Highlights of Marracay y La Victoria

Wow so much to write and so little computer access.....

• confusing my host father's work thinking he was an avacado farmer when he was a lawyer in fact he was a judge for 35 years prosecuting hard criminals and 1/2 my size
• meeting Gabby, a Rotary exchange student who spent last year in CAMDEN MAINE and she loves the COLD and MAINE of course
• visiting a mercado libre, a local public market with fish, meat, vegetables, fruit, spices, cheese, clothes and empanadas. I took a photo of a tray of cow eyeballs for sale that you cook for a soup........yikes!
• visiting Hacienda Sainta Theresa, famous for its RUM. Oh my goodness! We had a tour of this grand estate and then they gave us enormous mugs of rum. I bought 3 bottles for home, an orange cognac, a white rum for mohitos and an amber rum for sippinig
  
• National Park of Morrocoy in the boat with 13 others visiting small cayos (bays) and lots of beaches
• eating ceviche (fish cured in lime with onions, cilantro and tomato) from a boat
• eating raw oysters off the back of the boat all brought to you by young men in motor boats
• snorkelling and seeing OODLES of fish and watching a small spotted moray eel make its way across the bottom of the coral reef for about 15 minutes
• the motor boat AIRBORN literally completely OUT of the water engines, propellers and all on our way too and from the dock
• seeing a caiman (alligator) in port
  
• staying with Rotarians in La Victoria that have a sweeping view of their sweet city. Their daughter Claudia has the sex appeal of Drew Barrymore (as does her mama). The floors are all marble with grand entrances, a room with a bar and seating that feels like a night club and FUN are they ever Fun. Antonio is the retired VP from Fiat Venezuela
• meeting their fellow Rotary friends, Belgians that moved to Venezuela 6 years ago because they preferred a life with more leisure. Their job is importing and exporting wild animals around the world.

Ok....................take care and one of these days I will add photos to all of this text.
Ciao, Georgie

Puerto Ordaz and National Rotary Conference

Hola!
Well, Puerto Ordaz, thhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeee gateway to Angel Falls, the highest waterfall in the world, over 1 km high would have been a cool experience however our presentation was postponed for a day so we were not able to get away.

Our GSE team however did an excellent job with our presentation to probably 200 Rotarians from all over Venezuela. Our leader, Carmen, was not well so Gisia gave the introduction and bio information about Carmen. Joe a Rotarian from Puerta la Cruz introduced all of us and told a lost in translation story about me trying to learn the word for this great seafood/pasta dish called fedegua but she thought I meant fosferera which is seafood and an aphrodisiac. Anyway the audience got a real kick out of it.

We took a tour of Parque La Llovizna, on the Rio Caroni and saw the spectacular llovisna cascada (waterfall). Lots of mist and spray and people enjoying the park and views. I believe there are 7 lakes and dams that were build over 30 years ago that produce electricity for ALL yes ALL of Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, parts of Brazil and Columbia. We toured the Macagua dam and an "eco" museum the government created to show the number of species they saved during the dredging and enormous flooding of this region to create these series of dams. I cried through the film. What they do not show is the resettling of the people and all the animals that drowned when all of this took place and the enormous devestation of the environment but...we all need ELECTRICITY.

I visited a dam project in Belize with biologists who were studying the impact the creation of the dam would have on all the species there. Very very very very sad stuff.

Anyway, the waterfalls and the dams of this region of Venezuela are IMMENSE absolutely enormous projects. Many waterfalls including the famous Angel Falls are natural and spectacular sites to see.

The conference was held at Hotel Intercontinental Guyana built in the 1970s it is quite grand with a lovely gym and pool that overlook two waterfalls. We ate well at the hotel and at the country clubs hosted by the Rotarians of Puerto Ordaz. The final evening of the conference was an enormous buffet with Lau lau fish, a local catfish, lots of salads and fancy tortes. Dinner started at 9pm. Music started at 10pm with a calapsyo band and this incredible dancer.

Then there was a dance competition for the women and the men. Luc, one of our team members, competed in the men's competition and won by a huge majority because he ripped off his blazer AND his tie and threw them into the audience. I also was forced, yes pushed onto the stage to dance with Luc. Pretty funny actually and we won prizes of a key chain and Luc received a CD of Venezuelan music.
The band was still playing after 4am......when we all went to bed becuase we had to be up and in the bus back to Caracas at 730am!