Sarah Palin look-alike? I think not; that's my mom.

Today I was told by my taxi (who also said I don’t have an “accent”) that I look like Sarah Palin. Very interesting.

I FINALLY had a good taxi today. He decided to keep him with me for the day. He was honest, genuine, and helpful. He also was sorta the supervisor of the other numbnuts so I told him the story of the guy who kept asking me how much longer. I kinda feel bad, but whatever.

I had a great trini meal tonight. Some sort of meat with dumplings, and it came with beans, avocado salad, some rice, plantains… much more than I could eat. So I took it home, and then I realized I don’t have a refrigerator. Oops…

Today one of the realtors I was trying to contact finally got back to me. She happens to be in Boston at the moment, reverse! She felt so bad that she couldn’t meet with me that she found one of her co-workers that could. So totally sweet! Though he wanted to meet with me tomorrow and I was like… sorry can we meet Friday? I want to sightsee tomorrow!

I had happy explosions when I wrote to Patrick tonight. I was happy about finishing survey, eating great food, being able to have a free day tomorrow… I think for the first time this trip I really was happy. It feels good to be back for the moment.

Loose screws in taxi drivers' heads in Trini, back off!

I don’t like the taxi drivers here. I had one this morning who took me to a realtor meeting. I asked him to wait for me. I guess I told him it would be about 45 minutes though I don’t remember saying that. He came in an hour later looking for me and wanted to know how long it would be. He had a pickup in an hour and a half! We left at 10:30 and he seemed upset and worried, though where I was from the hotel was only 15 minutes away and where he was going to was another 15. I didn’t get it. Then, tonight I had a taxi who said he would pick me up when I called later. I called, he said he would call me back and he didn’t. So then I called the hotel who apparently sent a taxi and 50 minutes later no taxi. I had to take the employee taxi (take it away from them) to get to the hotel, those poor people. I was pretty pissed.

On a lighter note, the taxi I had this morning said he didn’t think I even had an accent. Apparently I sounded just like him. All this after I had to say “what?” about 5 times first because I can’t understand their English. Makes sense right?
I had a realtor meeting today that was just awesome. 2 ladies, both truly genuine and just wanted to do anything they could to help out. They spent ample time on everything and would have been fine if I talked to them for 2 hours plus I think. And, next time they told me to send the grid in advance so they can work on it before I get there and we’ll take less time so that I have more time to hang out and enjoy myself. So sweet!

I can see the ocean from my window, and there are lots of tankers in the distance too. So I suppose, the view is nice. My room is nice but it smells moldy. And the malls are nice (and not too big!) and well-stocked. Tomorrow will be a busy day. I’m happy to be in a place where crime isn’t running rampid (well gang violence is, but I’m not in one so it’s ok  )

Anyways, I love the Caribbean. I hope to make it to Tobago.

Ba bye Venezuela, hellooooo Trinidad!

Arrived safely in Port of Spain after a good 3 hours sleep last night. Today I feel like I must have gained 10 pounds since I’ve been away from home, I feel gross from my arms to my stomach to my thighs. All that fried food; fried chicken, French fries, fried cheese etc. has really gotten to me I think. Yuck. So far I like Trinidad. It’s certainly friendlier and less chaotic than Venezuela for sure. And, I get to speak English again finally. The hotel is older but my room is nice (got an upgrade of course since I’m a frequent Goldpoints travelor) and this came with some free cookies, a nice glass of complimentary rum punch and a whole lot of disturbances. I got two knocks on my door today, one for some sort of maintenance check or something, another for the cookies, and two phone calls, one to make sure my room was satisfactory and another to make sure my food was satisfactory. The second phone call woke me from my sleep which pissed me off, but how can I get mad about them making sure everything is perfect. So I answered and tried not to express a sleepy, pissed off voice. The plane I was in today was called a dash-8, it had propellers and was fairly small plane, and luckily a fairly pleasant flight.

