I finally found some time to put my thoughts together and write few words about my trip. I left Norfolk, VA and real wintertime on Friday January the 16th at 7:55 (the coldest night of the year) to find myself in Miami couple of hours later. I had been to Miami before so that was a chance for me to visit some familiar places of the city. My next flight was to Caracas on the morning of January the 17th.
As I was told by other scholar who had traveled with Venezuelan Santa Barbara Airlines, flights are frequently late
and delayed. So, of course was mine. A delay of one hour and 25 minutes made it almost impossible to catch my next flight, which was Caracas - El Vigia (town nearby Merida). That really did not bother me at all because I was so excited about the trip itself and idea that I would be in South America in a few hours. "I will start worrying about what I need to do when I get to Caracas." I said to myself.Indeed, by the time I went through immigration and customs, and by the time I managed to get from the international to national part of the airport, my plane was gone. This situation put my language skills to test for the first time, when I tried to explain what happened to check-in attendant. To be honest I did not pass the test, but with some help from other Venezuelans , which I met by the check-in desk, I found out I had to wait. Surprisingly, people from the
airline, with no hesitation, declared that, since the flight was delayed and it was not our fault, they would be happy to arrange hotel and transportation to and from the hotel for us. Moreover, they would cover all expenses! Que bueno, they literally put me in the taxi, which took me to the hotel and picked me up the next day. I was told not to leave the hotel at night under any circumstances and after hearing the gunshots at about 4am, I reckoned it was quite a tip. The rest of the trip went with no surprises. People from the Iowa Institute were waiting for me at El Vigia; from there we went to Merida by car. A 50miles/1hour drive took us from hot and humid El Vigia straight up to this beautiful place in the Venezuelan Andes.Since before I came here, I had checked all available resources about Merida, including 10,000 pictures posted on flickr.com I feel like I visit place I already have been to. The location (1600 meters/5250 ft. above the sea level) in the valley surrounded by magnificent picks of Sierra Nevada de Merida and Sierra La Culata creates breathtaking views, and also makes you feel tired after 15 m
inutes of walking. That scared me at first, but accordingly to other long time visitors to the city, the feeling of being tired should go away in a week or two.If I was to state the one thing that struck me most in my first few days here, it would be the weather. Yeah, okey, i am lucky to be here during the dry season, but I am pretty sure I will never find more refreshing mornings anywhere on this planet. Astonishingly, it makes me, a person who loves to sleep more than anything, get up at 7am with no alarm clock.
First steps in Merida were my host family and then and there I emphatically realized how bad my Spanish really is...
Do you know?
Venezuela has its own unique time zone. It is 30 minutes fifference beetwen US Eastern Time, moving clock back. The time change is a part of changes implemented by Hugo Chavez that include a new name of the country, coat of arms and flag.
