Hola!
Wow yesterday was a fantastic day. They took us by boat into Parque Nacional Machimo a series of islands off the north coast of Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea. The Rotarians including Monica, Gisella, Jose Gregori, Fina took us to the wee fishing/touristy town of Machimo where we caught a small motor boat to a beach called Las Maritas where we swam, snorkeled, drank beer, and ate FISH lots and lots of delicious fish. We had plates of catalana (white fish), pargo (white snapper), and calamar (calamari). Fresh fresh fresh and then fried with a cole slaw with cilantro which was delicious and tostones (fried plaintain). Wow. As an appetizer Josee, Jose and I had 2 dozen raw oysters, $3.00/dozen. YUM!
Jose first took Josee and me out snorkeling for an hour. I got too much sun eventhough I was lathered in sunscreen. Another tough balance for me. I love to snorkel and scuba dive but I always need to wear sunscreen to protect my skin but of course the sunscreen is harmful to the water and the fish. Jose showed us two spotted moray eels and a puffer fish. The coral is all half dead but the water was still teaming with fish. Huge schools of minnows and I saw a 2 foot barracuda as well. So though I did not get to go scuba diving I got a good fix of enjoying the marine flora and fauna and critters. Jose also took a mesh bag and picked up oysters and conch to take home. (Keep in mind we are in a national park...........yay......) Sadly he was stepping on the precious coral as we made our way snorkeling along the beach. I gently asked in my poor spanish if he would not do that. Jose is a doctor and for years has been the administrator
at a local hospital and has done well to manage it. However...the current government has put him on a long vacation and will probably bring him back with a desk job. Definitely more to this story but not the place for it.
We had a wonderful lunch and enjoyed the beach with LOTS of Venezuelans sunning and eating and playing with their plastic floaty toys and zooming around on a raft pulled by a boat. Not exactly what I expected at a beach in a national park but this is the trend for folks here.
We headed back about 2pm and stopped to check out the little handmade dolls in all sizes and wooden boats for sale. I bought a few small ones that can be decorations or Christmas tree ornaments. All hand made for a few dollars each. We then made our way back to our host families.
On the way back Fina treated me to an aphrodisiac (sp?) rompa colchon (mattress breaker) or rompa lycra (panty ripper) for 20B (divide everything by 5 and it will be $4.00US). I know I know Dani ...too many prices... so just a few. Since the Rotarians pay for everything I hardly know what things cost so when I do know I will gently insert that. The rompa colchon is famous in this area, a mixture of fresh raw and cooked seafood including shrimp, conch, oysters, octopus, squid, salsa, a vinegar mix with spices, worchestire sauce, and lots of lime. Wow! What a punch. It is like a delicious shot of ceviche made to your liking.
So by the time I got home, showered and readied for our next engagement I had a headache and stayed home for the night. Too much sun and seafood............Yikes! My colleagues enjoyed an evening of wine, octopus salad, homemade Italian pasta, homemade tiramisu and LIVE Venezuelan music and opera by the host. Damn!
Today we headed into the mountains to La Guanota in Parque Nacional Caripe to visit a vacation home of one of the Rotarians. We visited Hacienda Las Acacias, a coffee factory where they collect the coffee beans from local farmers and wash, dry, sort the coffee and then sell it to others to roast. I believe that 275 kilos turns into only 36 kilos by the end of the processing which takes place in our fall months. The coffee takes 7 months to grow, 1 month to pick and 4 months to process. Unfortunately it was Sunday (Domingo) so we were not able to find a store open to buy any of this delicious coffee but we did get to have a cup. Monica is going to try to bring us some.
Then we enjoyed a HUGE paella made with tuna, peppers, onions, cumin, salt, rice, olive oil, garbanzo beans that Gisella made and a key lime pie and apple cake for dessert. We all needed a nap but instead went for a walk down to the river to watch a bunch of boys flip into the water and see the GORGEOUS fields of celery, lettuces, and leeks. Really amazing!
I havent figured out how to upload my photos yet but when I do I will certainly add them to this blog.
Take care everyone. Besos mi amors, Georgie
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
Visiting a small business-tuna processing facility
Atun Euskal - Caribe!
Wow what a spot. A small tuna processing business owned by a Spanish couple RIGHT did I say RIGHT on the beach. Well, you cross the little street from their very clean, neat and efficient tuna processing business to their casa (home) with a veranda right on the beach with hammocks and lounge chairs. We toured Atun Euskal-Caribe with our white hats and masks and learned about how they process the yellow fin tuna, cook it, and bottle it in extra virgin olive oil, canola and vegetable oil and then a third type with red peppers. We saw the ten workers scraping the tuna and then cutting it into pieces for packaging and saw the whole tuna stored in a refrigeration facility and the processing stainless steel drums. Really very neat facility. Of course you have to be comfortable with the aroma of very very strong FISH (pescado) that is for sure.