Caracas’ crazy personality didn’t show itself the way it did went I went to Curacao and had to wait 3 hours to get through the gate. Today was a fairly smooth transition through to safety in the terminal away from Crazy Caracas and I was grateful. I even got an “oh you’re an analista? I thought you were a modela” from the immigration official. Thanks dude, you brightened up my morning a little. Oh Latin men. Though it would have been nice to sleep a few extra minutes instead of having the extra time.

I like the Caribbean-english accent. So far the food is decent (I even ventured to eat salad without getting sick), and people have been friendly. Not one person has yet second-guessed my strange price questions; “how much do you charge by hour for manual labor on cars?” (Really, when you are going in for an oil change or a body service, why does this matter?) Regardless, much better than Venezuela. Happy I don’t need to go back again this trip. I got a text message from my bizzaro taxi driver in PLC tonight. Apparently he just wanted to know if I was in Trinidad or if I had left from there. Not sure why that matters, but he’s bizarro so I guess it shouldn’t make sense anyways. I kinda miss Spanish already. Well, not really, but it was nice to get some practice in. OK it’s once again much too late; goodnight!

Nothing good about Maracaibo

There isn’t much to say about this hellhole, besides that I got stuck in the worst rain storm I have ever seen! Cars were swimming through the streets because of the lack of a drainage system. We had to pull over and wait for the rain to let up for 20 minutes, making me late for my realtor meeting. My driver was the same one that another co-worker had had previously, he asked me why I was here and I told him what I did. He was able to explain to me what the previous girl, Steph looked like; and he told me about all the places that he took her. He was OK. Reliable but emotionless. Maracaibo was dirty, dangerous, and there just wasn’t much to do here. My hotel was pretty nice anyways, and the restaurant manager took a liking to me. I got free drinks on my last day while swimming in the pool before taking my flight to Trinidad ;) He wants to marry someone from the US, who doesn’t. I also met Roger, an interesting character. He was wearing a digital advertisement in a grocery store. He was cute, but ridiculously hard to take seriously in his awesome outfit. He wanted to be my boyfriend. And still to this day asks to be my boyfriend. Oh, the malls in Maracaibo were awesome. If I was a kid, I would want to play here all day everyday, no wonder the malls are so popular to hang out in. There were jumpy things where kids could jump to the ceiling, there were balls you could sit in and roll around in, there were even live female models who were much too young to be wearing scandalous bathing suits in the middle of the crowd.

Taking off in a thunderstorm, back AGAIN to Caracas

I would like to complain to our aviation safety department for giving the Venezuelan airlines the security OK. Tonight, not only did I not need to remove my computer for security, I didn’t need to take my shoes off, throw out my 2 water bottles, and then… we took off in a lightning storm! Seriously. Seriously? Who does that? I couldn’t believe it… the lightning storm wasn’t directly over us but it was close enough for discomfort. It was fast approaching which is while the pilots speeded to get on the runway and we went up very unsteadily. As the plane hurtled around from the windshear and wind blasts from the storm I gasped a few times before we got away from the lightning clouds and into clear skies. Referring to previous points, you would think a nation that has serious security issues would be a little more precautious. Or, maybe not because they have more serious issues to worry about.

On arrival, I wasn’t harassed too much luckily. A bunch of taxi calls but that was about it. I found someone else going to the same hotel so we waited together for the shuttle. He had been waiting for an hour for it. When it finally came, we piled on to join the many North Americans taking the shuttle for their overnight stay. It was only a 5 minute drive from the airport and probably in a very dangerous location too. The mountains spotted with colorful slums peer over at the hotel located in the middle of the chaos. If they ever decided to gear up and take over, I’m pretty sure they would outnumber the hotel security measures. Don’t want to think about it. My dinner tonight was ridiculously expensive. I guess I should have looked at the prices first. My ceviche was like $25 and combine that with a basil mozzarella salad, a water, a beer, service charges and taxes… you’ve got yourself a hefty bill. Ohhh well. OK I must hit the hay. Goodnight.

