Sunday 22 April 2012

Dreams come true!

One day, when I was still in England, my friend Lisbeth asked me whether I’d like to go and do an IELTS preparation course and visit her country. I was obviously very keen and we started working on advertising the course. Although I was very excited about the whole idea, I didn’t go on about it. People from the country like to leave everything till last minute and until about two months ago we weren’t sure whether we had enough people to run the course. Luckily enough, on Friday the 13th we arrived in Caracas (Venezuela) to make one of my dreams come true – visit South America :D!!! On Friday morning(07:25), we travelled from London to Madrid and from there to Caracas. The journey was not too bad because I slept the whole way. We arrived in Caracas at 21:30 English time (16:00 Venezuelan time). I was told there was a bank holiday that day and we were taken straight to the beach. We were sitting on rocks on the beach, chatting, listening to the sea and looking at the mountains on the other side. What a perfect start of my dream journey! I have been here for a week and I’m already fascinated by the country and especially its people. Everyone here is very friendly and approachable. I’ve been invited to lunches, dinners, coffees and drinks. People who have only just met me make me feel at home in their houses and offer to show me around. One evening, I was a special guest at a stand up show which I didn’t understand anything from lol. Afterwards, I had a chance to dance salsa, marengue and regueton. I ended up in an exclusive gay club. It was such great fun! Venezuealans find my name hilarious because it sounds like ‘hello’ in Spanish but actually means ‘a wave’ (la ola). Everyone is keen on practicing their English with me and they’ve been very patient with my poor Spanish. I’m amazed by how much I can already understand! Children from Lisbeth’s family have been very determined to teach me Spanish and they follow me everywhere, even to the toilet lol. They’re very sweet and I haven’t met a single brat. Second best thing about Venezuela is the food. It is quite different from what I’m familiar with. My personal favourite are tajadas – fried ripe bananas which taste delicious with local white cheese. There’re also fried green bananas tostones which are less sweet in taste and drier in texture. I have also had a bollito de maiz which is a corn dish served with white cheese. Very good! I Once, I had a pizca andina for breakfast which is a potato soup with poached eggs, coriander and a dash of milk. It’s a traditional dish of San Cristobal. It’s apparently very good for your hangovers. People hardly ever eat bread here, however, they frequently consume arepas – pancakes made of cornflower and water. They fill it with basically anything they fancy eg. cheese, avocado, ham, scrambled eggs. From drinks, I absolutely love the cream coffee they make here and I’m already worried how I’m going to live without it back in Poland. My favourite beer is Zulia which is light and a bit zesty in taste. I have also tried a local fruit guanebana which is green outside and white inside, with seeds. They make very nice and refreshing juice out of it. I have had a nispero which is a bit too sweet for my taste. They have delicious little mangos here! Venezuela is an exotic country to me and I have already noticed a few interesting things. Which, according to my companion, are ‘isolated cases’. I have been taking notes and pictures of things that amuse me here. On top of the list has to be my trip from Caracas to San Cristobal. I didn’t complain when we had to go on a different coach than we had booked because some of the seats were wet. As a result, we left much later and the journey took a lot longer. All of that was bearable to me. However, as soon as we got on the other coach, most of the people took out their blankets, put on winter hats, gloves and scarves (mind you it was 25 degrees outside)! It turned out they were very well prepared for twelve hours journey in an extremely air conditioned bus. I think I won’t exaggerate if I say it was maximum 5 degrees in there. I thought I’d freeze to death in this always warm country and never get to see it outside Caracas. People in Venezuela try to earn their living in many ways and can be very creative about it. It’s quite common that they go between cars on the roads selling crisps, lottery tickets, flowers etc. I’ve seen students from a local uni doing acrobatic stunts and collecting money afterwards. Regarding appearance, most people have dark hair, eyes and darkish skin. Therefore, I stand out a bit with my very white skin and green eyes and get stared at which is a funny experience. Women, especially those in Caracas, have very… full culos (bums). If I keep enjoying the food so much, I might grow a Venezuelan culito! Although people are very nice here, they seem to transform when they’re at work. They have very relaxed attitude to time and customer service. Another thing is that Venezuelans drive like craaaaaazy! If I ever drove a car here, I’d probably get killed in 5 minutes (if not sooner). At night, they normally drive on red lights for safety reasons! It was then explained to me that otherwise they’re an easy target for robbers and kidnappers. Although I haven’t experienced anything hostile, I have been warned on several occasions I have to be extra cautious. Apparently, my appearance attracts trouble. Because of that, the people we’re staying with in Caracas sent a driver/ acting bodyguard with us to the town centre. I’ve now had my celebrity moment! The weather here is beautiful. Every day, it’s about 25-30 degrees but it’s quite humid and it rains sometimes. As a result, I look like a puddle most of the time. The views are amazing because both cities are surrounded by mountains. Apparently, I haven’t seen anything yet. I can’t wait to visit the rest of the country and write about it on the blog
.

No comments: