Muchos Deportes y un Fin de Semana Muy Relajante

For those who are interested in my health, the medicine I bought from la farmacia worked very well and everything is cleared up. It only cost me a dollar! I might bring some home for future sinus infections. After two days of school, the weekend had rolled around again, and I was glad that we did not really have any plans so we could just hang out in Mérida. Thursday afternoon, I headed over to El Mercado Sotorosa, a farmers’ market pretty close to school that runs Thursday-Saturday. I spent about $3 and bought three parchitas, two guayabas, three tamarindo chinos (starfruit?), an aguacate the size of an eggplant, a bag of flor de Jamaica tea, and a naranja roja. The naranja roja is essentially a grapefruit and is kind of a funny name since, like in English, the word for orange (naranja) resembles the color (anaranjado), so its name literally means “red orange.” I guess not all that funny, but kind of interesting. Thursday evening we chilled in the Plaza Bolívar three blocks from our house. We really lucked out in terms of the neighborhood we live in, since this plaza is the best in town in my opinion and is surrounded by a mall, restaurants, a church, and two licorerias, so it is always full of people. The tour company with which Bruce (see previous post) is associated offered us free rock climbing on Friday in what I assume was an attempt to draw us back since we had started to venture off to other tour agencies for our travels outside Mérida. Anyway, word must not have gotten out, so just seven of us hopped on a bus and traveled about twenty minutes into the mountains and then got off at a random curve in the road where there was a large rock with hooks for climbing. It looked pretty intimidating since none of us had climbed anything other than artificial indoor rock walls, but we became a little more confident watching our guide free climb the wall in order to attach the ropes to the top hook. I was number two to climb; it was surprisingly easy to keep moving up and before I knew it I was at the top. The terrifying part came as I had to lean back until perpendicular to the wall in order to start repelling. For those who haven’t tried, it is the most unnatural feeling putting all of your trust in a rope while looking down and thinking about falling fifty feet to your death. For someone who has almost weekly dreams about falling off of skyscrapers, falling out of church steeples etc., I think I stepped well out of my comfort zone. I climbed one more route and then called it quits. Another added bonus of the day was that Bruce left early, so we were able to talk directly to the tour guides. After a little bit of negotiating, we discovered that we did not need to go through a middle man (Bruce) and could save a bunch of money on our future trips. For example, there is a trip planned to los Llanos, the Venezuelan equivalent of the Wild West, which would have cost $150 and now costs $80. I definitely would not have gone if the price had not changed. We then had lunch at a Mexican place called El Tostano Mexicano. We had all been itching for some Mexican food since Venezuelans do not really use many spices or salsa of any kind. We chowed down on some nachos, tamales, and chimichangas. I spent $7 and had plenty of leftovers for Saturday’s lunch; not too bad in my opinion. Speaking of money, I am thinking about exchanging soon since the rate is now at about 23 to 1 due to the continued instability with Chavez and usual inflation. Inflation is so bad that a year ago or so they moved the decimal one place over on the bolívar since it had devalued so much. Regarding Chavez and the news of his return to Caracas, I am not sure what they’re saying in the US, but the dominant opinion here has been and continues to be that he is clearly dead and they are waiting to say so until the vice president has enough popularity to win an election and continue the regime. Cointa was cooking us some beef the other day and asked us how we like it done. I replied medium well with very little red, and Cointa responded ”ahhhh las Chavistas” (in reference to the red). Friday afternoon I spent some quality time hanging out with Cointa and she showed me how she makes juices from fruits. We made a smoothie of parchita, guayaba, tamarindo chino, and naranja roja and she showed me how to sift out the seeds from the parchita. Friday night we hung out with our new friend Martín, who drove us around in the back of his truck (fully legal or extremely unenforced, not sure which), and showed us his favorite places in town. Saturday we played some basketball and soccer, both of which I am pretty terrible at, against a group of our Venezuelan friends. They tend to be pretty average at basketball, but extremely good at soccer since they play virtually since the day they are born. Although I clearly had a good time, I am perpetually reminded of my permanent status as the kid in right field dazing into the distance and picking at clovers. Later on, I made another smoothie on my own of lechoza (papaya), parchita, and tamarindo chino. Cointa later scolded me for not sifting out the seeds of the parchita, which apparently contain carcinogens? After I told her I kept the seeds of the lechoza in the mixture, she was relieved, saying that the good properties in those seeds would cancel out the bad in the others. I have been having a lot of fun with Cointa; she is fun to joke around with and her mannerisms and habits can be pretty hilarious. My friend Andrew and I have been talking about trying to record one of her rants or just her usual phrases so we can remember what it’s like to live with her. Every time we say gracias for a breakfast of cereal, she will joke “oh I was up all night making it,” without fail, every time. I’m really going to miss living with her when I have to leave; she has a very peaceful presence and a great perspective on life. I always laugh whenever she lectures us about how terrible Venezuelan women are. She is very protective of us and will tell us how all the Venezuelan woman only want our money and the men are all borrachos. I really cannot emphasize enough how much we lucked out living with Cointa. Saturday night we saw some live music for the first time, which was absolutely phenomenal. Not sure if anyone in the reading audience knows Umphrey’s McGee, but the vibes were similar; they were jammin pretty hard.  I had a good conversation with a long-haired Venezuelan hipster dude; this was the first venue where we came across a kind of Venezuelan “counterculture.” Before the band started, the bar was showing live Nirvana videos and had plenty of Stones and Zeppelin posters. Not sure how, but a couple weeks back we became connected with two Venezuelan brothers, Jiro and Freddie, with whom we have become pretty good friends. They are really great guys and put up with our terrible soccer game; they were the ones who keyed us in on the live show. Sunday we went to the largest waterpark in South America called Vegasol, and had a great time jumping off the diving boards, playing volleyball, and just hanging out. They did not let us go down the slide since we weren’t wearing speedos? I offered to pay some bolívares, but to no avail. I have really gotten used to living here, and I am loving it. Keep the comments coming; it is super interesting to hear everyone’s take on what is going on here. I am eternally grateful for the scholarships and support from my parents that have allowed me to go on this adventure; my worldview has already shifted quite a bit and my Spanish has improved dramatically. I am missing good old Minnesota quite a bit, especially Mom, Dad, Max and Ziggy, but I am really having the time of my life and am glad to be able to stay connected via the wonders of the interwebs.