June 27, 2007

Wednesday

Day 9

 

Awoke to find that several chorus members are sick with the SPC plague:  sore throat, fever, headache, chest cough, sinus  pain;  and others have traveler’s diarrhea.  This is a tough time for everyone.  Tempers are a bit short and members feel miserable.  I am trusting the strength of the group will prevail. 

After a delicious meal with a choice  of  traditional Venezuelan breakfast, Criolli (with spicy meat, black beans, eggs, white bread with mango jam and butter) or American (cheese, ham, eggs and bread), some of the group are off to Henri Pittier Park again for more bird-watching (army ants and howler monkeys included), some to Chuaro and many stayed home and rested.

 

Dennis and I chose to go to Chuaro.  We traveled by boat, about a 20 minute ride in the Caribbean, past rugged shoreline over tourquois waters.  We arrived on a beach with some commercial activity and many tourists and began a walk to Chuaro, a cocoa-producing region.  With our wonderful guides Leo, Orlando, Carolina and some of the Posada  (guest house) staff showing us cacao, coffee avacados, breadfruit and many tropical flowers – hibiscus, impatiens, begonias – we followed a river to a tree growing on the shore called “The Tree of Souls”.  It was not an unusual tree, but for some reason, it had large head-sized and shaped gnarls that legend says represent each dead soul from upriver.  We passed several work parties, including women, who were cutting cacao pods off the tree.  Next we came to the town itself where the cocoa beans were being dried in the church plaza.  There was not any processing going on, and in fact, the village only has one small grinder.  The beans must be processed somewhere else.  We tasted a cacao  fruit – a white melon-like, sweet substance that surrounds purple seeds, which is the cacao.  Tasty!  Also, several of us bought chocolate from a shop in town. 

We walked a bit past the town to the river where we stripped down to underwear or suits and jumped in – totally refreshing and delicious!  And none too soon.  Many of us were sinking from the heat.  We saw irridescent blue lizards and beautiful butterflies.

 

Back to the town square to wait for a bus to the beach.  We finally gave up and hired a truck to take us back, all standing up like bowling pins.  Really fun!  Back to the beach and lunch:  pasta salad, fresh fruit, bread and Oreos!  After enjoying the surf and resting for about an hour, we took our leave to boat back home.

 

The scenery is breath taking:  white sand beaches washed by deep blue water, jutting mountains rising from the sea, palm trees.  Think “Jurassic Park” or “The Lost World”.

 

On the beach at Puerto Columbia (named for Christopher Columbus who ventured here in 1489), there was a girl’s 15^th birthday party celebration in the plaza.  There were inflatable jumping houses, piñatas, candy for all, popcorn, drumming,  dancing and lots of noise.

 

Megan, Dennis and I walked to Choroni, about 1 mile up the road, meeting up with Ros and Marcia along the way.  I was hoping to find an internet café, but it was closed.  Choroni is a darling colonial town, filled with wrought iron window coverings, one lane winding roads,  and pastel painted buildings.  We had a drink and were entertained by a local 3 year old who brought us her doll and Pooh bear to share.  Then a taxi back to town.  Once back, we walked quickly to the malecon (sea wall) with Mary to see the sun set.  Home to the posada for a dinner of a delicious appetizer of something that looked and tasted like fried cheese sticks with a caramel sauce, fish, rice, white bread, roasted tomato.  The food has been really outstanding in this place.

 

Orlando began a demonstration to show how to carve bowls out of a certain type of gourd, but I had to attend a travel meeting where we talked with Jojo about our time in Caracas coming up towards the end of our trip.  We complained a bit about bus travel and communication gaps, and debriefed some issues pertaining to the group. To bed at 11:00pm.

 

Today I asked Leo about the role that religion has played in current events in Venezuela.  The Catholic Church, as expected, has supported the rich, but the local priests, who have so much contact with the poor, have supported liberation theology in the 80’s and now Chavez.  I asked about the Evangelicals (protestants) and Chavez, whom I heard Chavez was courting.  Leo didn’t really know but he did say that on late night religious TV, he heard a Baptist (!) preacher.  It was the first time he had seen such a thing.

 

Today was also the first day I really tried to find an internet cafe.  I have been too overwhelmed by heat, traveling and illness to try very hard to communicate with my family, and I am feeling concerned about letting them know that we are safe.  But the café was closed.  This was to be the beginning of a very difficult and frustrating task for me, to somehow connect with our loved ones.