My Last Days in Venezuela

This blog update comes to you from onboard my flight to Buenos Aires from Caracas.

My last day with my Host family in Margarita was a nice way to end my exchange experience there. During the day, I made a Pavlova for my family, which although they seemed to like, I didn’t think it was very good. They don’t have caster sugar here, or baking paper. And, if you’ve ever made a Pavlova, you’d probably know that you need baking paper. Due to the sugar not being as fine as caster sugar, it was pretty much impossible to dissolve all of the sugar, which I spent about two hours trying to do. Also, I didn’t have fruit, so on top was just cream. But yeah, my host family seemed to like it, so it doesn’t really matter, does it?

Well, after I’d left the Pavlova in the oven to cool, I went with my family to the Fortin de Juan Griego, located in the town of Juan Griego. I had a nice time there with my family, we watched some of the sun set, and then made our way home.

The last night I had in Margarita wasn’t spent sleeping, due to the fact that I had to finish packing my bags, although I don’t think I would’ve been able to sleep even if I tried. The last few days I had in Margarita were partially filled by pockets of horrible sadness, as I began to realize that I’m leaving my new family, and I have no idea of when I’ll be able to see them again. What’s nice though, is when I came to Venezuela; I came to live with some strangers, who eventually became my Venezuelan family, the people who I’m going to miss a lot.

Before I left, I was told several times that, while leaving New Zealand may be hard (I didn’t really find it particularly hard), leaving your exchange country is going to be a lot harder. It turned out to be true. I don’t think you could ever really imagine how hard it would be, I definitely didn’t think it was going to be as hard as it was, as it is. When I came to Venezuela, it was pretty much just another country. Now that I’m leaving, I’m leaving my second home, Like I said previously, I came to live with strangers who became my family, a random woman who became my Venezuelan mum. I’ve come to love this country, and accept the things I don’t like about it. What perplexes me now, is why Venezuela isn’t a much more popular exchange destination. Sure, it has its problems, but it is a truly beautiful country, with so many different things to see. Beautiful beaches, wonderful wildlife, big cities, and so much more. The people too, generally, are just so open, friendly, and accepting. And no, I’m not writing a promotion for the Venezuelan tourism industry. I know that I’ll return as soon as I can.

Another reason I didn’t sleep was the fact that we had to leave at about 4AM to go to the airport. Once I’d finished packing and was already, I sat around and tried to relax. We left the apartment at about 4.30AM, and made our way to the airport in the early morning darkness. My family took me to the airport, and following the normal airport procedure, bid me a sad farewell. When taking a few last photos, I was told to smile, but I found it a little hard, due to the circumstance.

We arrived to Caracas at about half past seven, and waited around for a few hours for other students from other cities, and then went to the location where our end of stay orientation was to take place. I left a day earlier than everyone else there, due to flight schedules, but while I was there we did some typical activities, and had a chance to talk, in small groups, about how we felt.

I left for the airport a day after I arrived, accompanied by some AFS volunteers, and did the necessary airport things. I went through security fairly quickly; at least compared to a few experiences I’ve had, and then started to walk around looking at shops and stuff. Before I left Margarita, my mum had been looking for a shirt of the Venezuelan Football team, La Vinotinto, in my size to give to me. Neither she nor I were able to find one in Margarita. But, luckily, after asking a few people out and inside the airport if they were sold at the airport, I found one in my size. I was extremely happy to finally get a shirt, and it brightened up a sad day for me. If you didn’t already know, in Venezuela there is a currency control system in place. This makes it pretty much impossible to exchange Bolivares for other currencies outside of Venezuela, so I was stuck with the task of spending the remaining money I had. I went to one store with nice looking souvenir things, and started talking with the woman working there. I told her I wanted to spend the remaining Bolivares I had, explaining why, and then started talking about my time in Venezuela, where I was going and other related things. I bought a small Venezuelan flag, to accompany the other one my family gave me, and a Venezuelan shot glass. I had the exact amount of money to make the purchase. Well, demonstrating the friendliness that so many Venezuelans show, she gave me a nice Venezuelan bracelet type thing for free, and let me keep my last one Bolivar coin as a souvenir.

