Valencia & San Diego

My taxi was a beaten up old thing and one first glance I was really considering saying no I’ll go with someone else thanks but I just wanted to drop my heavy bag somewhere so I just got in and showed him the address. He was a grumpy old man and was in no mood for chatting or jokes so I made no effort to talk to him! I did however feel it necessary to get some flowers for the ladies of the house, one bunch for Vanessa and the other for her mother so she didn’t feel left out so I asked the driver if there were any florists open in the vicinity and as expected I got a grumpy no from him. He clearly had no idea where he was going either and asked me to show him the address about 6 times and on the 7^th I just gave it him! On the way there without even consciously looking we passed a florists and I said there, take me to that florist so he grumpily agreed and turned round. It seemed like every Venezuelan I’d met was grumpy although the woman and guy (mother and son I’d say) changed my opinion when they actually seemed happy to serve me and managed to smile a little, probably because of the amount of money they were expecting from me!

So I got the flowers and we eventually arrived at the gates of Vanessa’s little neighbourhood which had it’s own private guard, gates and walls! This was after having to ask directions of many people and the car breaking down (as I expected from my first glance of the car!) and pushing it with him to get it going again! He left me at the gate and I checked the family name corresponded with the house number Vanessa had given me. This was definitely the right place and now I was full of butterflies as I was about to see Vanessa again and meet her family and it was 6am and thy had no idea when I would be arriving!

Thankfully I didn’t need to wake anyone up as Vanessa’s father was already awake and standing at the front drive almost as if he was expecting me. Immediately he rushed over to shake my hand and welcome me and help me with my bag which made me feel alot more at ease and very welcome!

As soon as I entered the house, little Mima the little poodle dog I had only ever seen online immediately ran to me barking its little head off and going beserk! She was on her hind legs waving her little front paws at me like she was dancing and clapping! 

It was so cool! She was so cute! All the commotion must have woken the whole house and immediately followed Vanessa’s mother who I gave the flowers to and then Vanessa made an appearance eventually after she had told Mima to go and check if I really had arrived so once she heard she knew I was there and came down.

It was great to be here and they made me feel very welcome. Neither of Vanessa’s parents spoke English so for me it was quite hard work understanding and talking to them and understanding and conveying everything but for the most part I understood and I think they were actually fairly impressed with my standard of Spanish.

I was expecting to be staying on a floor or something, or at most a mattress but to my delight, they showed me to my own room, a very large room equipped with a large double bed, a single bed, a hammock (which was really comfortable), an ensuite bathroom, a tv, wifi and air con! What a fantastic little pad this would be for me! Perfect, I couldn;t have wished for more! Although the shower didn’t work terribly well but this was not an issue for me. They even provided me with my own drawers for my clothes and got Nancy (the cleaner) to do all my washing and ironing for me and make me coffee and a toasted sandwich for breakfast! It was just wonderful and I was so pleased to be here and to see Vanessa of course!

The day was a lazy one, I was tired from the days travelling, Vanessa was tired from waking so early and she needed to study so we didn't do too much. I was keen to go and explore as usual but I knew that I’d have time to do that over the weekend so we just chilled for most of the day which suited me! When it got to around dinner time, Vane donned a fetching apron and cooked some tasty camarones spaghetti with a nice sauce which was nice. Then we met good old Miguel (Satu) –one of Vane’s best and oldest friends who took us on a spin around San Diego (the part of Valencia where Vane lives) and then into Valencia.

We decided we’d go to the cinema although Satu didn’t fancy it so we met Joha and Rido (two other friends of Vanessa from uni) at the cinema to watch Remember Me, a sad but rather predictable love story although no one would predict the ending! After this we went to a birthday party which was nice when I realised that the majority of people there did actually speak a fairly good standard of English and just as I got chatting to people it was time to leave! I did enjoy playing with the inflatable baseball court where you’d place a ball hovering over compressed air and smash it as hard as you could into the netting. I’d never seen anything like it and it was fun while it lasted!

Vane was of course too mature and feminine to be doing that and just continued her girly natter all night with Joha. It had been a day of excitement but now it was time to sleep and I was looking forward to my nice comfy double bed to sleep in. After saying an emotional good night to Vanessa I was out like a light.