My free day, and crazy Larry

I finally had a day off. I thought I would be happy but I wasn’t feeling happy today, I was rather very emotional instead. I took a ferry to one of the small islands so I could hang out on the beach all day. (Saco beach, actually! While my friends were on the Saco river, I was on Saco beach). It was very beautiful, when I found the part of the beach where there weren’t many others. I had a beer and an empanada for lunch, cooked by a bunch of islanders with no teeth. I got some reading in. I got catcalled by some youngeons while walking to the other side of the beach which made me feel a bit uncomfortable, but whatever. Aside from being emotional, I was also totally out of it. On the way over someone had to remind me to take my life preserver off and leave it in the boat. One of the same people had to tell me that it was time to get on the ferry now to go back. So when I went back, I was sad. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me, but I just couldn’t wait to go home. I felt lonely and overwhelmed by all the apartment craziness happening. Further, Larry who was suppose to help me ended up screwing me over in the end.

Larry, oh Larry. The night before his cousin was suppose to pick me up from the airport in Maracaibo, he called me to say that what I was offering for payment was much too little, and proposed something absolutely absurd for a price. I was appalled, this guy was suppose to be helping me out, not trying to rip me off. So, they left me high and dry. I had no one to pick me up from the airport now, and that’s something you definitely want to have while in Maracaibo. Further, Larry kept insisting that we definitely get together when we come back to Boston. He even told me he would pick me up at the airport when I arrived at 1am in the morning. At first, I went along with it, then I thought it was just a bit creepy, especially the part when he started joking that he wouldn’t try to sleep with me? Ummm hellooo… what does that mean. So I said nevermind, it wouldn’t make sense for him to pick me up from the airport since it will be so late but thank you, we can do coffee another time. That’s when trusty facebook told me he suddenly went from married to single, and the next day, he had deleted me as a friend. Hmmmm OK, very glad I decided to cancel that plan!

Power outages, bug bites and I may be a model

I think by this point I may have a million bug bites between Curacao and here in PLC. I keep meaning to buy bug spray but then I forget. What’s new, I think I might have the worst memory in the world.

An older man who works at a restaurant tried to serenade me tonight. Are you a model in your country? You have beautiful skin and eyes and nose and…. Shhhhhhhut up. No that’s not attractive and it doesn’t make me want to sleep with you please leave me alone and let me walk away without causing a scene. I need to work. That’s what I was thinking. Though, I try to be understanding of normal culture and pleasant when dealing with annoying situations like this. I said thank you thank you thank you thank you until I could finally slip away when he had to go tend to some customers. Geezzzzzzz… Lots of lovey dovey people here, especially the youngeons with their oh-my-gosh he’s so cute and their endless staring into each others’ eyes romance. It’s kinda nice to see a culture with so much love and public affection (as long as they’re not taking it too far of course).

Today I walked into one of the malls near my hotel and it was pitch black. BUT, stores were still open , at least most of them were. I was amazed. I went into a hair salon to ask how much a men’s hair cut was and she told me the price with the addition of “but we have no electricity now and we’re not sure when we’re going to get it back”. Can you imagine having to deal with this daily? Another reason I liken Venezuela to African or very poor countries; the only places I have had issues with electricity were in Haiti and Angola. Also, the water, like in Caracas, comes out yellow. Looks like pee, no joke. I almost wonder if I would be cleaner if I just chose not to shower in the first place.

Yuck I don’t like the food here. The selection sucks. Since it’s on the water I figured the fish would be good, but it’s not. The squid is chewy and the shrimp and fish taste old. Recommendations were not good, I can’t imagine what the food that was not recommended tasted like. And I can’t eat salad which sucks. The jugos naturals are pretty good though; (blended fresh fruit drink).

Venezuela has got to be the most crazy place I have gone. I re-read the travel warning tonight to have a reminder of the safety concerns. They give you the television remote as you are checking into the hotel which was a bit bizarre. People call others by psssssssss ing. Like they do in Africa. Ugh it’s so very annoying. Another reason, maybe why being here reminds me of Africa.