the mountain and the ocean (no tsunamis here).
I had to roam around the national park a bit through “trails” and on a “road” before I came to a place where I could take a picture of the city… apparently no one likes to take a picture of the city — even for postcards. I didn’t have my machete with me, so I couldn’t really explore the “trails” very much, but I have a picture for the website when I get it updated.
They had a big sign at the bottom telling people to wear jackets because it would be cold at the top… it was about 76 degrees — the most comfortable place I’ve been all week.

On the way down, I thought I was going to die. Really. To get up there, I took the metro (a very nice system btw) and got in this little run-down bus to take me from the station to the teleferico. (it cost 50 cents) That part was all well and good, but I forgot to ask how I get back from the teleferico to the metro station! so when I got back on groud level, I wandered around a bit before I decided to just try to walk into the city.
What a scary experience. There were lots of taxis, but I wasn’t going to trust my life to a 1970s beat-up old Ford with a pice of paper in the window reading “taxi”. So I wandered through the “barrios” of Caracas. I think I took one picture, but didn’t want to leave my camera out for too long. The barrios reminded me of downtown Reading, PA. Lots of people sitting in the streets speaking spanish. (I kid, I kid) One memorable experience was encountering on a busy street a partially destroyed building that once sold Pittsburgh Paint. the “Paint” part of the sign was gone, so it just looked like this sign for “Pittsburgh” in the middle of rubble and debris… humourous because it is true

Anyway, I made it back alive. it actually wasn’t as far as I thought… I guess it seemed farther in the car because it was uphill. Every day here has had at least one experience like that… almost dying, but not quite. I think one of the major reasons people don’t bother me is because of my camera case.

Thank You Mom. It turns out that with my camera case on my belt with my shirt over top it looks like I’m carrying a gun. An with my under-shirt wallet thing I bought, it looks like a holster. I was wondering about all the weird looks I was getting until the National Guard pulled me aside at the cable car and made a big deal about my camera case… when I showed them the camera, they all laughed and pushed me along. I was so confused.

Another, less scary thing I’ve discovered… venezuelans drink coca-cola out of a can through a straw. its the weirdest thing to look at. Not wanting to seem different I went ahead and tried it, but let me just say that you lose the whole experience of “the can” if you do it that way. I don’t want to be judgmental about a culture’s habits or anything, but that is just wrong.

Anyway, Its time for Spain. Venezuela has been wonderful, but I’ve had my share of arepas and death defying experiences… and I don’t need any shoes. I haven’t seen any mud, so I think the whole report of mudslides must be occuring elsewhere. There is a lot of dust though…

When I arrive in Spain, I’ll turn on my phone, and then people can call me. Otherwise, you’ll hear from me in a few days.

Adios.

Well, I had this delightful message here abotu this funky keyboard i’m using and the fact that I can’t figure out where most of the punctuation is. I also wrote about 5 paragraphs on the city of Caracas and how I’m still alive, when the internet cafe I’m at just up and crapped out.

What fun.

I’ve been spoiled by linux and its never crashing… now I’m goign to save frequently. Right now in fact.

Ok, well in the 30 minutes I have left, I’ll try to write as much as I can.

I arrived and made it to my backpackers hotel with my own private room with a lightbulb and a window… high quality for sure.

To answer some of your questions, yes there is a beach about 15 minutes away, but I’m not sure how to get there because there is an enormous mountain in the way. Literally. The city comes to an abrupt halt right at the base of this mountain/park. It shoots up into the air and lords over the whole city. I’m goign to try to take the funicular up the mountain tomorrow and take some pictures of the city on one side and the sea on the other. (the last post had a witty comment about the word funicular spanning languages… but oh well)

Remember how you all said that I could find bottled water anywhere? well, you lied. There, I said it. Fortunately I’ve determined how to order beer (Polar Cervesa) and Pepsi (Pepsi) so I haven’t had to drink too much water yet… and my purifier tablets have come in handy.

The prices here are crazy. I got myself dinner yesterday and it cost me $10. my room costs $11 a night, and my suntan lotion cost $8. so some things like food and rooms are cheap, and other things are the same as in America. The day I arrived the official rate of exchange went up for me, so I was able to buy an extra pepsi at dinner… ¡yay!

Save again. 17 minutes left.. damn keyboard and its 4 million keys each with three letters.

Ok, what else? I found a store that sells Herman Miller Aeron chairs, you know, like the one I have… so I can’t yet figure out how to order food, but I could buy a chair if I wanted.

Also, every second store here is a shoe store. I guess they all care about appearance here, or else they are all just naturally hot. They say they have 5 miss worlds and 5 miss universes… frankly I think miss “universe” is a bit pretentious… I mean we need a colony on mars before I’ll consider it legitimate.

But yeah, thousands (or mils as they say — how confusing!) of hot people buying shoes. And there is a huge outdoor market where they all buy other stuff too. if you come to venezuela, bring an empty bag to fill with stuff.

The city is also crawling with schoolchildren in uniforms. It reminds me of high school. they all seem to be middle-high school age and are around at every hour every day… its quite strange, I can’t figure out when they actually go to school.

Save again. 10 minutes left.

Ok, well I’m not sure what else to write about. I’m goign to go and get some food after I put more sunblock on. last time I pointed at the menu and got grilled chicken… I’m on the lookout for fried ants.

I’ll try to update again as soon as I can, but for now just to let you know, I can read these messages here much easier than I can check my email. once I get my laptop sonnected, I’m goign to log into my machine at home and set up webmail so I can check my mail more easily.

Ok, back to the world outside. talk to you all soon!

Well, I’m at an internet kiosk in Houston, because my flight from Newark was delayed.

I missed my connection and the nice people at Continental put me up in a hotel and paid for my tasty Texas Bar-B-Que meal.

I’ll be arriving in Venezuela tonight, a day late, but no less excited.

Actually, the whole airport experience was quite delightful. Here’s the story:

In Newark, I went to the customer service counter and asked to join the frequent flyer program. The very nice large Carribean-American woman helped me fill out the form. Then she said, “If I catch the guy who left his trash all over that counter, he won’t be happy!” (Note: don’t anger a large black woman… A thing I learned from Chumleys.)
So after I was done, I picked up that guys trash and threw it away. The people at the desk were happy, and I felt good doing something useful during my time stuck at the airport.

Now, when it became clear that I was going to miss my connection due to the delay, I went back to the desk and the lady recognized me and called me over.”What are you still doing here, honey?” She asked. I explained the whole situation, and she helped me look for alternatives… There was an alternate flight, but I’d arrive in Caracas without my luggage because it was already loaded… better to stay overnight in houston and with my luggage. And, “because I was so nice earlier, she’d send a message ahead and make sure they’d give me a hotel for the night… they don’t do that usually.”

So I arrived in the wonderful city of Houston, with wonderful weather and good food. The person at the desk pointed me to the customer service desk where they indeed did have my information, and along with the non-english speaking customers they would put me up in a hotel.

And get this, the woman’s name at the customer service desk???? — Mini. Yes. Thats right. Her name was Mini.

So now I’m back at the airport waiting for my flight to Caracas. I’m living out of my carryon which only has books and bottled water in it… I need some mouthwash.

My mobile phone only forawrds my calls to my new international phone, so I won’t be able to receive calls (or voice mail) until I hit Spain. Leave messages here and I’ll see them. Email might be a little tough as well until I get my laptop to a full service internet access place and not just kiosks. So leave messages here if you want me to get them.

ok, Off to Venezuela… where I don’t know the language at all. I hope I’ll meet a nice person like me to help myself out, like those poor people who didn’t speak a word of english who missed their flights and stayed at my hotel.