Venezuala--back in time blog

8.11.2007

Caracas is a hard city to be in. It´s thought to be more dangerous than Bogota. Today I almost stepped on a decomposing dog carcass. Broken glass and tall spikes--even the McDonald's is vigilantly guarded. Griff touched the door of a closed LAN house, and, as a result of the severe shock, he will no longer be able to sire children.

Venezuela exports oil and diamonds. Neither industry bodes well for a country. There is a strong anti-American sentiment here fueled (ha pun) by the fear that Venezuela will be the next Iraq. Combined with the fact that Brittney Spears is still very big here, it´s easy to imagine George Bush saying, ¨Oops I did it again.¨

Still, the countryside is beautiful and most people come here for the mountain villages or the waterfalls. We came to see the latter. We took speed boats up the river, hiked around rough spots, and slept in hammocks with a view of Angel Falls--the tallest waterfall in the world. Griff was experiencing gastrointestinal distress which amounted to something like this: ¨Wow. That´s amazing. I hope we find a bathroom very soon.¨

The trouble with things going well is that it´s harder to write about. I think I´ve lost touch with beauty. Things have been so hard the past few years. I´ve gotten good at dealing with sadness--finding irony and humor in it. But straight unfiltered beauty? Beauty untinged by sadness? Riding up river on that boat, surrounded by sheer rock faces, waterfalls that cut their steep descent into the river--it was as if some old forgotten part of me opened up.

I walked on a trail close behind a huge waterfall. In the middle, I started yelling and dancing, spinning around in circles. The people near me started doing it too until we were all soaked and exhausted. It was one of the most incredible things I´ve ever done.

I was struggling with how to put it into words, when a British friend told me to write this: ¨Just saw a bloody amazing waterfall. You buggers aren´t here. Ha. Ha.¨

I´m not sure gloating is the right approach. Besides, that guy can be a real asshole.

Cheers.
Adelaide