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.