A long night.

I´ve returned from an extended stay in the Amazonian Jungles of Northern Peru, and am anxiously awaiting the next part of my journey. My travelling companion Andy and I are pulling an overnighter in the Lima airport to catch our early morning flight tomorrow. Hence, I found myself with a little bit of time to update my blog and line up some ducks - in a row, of course.

The flight out of Iquitos was delayed, so even though we got back from our lodge late, we still had enough time to make some important phone calls and have a little something to eat. Andy got the alligator. I tried some. The texture was exactly like I thought it would be. Alligator-y. The meat was white like chicken though, which sorta surprised me.

I would love to show you guys some of the trillion photos I took while I was in the jungle, but as I lack the cable to upload the pictures, it´s not really a possibility. I´ll see what I can do once I get back to the `States. Here are some of the highlights:

-lily pads the size of hoola-hoops
-hoola-hoops the size of lily pads
-just kidding about that last one
-lots of boat rides
-more caiman holding (see catatumbo post)
-sweaty jungle hikes
-noisy, colorful birds

Did I aready mention the boat rides? We spent the majority of our last two days there getting in and out of boats going up and down the same stretch of river, each time for a different purpose. Then it´s "get out, eat a meal, get back in the boat and go up and down the same stretch of river." Then, when that was done, we got back into the boat and rode a cramped and uncomfortable two and a half hours back to the port city. Woof.

Other than that, I hope that all of the usual Thanksgiving festivities went well despite my absence. I thought about you guys while I was eating my mock Thanksgiving food on Wednesday night in Venusa with my host parents. Andy decided that he should bring Bloody Marys` to the Thanksgiving night feast, so he spent most of the time making drinks for everyone there while I tried to entertain my host parents (as we got there late and couldn´t sit with the rest of the host parents).

Aside from everything, I finally got the final word from Marinela that "every little thing/is gonna be alright" (Hey Lacek) with my flight home to the states. I may have told some of you that we had it, but thanks to good ol´Venezuelan bureaucracy (spell that five times fast) it was up in the air again (man, I´m on a roll tonight) right around the time that we needed to catch our bus to Caracas. Anyway, no worries - it`s all taken care of. Anyway, I should get going to find a cozy piece of floor here. Best wishes to all.

Peru is just around the corner...

So three weeks later, I"m still getting stuff ready for Peru. If it's not one thing, it's another. Before I go off on that...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Did you give thanks yet? It's definitely not a bad idea.

It turns out that there were some problems in my flight home from Caracas to Miami, which are in the process of being resolved as we speak. It's just a fax and a phone call away, and then I will 100 percent for certain have that flight home, and in FIRST CLASS no less. Pretty rockin' huh? I thought so. I hear that international first class is about the nicest treatment ever. We'll have to see how it compares up to Espy and my Mom.

The little kids were protesting again. This time they brought their desks out into the street and decided to have a seat while they stuck it to the man. I thought that was kind of funny.

For those of you who are interested, the outline of the itinerary goes like this while I'm in Peru with my roommate Andy...

Tonight

Overnight bus to Caracas

Tomorrow

Fly to Lima

Saturday

Fly to Iquitos for jungle fun

After 4 days of Jungle fun, we'll go through Lima again to head down to Cuzco, where we'll leave from to head to Machu picchu

After 3 days in Cuzco, we'll have another day in Lima, and then we'll fly back home to Merida all on the 5 of December. After that, I'll have another 3 whole days in the country before I fly back home on the 9th. It's all definitely winding down. I won't be in contact nearly as much in Lima, so you guys might get bored. If that happens, I more than welcome you to check out any multitude of other blogs that I like, ranging from...

My friend Tommy T

http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/mission-inpraguessible/

Or this one about Venezuela US relations

http://venezuela-usa.blogspot.com/

Or, for those of you who just like pictures, you can check out this site

http://www.nataliedee.com/

Anyway that's about all I've got time for. Thanks for keeping up with me for so long, and I hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving.

Here is probably one of the last hair updates, I'm itchin' to get it cut again soon.

Feleterico

A lot's happened over the weekend. I went up on the Teleferico on Friday. For those of you who don't know, the Teleferico is a cable car system built by the French here in Merida in 1948. Well, the French and the Swiss, actually. Apparently the French didn't have the engineering chutzpa to build the last tram (the one that goes to the top) so the Swiss decided to take over the project and finish off that mammajamma.

170 pictures later, I've carefully chosen a select few to add to my photo page - flickr. If you want to check 'em out go ahead and give a click on that little rectangle (the one with all the moving pictures) over there in the corner listed under the heading "This will take you to my pictures." You might be disappointed, but at least you won't be curious. There might be a cute picture of a puppy in that collection, but who knows?