We had the most incredible spread of atun (tuna). Tuna sandwiches with lettuce and tomato. Yuca bread. Tuna mousse with red peppers. Two types of tuna one in olive oil and one in vegetable oil with onions that you could eat with bread (pan). Croquettes with tuna, cheese, parsley and onion. Tuna EVERYTHING and it was absolutely delicious. Regional cervesa and vino from Caracas.
Here the tuna are caught individually with a line. The owner talked about QUALITY of tuna and...when tuna are caught with a large net they are more stressed out because they are trying to escape as the net closes in on them. They often have a heart attack. When they have a heart attack from stress their blood travels throughout their bodies. The blood changes the taste of the tuna AND is also extra work for the tuna workers to clean all of the blackened blood out of the flesh for packaging. So it is better for the fish to be line caught and killed quickly, better tasting AND economically better if the tuna is line caught. This is a small business that uses local fishermen to catch their fish AND they prefer the oldfashioned way of catch.
Another great group of Rotarians here in Cumana. Tomorrow we will be going to Parque Nacional Machima, islands off the coast of Venezuela and MAYBE just MAYBE I can get uno or 2 dives in manana (tomorrow). We will see!
Our group of five are so open to EVERYTHING it is wonderful. We love to eat, drink, and experience all that the Rotarians offer us. Great great group of people! Last night at the Puerto La Cruz Rotary meeting, I met a woman named Arlene who went to highschool in WATERVILLE, MAINE. Anyway long story she is a Norwegian who married a Venezuelan and has lived here all of her married life. I asked her what we had to experience while we were in Cumana and she said there is a mixture of oysters with vinegar and lemon and other seafood that they call the mattress breaker. You can buy it in a jar OR you can drink a shot of it. So today I asked Fina, a retired english school teacher and a hoot to boot if we could get some. She said NO then..........she said ok........I have never tried it but I will try it with you tomorrow in solidarity. If one of us gets sick we all get sick.
Yay! G
Wow what a spot. A small tuna processing business owned by a Spanish couple RIGHT did I say RIGHT on the beach. Well, you cross the little street from their very clean, neat and efficient tuna processing business to their casa (home) with a veranda right on the beach with hammocks and lounge chairs. We toured Atun Euskal-Caribe with our white hats and masks and learned about how they process the yellow fin tuna, cook it, and bottle it in extra virgin olive oil, canola and vegetable oil and then a third type with red peppers. We saw the ten workers scraping the tuna and then cutting it into pieces for packaging and saw the whole tuna stored in a refrigeration facility and the processing stainless steel drums. Really very neat facility. Of course you have to be comfortable with the aroma of very very strong FISH (pescado) that is for sure.
We had the most incredible spread of atun (tuna). Tuna sandwiches with lettuce and tomato. Yuca bread. Tuna mousse with red peppers. Two types of tuna one in olive oil and one in vegetable oil with onions that you could eat with bread (pan). Croquettes with tuna, cheese, parsley and onion. Tuna EVERYTHING and it was absolutely delicious. Regional cervesa and vino from Caracas.
Here the tuna are caught individually with a line. The owner talked about QUALITY of tuna and...when tuna are caught with a large net they are more stressed out because they are trying to escape as the net closes in on them. They often have a heart attack. When they have a heart attack from stress their blood travels throughout their bodies. The blood changes the taste of the tuna AND is also extra work for the tuna workers to clean all of the blackened blood out of the flesh for packaging. So it is better for the fish to be line caught and killed quickly, better tasting AND economically better if the tuna is line caught. This is a small business that uses local fishermen to catch their fish AND they prefer the oldfashioned way of catch.
Another great group of Rotarians here in Cumana. Tomorrow we will be going to Parque Nacional Machima, islands off the coast of Venezuela and MAYBE just MAYBE I can get uno or 2 dives in manana (tomorrow). We will see!
Our group of five are so open to EVERYTHING it is wonderful. We love to eat, drink, and experience all that the Rotarians offer us. Great great group of people! Last night at the Puerto La Cruz Rotary meeting, I met a woman named Arlene who went to highschool in WATERVILLE, MAINE. Anyway long story she is a Norwegian who married a Venezuelan and has lived here all of her married life. I asked her what we had to experience while we were in Cumana and she said there is a mixture of oysters with vinegar and lemon and other seafood that they call the mattress breaker. You can buy it in a jar OR you can drink a shot of it. So today I asked Fina, a retired english school teacher and a hoot to boot if we could get some. She said NO then..........she said ok........I have never tried it but I will try it with you tomorrow in solidarity. If one of us gets sick we all get sick.
Yay! G
Monday, April 20, 2009
Caracas y Isla Margarita, Venezuela
Hola my friends!