I think they ways that my exchange has ended have been almost perfect, and I’m quite grateful for that. But I miss Venezuela and my family quite a lot. It's hard to believe it's over and how fast it went.

The End

Hello, I'm writing this on my last night in my home in Venezuela. Tomorrow, at 4AM, I have to go to the airport and fly to Caracas for an end of exchange orientation thing, where I'll stay for a night. The following day I'll be flying to Buenos Aires.

For my last day here, I made a Pavlova for my family, and then went with my Mum and Sister to El Fortin de Juan Griego. It's a fort in a town called Juan Griego. It was a beautiful place. I'll put more photos on this blog later, when I have time, and maybe even write a bit more. It was a nice day, and a good way to end my exchange experience here in Margarita.

Right now is by far the worst I've felt during my entire exchange, actually, the worst I can ever remember feeling. I have to leave my new home and family in Venezuela, and I don't know when I'll be able to return. I'm gonna miss a lot of things about my home here. I'm really gonna miss my mum. She's such a nice person, and has made my exchange a lot easier.

It's complicated, because as I've said before, I have conflicting feelings. I want to go home to New Zealand, but I really don't want to leave. This is easily the hardest part of my exchange.

I'll update from Buenos Aires.

Nearing the End

Hello again. I had planned to update earlier, but I got distracted and/or forgot. But you can all stop crying now and begin to rejoice.

Anyway, I have about a week left here in Venezuela, which is sad. I'm sad about it, but I'm also excited to travel, and excited to return to New Zealand at the end of it all. It's quite strange actually, I'm not sure how to feel. I have conflicting feelings, one moment I'll be quite sad, and the next moment I'll be excited. It's quite exhausting.

We had a nice big AFS meeting thing, where all the people associated with AFS someway in Margarita, came together to hang out, eat, and talk about stuff. I had to get up and speak a little bit about my experience in Venezuela, and it was alright. My Spanish has improved a lot, as you would expect. I was speaking to a few people that are going on an exchange next year, and they told me that my Spanish was really good. That made me quite happy. I've found that speaking and understanding the conversation is much easier when you're dictating the subject. When I'm more passively participating in a conversation I find I don't understand as much.

I think I forgot to tell you all that I went to Caracas for a few days a couple of months ago. I went with my host brother for my host cousin's Confirmation. If you don't know what that is, don't worry, neither did I. It's this ceremony type thing that Catholics, and I think maybe people of some other religions, have to signify the beginning of religious responsibility, or something like that, I'm not sure. The Confirmation ceremony thing was quite boring, but being in Caracas was fun. I stayed with my cousins and I really enjoyed it, they're all very nice. They live in an apartment complex that more of their family also live in, so they can visit and hang out with each other whenever they want. It was nice being around so many people, a change from how it is in my home in Margarita. I played Playstation with my host cousins, which was quite fun. My favourite part was being introduced by my host cousins or host Aunt to other people as "my cousin/nephew", it's nice hearing that.

Anyway, I'm at the point in my exchange when I'm experiencing lots of "lasts", you know, like last time I'll go to school (although that actually happened several weeks ago). It's quite sad. I leave Margarita Island early morning on Wednesday the 25th, and go to Caracas for an ending camp thing, and then I leave Caracas in the afternoon on Thursday the 26th. Just writing about leaving Margarita Island is making me a bit sad. But I have traveling to look forward to, so that makes me a bit less sad.

I've been thinking about things that I'm going to miss, and things that I won't. The things I will miss outnumber the things I won't, which I guess is a good thing, it just makes it harder to leave. Actually, the only thing I can think of right now that I won't miss is seeing stray dogs and cats pretty much everywhere I go. But there are several things that I can think of that I will miss. I'll miss playing football here, my host mum and family, my friends, and I'll particularly miss being able to speak Spanish all the time. I know I won't be able to speak Spanish as much in New Zealand.

I don't really have anything more to say right now, so I guess that's it from me for now. Thanks for reading.

Blog! The Second.

What? Another post so soon? Yes, yes it is, obviously.