Other than that, I almost went to go see a "presentation of bands" in a parking lot in my neighborhood on Saturday. Unfortunately it was rained out. Not like it matters, though. Proving their Venezuelan punctuality, the roadies had almost finished setting up at 7:45 when the first band's drummer started warming up. The concert was billed to begin at 4:30.

Saturday night I did myself a little "bar leeping tour" (shout out to the sistas) around Merida, and wound up doing some group dancing with a group of thirty-somethings. Itwas a lot of fun. The big group of us split off earlier in the night, and as such I was the only gringo in the smaller group, much less the entire bar. It felt good to finally not be in a huge group of foreigners and sort of get to blend in.

Couple all of that with a ton of homework and a Sunday night spent watching bits and pieces of "Agent Cody Banks," "Hostel," and all currently existing chapters of R. Kelley's "Trapped in the Closet" and you've got yourself some weird dreams waiting for you when you doze off. Other than that, I've been busy lately with homework and Peru planning. My plans for today include attempting to finish my children's book (not going to happen) and cookin' up some meatballs for a Venezuelan food presentation I'm giving tomorrow in class. I guess it needs to be about a half an hour or more. I haven't started it yet - so I gotta get on that, too.

I'll be home soon.

We fish you a hairy Christmas....

...and a hippo new year. Man, there's a lot to talk about. First of all, since my update on Tuesday, there was a protest about a block away from Venusa. Aparently the kids at Nuestra Senora Fatima primary school decided it was time to act out. Since it was all just little kids, we all figured that the police weren't going to gas anyone, so everybody in Venusa (faculty and staff included) headed outside to watch the kids block traffic and redirect it up hill. I guess someone decided to start a big pile of palm leaves on fire, as a more effective barrier. As is the usual riot fare, someone decided to lob a tire (that the conveniently had with them) on top of the fire.

Probably my favorite thing about the protest was that kids are kids, and they'll always have time for an ice cream.

About that time, the cops showed up in riot gear, so I headed inside. I heard that nothing really happened, but I was glad to have some pictures. This is the line of traffic they caused. It went all the way to downtown, which is a fifteen minute walk.



Wednesday I didn't do too much. I did get that long awaited package from the tax building. It was from my parents. A little of this, a little o' that, and a few of the comforts of home really can make a long trip feel a little cozier. I also went out to eat with my nuevo encuentro. After finally deciding on a Chinese food place I chose the ever ubiquitous Orange Chicken. I was served the plate, and two plastic bottles of sauces - one red, the other orange. I smelled them both, and then went back to the sauce in orange bottle, trying to figure it out what it was, solely by sense of smell.

It was at this moment that Ana, my nuevo encuentro decided to give the sauce bottle a good ol' squeeze, shooting a very healthy amount of soy sauce directly up my nose. Amazingly, none landed on my white t-shirt. Weird how that worked out. I think I removed the last soy sauce covered booger sometime after lunch today.

Anyway, there's a "presentation of bands" on saturday that I think we'll hit up. I decided to pass on the show with billings like "Ultra scream death metal" and "Thrash Industrial" for something that she promised would be a bit less out there. Not that that's not my scene or anything, but yeah... it's not really my scene.

Today I sent my first piece of Venezuelan mail. I also got a letter from Grams Fox. That was pretty sweet. And thanks to the Venezuelan mail service, the letter was only two and a half months old.

Okay, I gotta run to class. Here's my head.

Oh, Grams? I got your other package.

Lagunillas.

The weekend was pretty uneventful. I went to a place called Lagunillas on Sunday with Espy and Alonso. It was a place without other Gringos, so I finally got a peek at the experience that I'd been wanting all along. Originally I had thought that everyone was staring at me as we drove throught the town to the little roadside restaurant (where my host parents eat every Sunday), until I realized that the family dog, Camila, was hanging out the window dressed in a white and red polka dot dress with a ribbon in her hair. That's when I realized that it wasn't the gringo they were staring at.

So I have no idea why they call it Lagunillas, but there was a nice little lagoon [Lagunilla = Little lagoon, singular] just off the center of the town and a meandering roundabout that circumscribed it. There must have been a bike manufacturer who presumably made a fortune in this town, as I saw two tandem bicycles passing on the lakeside drive as we ate our lunch. When we left town, I saw a triple seater. I couldn't imagine coordinating that with my friends. They'd probably ride it all wobbly, just to try and throw each other off or something.

Anyway, we ate some boiled hen soup (direct translation) and some yuca (I think it's a rutabega) and went on our way along the curvy mountain road to a gorgeous house off of a beat up dirt road a few miles away. It was owned and kept up by Espy's sister-in-law. It had an open roof in the middle which was the source of the light which flooded the house and pandered to the lush plants in the middle of the house. The tile floor was exquisitley done, entirely shining like a gem in the open air. The woodwork was rich and dark, and all the furnishings comfortable and stoic. There was an open kitchen with a bar and marble countertops with inset burners, as well as a fruitbowl complete with rosemary sprig. It was something that will be emulated in Pottery Barn catalogues for years to come. The house had plenty of bedrooms, so she and Espy both made sure to tell me I was welcome to stop by with a group of friends the following weekend.