The next day brought rain and so the beach was out of the question as had been suggested by Satu although I was still up for seeing caracas as suggested by Vane. Unfortunately however the family car was in for 2 weeks of repairs and so there was no way of getting anywhere without relying on public transport or on others. Vanessa had said no to Caracas as she wasn;t keen to take the bus and taxis which was a shame but fair enough. She was keen to go to the country club with Rido but the rain soon dispelled that ideaand so it looked like Saturday too was going to be a lazy day which indeed it was. A lot more general lazing about took place and I’m not sure I actually left the house for the whole day which was a shame.

By Sunday morning, I was desperate to get out and do something even though it was raining again and so I was excited when Vanessa said that Satu was coming to pick us up to go to Caracas with a couple of friends. 

Caracas

This was a fun road trip and it was great to see another capital city of this great continent! On entry into the city it reminded me alot of the typical South American capital city in the Andes such as La Paz, Quito or Lima with brightly coloured barrios in the suburbs densely crammed together on the mountain slopes surrounding an urban sprawl of skyscrapers and a central business district. 

Passing by the Plaza Bolivar

 in the heart of the city, we headed to the teleferico (the cable car) which headed all the way up to the El Avila (the high ridged mountain separating the sea from the city). This afforded amazing views of the city which was a very interesting long thin sprawl between the mountains that appeared to go on as far as the eye could see on one side and on the other the deep blue Caribbean sea. 

It was rather cold up there and after taking a fair few photos up there, it was time to get back down again. Luckily now the rain had dispersed and the hot sun was beaming down when we reached terra firma once again.

This had been a fun occasion and now we were all tired but on return to Valencia we stopped by Maria Eugenia’s house, the best friend of Vanessa’s sister Karina. After a while of chatting a pretty young girl came in called Naty, Maria Eugenia’s niece who didn;t say much but at the end I was told she could help me with my travels as she was a travel agent so they said they’d be in touch.

The next day Vanessa had to go to uni early and I was supposed to be leaving but I’d had a typical message from Fabian on facebook saying that he had met a girl and now wouldn’t be arriving in Venezuela until Wedndesday (yes he’d finally made up his mind and decided to get his arse in gear and leave Taganga!). So I asked permission if it was ok to stay until Wednesday which they kindly said was fine. So I had two more days and I still hadn’t even seen Valencia yet so I decided to myself that that was my plan for the day to go to Valencia and just be brave and walk around and do the tourist thing alone since no one was available to go with me and I certainly wasn;t spending another day of staying in and doing nothing especially when the sun was shining so off I went in a taxi to Valencia being dropped off at Plaza Bolivar as Vane’s mum had advised.

This was good advice as this had all the touristy parts for the photos such as the cathedral, the main square with Bolivar’s column, the royal theatre amongst other important buildings. Vanessa had told me that there wasn’t much to be seen and I could see her point as once I’d seen these buildings, there didn;t seem to be anything too impressive although I was determined to get some more good shots, some quirky shots and see what else there was to see here. I noticed that similar to Caracas the city was built within the contours of the mountains with high cordilleras on both sides of the city. This again gave the city a long thin approach for me making the city feel quite small. I almost felt like I could quite easily walk from one side to the other in no time at all but obviously it wouldn’t be quite that small! I also very much wanted to get an aerial shot from higher up so was considering climbing one of the samller surrounding mountains but then hunger and heat got the better of me and so I decided against it. At first I was very wary about getting my camera out after all the stories of robbings and guns but as the day went on I felt more and more confident and I was quite enjoying ambling randomly from place to place. 

After trying but failing to buy a cable needed to charge my mp3 player in a shopping mall called camo ruso or something where I’d been advised to go to to get it only to find when I got there that it was a big clothes shop, I decided to head towards the greener part of the city and by fluke stumbled upon a park with a river flowing through it. This was a nice reprieve from the concrete jungle I’d so far been walking through. This part of the city was rather pretty with nice green grassy areas, trees lining the river bank and to the north of the river were some picturesque forested mountains with some modern tower blocks dotted around at the foothills. 

As I continued to walk along the pleasant river bank away from the hustle and bustle of the city with very few people around (but still lots of cars), I came to another park, the metroplolitan park. This was also a pleasant park to walk through, at the entrance were two bright parrots which made a nice photo.

Strolling through this park was nice and you could tell that it was a well kept park with many gardeners working hard to plant new flowers, sweep the leaves and generally keep the place clean. There were many exotic plants around which were nice to look at although I felt pretty lonely as I saw nobody other than the gardeners and some people playing football (badly!) in the football court. At one point I saw a large igunana run towards a small bird presumably to eat although as soon as it saw me it hurriedly ran under the nearest building before I even had a chance to get my camera out. The bird ran back towards it’s mother in relief, I’d done my good deed for the day!