So I thought I would post again to tell you all some stuff about the current state of my exchange experience.

 I have about six weeks left in Venezuela. I believe I leave Margarita on the 25th of July to go to Caracas for a Pre Departure Camp, and then leave Venezuela on either the 26th or the 27th. I've very much enjoyed my experience, it's been mostly great. There have been some not so exciting moments, I guess you could even say boring, which would be the right word to describe those moments, actually. Yes, school has been very boring, and thankfully I only have one week left. I have to give a presentation thing in Spanish about my experience here on the fourth of July, something I'm not really looking forward to, I don't really know what I'm going to say.

Anyway, more day to day things. I'm enjoying playing football, although it can be quite exhausting with the heat and humidity. My homelife is alright, but it can be a little difficult at times. It's quite lonely because my host parents work a lot, and I think that has affected how quickly I've learnt the language. I like my host family though, I just feel it might have been easier to learn Spanish had I been in a host family that were at home more often. Also, it's been quite strange, because there isn't really a communal living area, and everyone just kinda watches TV in their own rooms. But despite that, I am speaking quite a lot of Spanish now. Especially with my friends from football. It's much easier talking now that the European Championship is on, as I always have something to discuss. I also appreciate that I don't have to get up in the middle of the night or early morning to watch the games.

Ok, and the most exciting part of this post, my travel plans after leaving Venezuela. Yes, for those of you who don't know, I have travel plans. I'm planning on travelling throughout Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, and Peru for about 5 weeks after I leave Venezuela. I'm very excited about it. Here's a map for you all to see where I'm planning on going.

As this map shows, I will start in Buenos Aires, then travel on to Cordoba, Mendoza, Santiago, La Paz, Puno (the city not shown on the map, but shown by the line), Cusco, Arequipa, and finish in Lima. (The little red box at the top is where I am right now.)

Those are my plans, and I think I will return to New Zealand around the 30th of August. I think I'll also be spending one day and one night in Sydney, due to the flights.

Ok, well I'll post again near the end of the month, maybe sooner, maybe later, I don't know.

AFS Trip (Very Late)

Oh, wow, hi there. This has taken me far too long. I'm sorry. I'm going to post much more often now, so hopefully all of my reader can forgive me. That's not a typo, I just don't know if more than one person actually reads this, I hope so.

Anyway, my last AFS trip, which took place from the 20th to the 29th of March, was a tour named Playa-Selva-Llanos, or in English, Beach-Jungle-Plains. This post won't be very detailed and include any photos (at least not right now) like my last post about an AFS trip. That's partly due to the fact that I'm posting from my family's computer and not mine, so I don't have any of my photos. My laptop is at some shop being repaired or something, that's not particularly interesting so I won't bore you with the details.

Beach

Ok, so this trip started much like the last, with me leaving Margarita Island and meeting other AFS students to travel by bus to our first destination, arriving at night. Chichiriviche was our first destination on this trip, where we stayed to enjoy the National Park of Morrocoy. This park has really nice beaches, you know, white sand, clear water. The really nice beaches we went to were actually located on very small islands called Cayos, in Spanish, the most famous being Cayo Sombrero. We took boats to a few and spent the day doing typical beach things. We spent two days, and two nights in Chichiriviche, but unfortunately it rained all day on the second day, so we didn't go anywhere.

Jungle

In the late afternoon of the 23rd we departed Chichiriviche to go to the Jungle part of the trip, the State of Las Amazonas. We stayed in the capital of the state, Puerto Ayacucho, for a couple of days. We arrived in the middle of the day, having travelled all night. That day we went to look at some not particularly interesting things in the city centre, a museum and not much else. On the 25th we went by boat down the river Orinoco, the largest river in Venezuela, and swam in it as well. The following day, the 26th we went for a walk in the jungle and saw some spiders and stuff. The spiders were actually very large, I'll be sure to post a picture of one when I can. That night we left for the final leg of our trip, and my favourite, Los Llanos (the Plains).