The sad realization here is that although I still have over two weeks in Merida and about a month left in South America, this is coming weekend will be my last full weekend. I'm still enjoying my time here, and I'm just now feeling like I've started to break out of my shell. Anyway, I should go grab some lunch and a nap before I get to hustling my bustle on studying. I have a final exam tomorrow morning, but after that I shouldn't need to go to that class anymore, which will be a nice change for my workload. Anyway, no worries - I'll be home soon.

I snapped this on the way out there. I really like it. To me, it sort of expresses some Venezuelan sentiment, but I'm not quite sure what it is just yet.

Retraction

It's rare that we here at "Run Fox, Run!" need to print a retraction. Well as it turns out, I was incorrect about the Volkswagen Jetta car commercial with the Grandaddy song. The make and model of car that the commercial in question advertises is the Honda Civic Hybrid. Well, here's a video so you can see what I'm talking about...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V86wJWtP8Y

And, since you didn't get to see my head yesterday, here I am -

Peace and love, and thanks for the comments!

Stalling for time.

Okay, so we all know that time is dwindling down for me here, but now I'm getting my rear in gear to finish off the year (okay semester, but it rhymed) in Venezuela. I have about five or so big honkin' projects to finish off, so I've made the executive decision not to travel anywhere until Peru.

Speaking of Peru, a big shout out to the travel agent services of mi padre, Sr. Tomas Fox, who has been more that helpful in the past few days in regards to the Peruvian flights that we had yet to reserve.

When Andy and I left our house today and entered the waiting room to our building (which is built in the usual open air style) we coughed and cried all the way to the bus stop because of the tear gas that was lingering in the air, carried downhill by the mountain winds from the protests above our apartment.

Anyway, it's Friday, and I gotta go to class soon. Here's my head.

---okay, it seems that blogger isn't being kind to my picture upload, so here's an emoticon representation of what my head currently looks like.---

=^)

Oh yeah - "I wanna walk up the side of a mountian, I wanna walk down the other side of the mountain, I wanna swim in the river and lie in the sun, I wanna try and be nice to everyone." You may recognize this song (Nature Anthem) from a Volkswagon jetta commercial, but more importantly it's by a band called Grandaddy. It's more or less what I think about when I walk around and have a view of the mountains on either side of the city.

Heeeeeeeey-yo! Gophers Go!

While this post actually has nothing to do with the Gophers, but I do have a few stories to share. Last weekend I went to some hot-springs in Musui, which are conveniently located on top of a steep mountain. The hot springs were only marginally hot, but the mountain was sufficiently inclined. What a weekend. Oh, I almost forgot! We were accompanied by the 75 year old grandpa. He took about 20 minutes longer than the rest of us and was followed closely by his grandson, but he made it nevertheless. Bernard was pretty cool shit, for lack of better words to describe him.





Lately the political activity has been picking up. Students have been rallying in the streets every day this week - which actually isn't much of a statement considering it's Tuesday. Because of the increased craziness lately, I've got one friend that ended up with a leg covered little red bumps where a cop shot him with plastic bullets, and another friend who chased down his own mugger to reclaim his belongings.

Yesterday I came across a young guy that was holding a marching xylophone in front of a school. I talked to him for a bit about when they were having their next concert only to find out that there was a national competition last weekend in Plaza Bolivar, a mere 12 blocks from my house. It made me miss marching band.

Here's a few pictures from our trip this weekend...

This one was taken from the middle of the huge hill we had to climb. It was uber steep. Maybe I've said that already?

Anyway, I wish you all a good night, and please observe that I'm still stuck in the same time, whereas all you dudes got to sneak in that extra hour of sleep. Just keep it in mind. See you Thursday.

A lazy friday.

Today I woke up at 12:30. Since I ended up with sort of a late start to my day, I had breakfast for lunch and caught up with two of my friends in a cafe downtown. We visited the post office, and then since my friend Ronald had yet to eat, we hit up McDonalds. As I had not eaten any lunch either, I ate there with him. Today was now the second time I'd been to McDondalds in a week. I never eat fast food that much in the States. After returning to Venusa for a game of pool without a cueball (such is Venezuela) and a talk about flight rearrangement, I helped myself to a tea in the cafe and a good long sit.

I hooked up with my roommate later, ate some pizza, and here I am. I believe that I'll be going camping tomorrow just for a quick day trip, but it should give me another opportunity to try out my backpack. It'll be good to season it in a little bit before this fast approaching Peru trip. We've got three weeks left, so I've got some projects to get working on here before they get the best of me. One of them is a Children's book, so I'll be having a lot of fun assembling that in the next few weeks. Anywho, here's a picture I just drew.