Wow! What a whirl of activity and travel. My group of 5 consist of Josee (physiotherapist), Gisia (pharmacist), Carmen(our team leader, a retired civil servant with Canadian government interested in international language schools), and Luc (marketing director for manufacturing firms in Moncton). We are on a GSE Group Study Exchange with Rotary International sponsored by District 7810 of eastern Maine and New Brunswick for young professionals ages 25 -40. I JUST made the cut off, phew.
I brought my laptop but so far little time or availability for internet. We had an overnight in Caracas, great city with 20 percent of Venezuela´s population set in a valley at the foot of the Avila Mountains that separate Caracas from the Caribbean sea........incredible setting surrounded by lush rainforest.
Next day off we went for the weekend to Isla de Margarita to be hosted by Maneiro Rotary Group. Wow. This group of Rotarians are all BEST friends so each weekend they socialize together at each other´s houses. They took us to Laguna la Restinga where OYSTERS galore grow on the mangroves, Museo Marino, a marine museum rich with story of the over harvest of pearls by the Spaniards, and many many examples of corals, crustaceans and other marine wildlife, flora and fauna.
We visited Playa El Yaque, a beach famous for WINDSURFING. Peter Hilyard would be in his glory. Oysters for sale everywhere on the beaches for 8 B or Bolivares to 15 Bolivares.
The "official" or bank rate by the government for Bolivares is $1.00 = 2 B, the "unofficial" exchange is currently approximately $1.00 = 5.5 B so...IF you use your credit card you get the official rate and if you use cash and you decide to exchange your money on the black market which is in fact illegal by the current government then you pay at a rate of 1:5+
Last night we had fosforera (Venezuelan paella) with linguine with mussels, scallops, clams, calamari, shrimp, tomatos, parsley, scallions, and spices. OH MY GOD! Talk about absolutely positively the best food EVER. I was in heaven.
We also watched the most incredible sunset from Playa Caribe with a grasshopper the size of a hotdog that landed on my back. We ate mango jelly for a snack while we watched the sky transform then we had soncocho (stew) made again with SEAFOOD right on the beach and right next to a road. Wild experience.
Cultured pearls are EVERYWHERE in pink, white and blue and are relatively inexpensive so...my shopping spree has began.
Sorry so all over the place. We are having fun. Meeting wonderfully generous people and Luc is taking incredible photos.
Take care and lots of love, Georgie
Wow! What a whirl of activity and travel. My group of 5 consist of Josee (physiotherapist), Gisia (pharmacist), Carmen(our team leader, a retired civil servant with Canadian government interested in international language schools), and Luc (marketing director for manufacturing firms in Moncton). We are on a GSE Group Study Exchange with Rotary International sponsored by District 7810 of eastern Maine and New Brunswick for young professionals ages 25 -40. I JUST made the cut off, phew.
I brought my laptop but so far little time or availability for internet. We had an overnight in Caracas, great city with 20 percent of Venezuela´s population set in a valley at the foot of the Avila Mountains that separate Caracas from the Caribbean sea........incredible setting surrounded by lush rainforest.
Next day off we went for the weekend to Isla de Margarita to be hosted by Maneiro Rotary Group. Wow. This group of Rotarians are all BEST friends so each weekend they socialize together at each other´s houses. They took us to Laguna la Restinga where OYSTERS galore grow on the mangroves, Museo Marino, a marine museum rich with story of the over harvest of pearls by the Spaniards, and many many examples of corals, crustaceans and other marine wildlife, flora and fauna.
We visited Playa El Yaque, a beach famous for WINDSURFING. Peter Hilyard would be in his glory. Oysters for sale everywhere on the beaches for 8 B or Bolivares to 15 Bolivares.
The "official" or bank rate by the government for Bolivares is $1.00 = 2 B, the "unofficial" exchange is currently approximately $1.00 = 5.5 B so...IF you use your credit card you get the official rate and if you use cash and you decide to exchange your money on the black market which is in fact illegal by the current government then you pay at a rate of 1:5+
Last night we had fosforera (Venezuelan paella) with linguine with mussels, scallops, clams, calamari, shrimp, tomatos, parsley, scallions, and spices. OH MY GOD! Talk about absolutely positively the best food EVER. I was in heaven.
We also watched the most incredible sunset from Playa Caribe with a grasshopper the size of a hotdog that landed on my back. We ate mango jelly for a snack while we watched the sky transform then we had soncocho (stew) made again with SEAFOOD right on the beach and right next to a road. Wild experience.
Cultured pearls are EVERYWHERE in pink, white and blue and are relatively inexpensive so...my shopping spree has began.
Sorry so all over the place. We are having fun. Meeting wonderfully generous people and Luc is taking incredible photos.
Take care and lots of love, Georgie
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