Los Llanos

We arrived to our destination in the early hours of the 27th, and were able to relax for a few hours before going to see the beauty of Los Llanos. We went walking around our motel/hotel thing, which was really in the middle of nowhere, to view lots of wildlife. My favourites were the crocodiles and the capybaras, which are really cute. We were also able to see and hold a piranha, but don't worry, it was dead. Later in the day we took a boat down a river to see a lot of crocodiles, and look for an anaconda, which we failed to find. That night, like the last night of the other trip, we had a party to mark the end of the trip. And, due to many people voicing their disappointment at not seeing an anaconda, we were able to go out early in the morning of the following day to try to find one. Luckily, we did find an anaconda, which meant that I was able to actually hold a giant snake. It was pretty awesome. We only spent one full day in Los Llanos, which I thought was lame. I would have much rather spent more time in Los Llanos and less in Chichiriviche. That day, the 28th, we began the journey home.

I thoroughly enjoyed this trip, maybe even more than the last. I'm sorry it has taken me so ridiculously long to do it. I will add photos when I can, and even a video of a crocodile, and photos of the anaconda along with photos of other things. My next post will be in the next few days, so check back soon.

New Post!

Yeah, it's going at about one post a month now. There's not that much new stuff to write about anymore.

School is still boring. I don't do any work in class, so there's nothing for me to do. It's the same for a lot of AFS students in Venezuela though.

I'm supposed to be going on a trip next week with AFS, but I'm not sure if that will happen. Apparently we need at least 35 people to sign up for it, and I don't know how many people have signed up. It was supposed to be from the 7th of March to the 15th, but they delayed it because not enough people had signed up. Hopefully it happens though.

I joined a football team. It's really fun, I really enjoy playing here. Not that I didn't enjoy playing football in New Zealand. It is better here though. I have practice three times a week, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from 7 until 9. And instead of paying the subscription fee thing, I just go help my coach with the younger kids practices. That's from 5.30 until 7 on Mondays and Wednesdays and is pretty fun as well.

Ok, so that's all for now. I will update this blog again at some point in the future.

La Gran Sabana

So from the 18th to the 26th of January I was on my first AFS trip, to La Gran Sabana. It was pretty awesome.

The Route - Margarita > Puerto La Cruz > Puerto Ordaz > Upata > Somewhere > Santa Elena De Uairen > Some border town in Brazil (not on map). On the way back we went to Ciudad Bolivar instead of Puerto Ordaz (blue line)

The Beginning

On the night of Wednesday the 18th, I went by ferry from my home island of Margarita, to Puerto La Cruz. The ferry took about four hours, and wasn't very interesting. We arrived in Puerto La Cruz at about 11PM, and went to the apartment of an AFS volunteer to wait for the bus to take us to Puerto Ordaz. That bus ride took about five hours and we arrived in Puerto Ordaz at about 8AM or something.

Puerto Ordaz - The 19th

A Monkey!

So we arrived to Parque Loefling in Puerto Ordaz in the morning on Friday the 19th. There we had breakfast and walked through the park looking at stuff. There was kind of a zoo thing throughout the park, so we walked through looking at the animals. There were lots of little monkeys in the park that were pretty fun to look at. After we had breakfast some of them jumped down onto the tables to steal the leftovers, and they were fun to give food to. We also saw some birds, crocodiles, and what I think were a pair of leopards, although I'm not sure.

We then went to Parque Cachamay, which didn't have any cool monkeys, but was still quite a nice park.

After that we had lunch and then went to the Eco Museo (Museo=Museum). The museum had a bunch of stuff about the hydro power history in Puerto Ordaz, and some other stuff.

Following that we went to the Centro Comercial Orinoquia (a mall), which is pretty huge. We just hung out there for a while before leaving for the city of Upata, where we stayed the night in a hotel.

Day 2 - Camp Kama-Meru

The next day we left to go to our camp, Campamento Kama Meru. We stopped at a small town on the way, but didn't do anything particularly interesting. There was this old lady that yelled at us angrily, I didn't really catch what she was saying, it was pretty amusing though. The driving time was about 8 hours, and we arrived to the camp at some time that night. The camp didn't have hot water, which kinda sucked, but otherwise it was good.

Day 3 - Waterfall!