I continued to walk determined to find food now as my hunger really was getting annoying so I stopped at a wendy’s burger joint which was pretty expensive but I dodn’t care, I needed to eat! Whilst eating a woman approached me with her baby asking for money so her baby could eat and although I had done my good deed already I was about to reach for my wallet when security escorted her out making me feel guilty that I was eating but her baby wasn’t. I thought Chavez was supposed to be helping the poor people anyway!

By this time it was about 3pm and I was getting tired of all the walking but I hadn’t seen enough and was still considering going up higher for an aerial shot. After a short while taking more shots of nice churches and interesting looking buildings I decided I had gone far enough. 

The clouds were grey and looked ominous and as I walked back the heavens opened and of course I got drenched from head to toe as I could find no shelter for quite a while. By the time I found cover I was already soaked so I just kept walking and eventually arrived back at Plaza Bolivar. On the way a guy was at some traffic lights in his car and called me over asking if I spoke Spanish. When I said yes he looked surprised. He said but you look like a tourist, i saw you taking photos. When I said yes he looked surprised. He said but you look like a tourist, i saw you taking photos. Yes I am a tourist but I speak Spanish, I’m from London. He told me he was from Valencia but he lived in New York then the lights changed and he said bye and drove off. Just a friendly guy who wanted a chat I guess! In general everyone in this city had been friendly and I had had no suspicion of danger or anyone wanting to rob me and I was a clear tourist with my rucksack on my back and camera in hand. In fact no one really even batted an eyelid at me apart from just trying to be friendly. One kind woman at a stall was selling some delicious looking pancakes made of maize which I asked if I could try before I buy and she kindly made me one and gave it to me for free with a beaming smile. It was delicious too! Perhaps I just got lucky but I was certainly the only tourist in the city from what I could see which was actually really fastidious for me to be honest!

Overall I won't lie, Vanessa was right when she said there wasn’t much to see and do but I’m glad I went as I saw the 3^rd largest Venezuelan city which actually had a lot of character and many nice friendly and helpful people. Even though it certainly isn’t a city catered for tourism it still has alot to offer with a nice square and cathedral and some nice old colonial style buildings in the old town as well as many modern, shiny edifices scattered around. The general layout of the city was quite random and obviously dictated by the mountains and many buildings were dirty or in need of a lick of paint but it had character and was different from other cities I had seen in South America so I liked it.

On return to the Casa de los Pintos in pretty little San Diego, Vanessa was home already and was not in a good mood as her university had been robbed of it’s equipment so they were sent home early so she wasn’t really in the mood for hearing about my day. Her mother on the other hand was keen to hear where I’d been and what I’d done and took pleasure in seeing my photos and commenting on each one. I liked Vanessa’s mother and she was always very keen to chat and find out what I had done and just talk about her day and her life in general. I also found her Spanish easier to understand than Vanessa’s as Vane has to be the fastest speaker I’ve ever met so I can never keep up when she’s chatting with her friends. She barely stops for a breath! Vanessa’s father Heraclio was also easier to understand and took interest in finding out where abouts in England I was from which I took pleasure in showing him on google maps. Later in the evening I heard some pleasant stringed instrument being played and some singing so I left my room to find out where it was coming from and to my pleasant surprise found Heraclio strumming away and singing some very pleasant music so I sat and watched him for a while tapping my feet and enjoying the sound of this small four stringed instrument. After a couple of songs he came to me and explained that the instrument was typically Venezuelan and made a very unique sound and I told him that it sounded great to me. I still have yet to hear Vanessa on the piano but apparently she’s quite good. A talented family indeed! I hadn’t spoken to her brother Moises much since I’d been there but I could tell he had a good charcter and a good brain as he too was very kind, always taking my dishes to wash them up and whenever we saw each other always cheerfully saying hello. He is still in school and according to Vanessa wants to be a dentist. Both his mother and Vanessa had toldme he was disobedient and a naughty boy in school but i saw no sign of this and on asking him what he was doing he said i have geography and chemistry homework which he said would be easy which was a good sign. I offered to helphim with English but I don;t think he was studying it or interested in learning it but Vanessa could always help him with that if he needed it.

The next morning I woke feeling somewhat sad that it was going to be my last day here with this kind family. I had arranged with Naty (Karina’s best friend’s niece) late the previous evening that she would pick me up to go to Puerto Cabello (the beach town and chief port of Venezuela) close to Valencia so at 10.30 she came to pick me up as she had a free day and Vanessa had to study.