So, on day 3, we had breakfast and took some Jeeps to an Indigenous village named Iboribo, located on the banks of the river Aponwao. We then took small boats to a place from where we walked to Salto Aponwao (Aponwao Falls). We then spent our second and last night at the camp.

Day 4 - Some More Waterfalls!

We went to some nice waterfalls. Yeah, they were nice, most waterfalls are. They weren't particularly interesting though, so I can't be bothered writing about it. We then made our way to the town of Santa Elena de Uairen, arriving at some time at night to a motel like place, I'll call it a motel. It had hot water, which was nice.

Day 5 - El Abismo! (The Abyss)

On the fifth day we took some Jeeps through a village called El Pauji, to a small mountain thing. We walked up the mountain, which took like, 25 or 30 minutes, although I can't really remember, it might have taken longer. At the top was a really super awesome view of the jungle and other mountains and stuff. After that we went to a small waterfall, from where we could jump from three metres into the water. It was pretty fun, I enjoyed it.

Day 6 -Brazil and the Way Back

So on the sixth day, we left in the morning towards the Venezuelan-Brazilian border. We then went to the Brazilian border town of Vila Pacaraima. We stayed there for a couple of hours and had a nice lunch, and then made our way back to the town of Upata, where we stayed for the night.

Day 7 - Ciudad Bolivar

On the seventh day we went to Ciudad Bolivar, a historic city named after Simon Bolivar, who also has the State of Bolivar named after him. He also has the currency named after him, Bolivares. Oh, and the full name of the country, The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. We first went to the Museum of Modern Art. It was pretty interesting, but I'm not a big fan of modern art. We then went to Plaza Bolivar, La Casa Congreso de Angostura, and the Museo Prision de Piar. It's a very historic district, and the buildings and stuff are very nice looking. I couldn't take any photos though, because the AFS people told us not to take our cameras and other expensive things because the area is dangerous. I think they were just being cautious though. Following that we went to La Casa de San Isidro, which was a pretty nice place. We then had dinner and had kind of a closing ceremony. After that we started the drive back to Puerto La Cruz, which took about 4 hours, and we arrived at about 11pm. We went to the same apartment that we were in at the start of the trip, and had a nap.

Day 8 - The End

So after sleeping a little we woke up at about 5am to go to catch the ferry back to Margarita Island. The ferry ride was about 4 hours, which I mostly slept through due to being extremely tired, arriving home at about midday. 

And that was my AFS trip to La Gran Sabana, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I'll try to update my blog before the end of the month.

Overdue

Ok, I know, it's been more than a month since my last update. I've been busy at times, but mostly just lazy. I've kinda just been procrastinating updating this. But now I'm doing it, so we can all just chill, all two of us. This update won't include stuff about my trip and most of January, because I can't be bothered at the moment. I figure I should just tell you about Christmas and stuff.

Ok, so we celebrated Christmas on the 24th by going to my host grandmother's house for dinner and stuff, pretty normal, not that interesting. The traditional Venezuelan Christmas food is a Hallaca. I'm just copying the wikipedia description, because it's exactly what I had. It is a mixture of beef, pork, chicken, capers, raisins, and olives wrapped in maize (cornmeal dough), bound with string within plantain leaves, and boiled or steamed afterwards. I'm not a big fan of it. It tastes kinda weird. We also had pork, and turkey, at least I'm pretty sure it was turkey, I can't really remember it. We had a similar dinner for New Years, which was at the house of my host dad's parents. That was pretty good. Lots of people, my host dad has a large family, with lots of little kids, which would suck if I disliked kids, but I don't really mind them. Except when there are more than two of them, which there were. But New Years was pretty good. I haven't gotten Homesick yet, which is good. I miss New Zealand and stuff, but I haven't suffered from my idea of homesickness.

*Oh, I forgot to mention that I made Afghan Biscuits for my family, because Afghan Biscuits are from New Zealand. They all seemed to like them, and I thought they were pretty nice.

Ok, so it's a short update, but I'll write more in the next couple of days. I'll also add a photo or two to this after I've slept a bit, it's quite late right now. And I'll write about my trip and the rest of January in my next update in the next couple of days.