March - June 2007

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The yard work was coming along slowly but great. It was the windy season of the year and the painting had to be postponed a couple of times and every time they had to re-tape the paper back as it got blown apart. Sid was there every day to make sure all was done right. Every time I went the boat looked different. It was really weird to see her with all the primer, she was snow white and didn’t even look like our boat anymore. When Paradise finally was painted she looked just incredible, we had tears in our eyes. Paradise is 30 years old and of course we couldn’t find the original color anymore. The brown now is a lot lighter and is a beautiful mocha color we love better and oyster white replaced the ivory. While painting the rudder they dropped it and had to fix some cosmetic dents, but no harm was done, just a bit of a delay that’s all. Sid also was able to bend the strut back to almost where it should be but had to replace the cutless bearing to which we hoped that the shaft wasn’t bent. Well, the shaft was bent badly and had to be replaced, which happened amazingly fast. The mechanic had it reproduced within two days for under $350 including the coupling which broke when Sid tried to get it off. The yard called a specialist in to align the shaft. That took a while, he didn’t want to come thinking he wouldn’t make any money on a small boat, as he works on giant ships, but Victor managed to talk him into coming after all. He was working for about 3 hours and charged us 65 bucks. Then we noticed that the stuffing box was missing. Someone in the yard took it. Once again we couldn’t splash, had to somehow get a new stuffing box. It took Sid three days to find out there was none here in Venezuela. Just as he was sitting on the computer starting to order one, Victor called and told us the Mechanic was in the yard with a stuffing box that might fit. I don’t think we ever raced faster to the yard. It fit and the mechanic was happy that he could help and we were happy to pay him 38 bucks for it. The bottom then was painted and Paradise was splashed the following day.

We realize now that when you need some work done on the boat whether it is the mechanic, canvas guy, diver, painter, carpenter, you name it, if he tells you he’ll be there at 9 you have to ask him which day and which 9 am or pm or you will wait forever and still they will not show up till days later. Nobody ever shows up on time. As a matter of fact the first month we were here we had a dinghy cover made by Orient Canvas, it took a whole month to get it, even though he told us four days. Then he never gave us a bill, yet we ran into him at the yard daily and reminded him several times. He collected his money 8 months later, because Sid pushed it. At the same time we ordered the dinghy cover we also ordered a cover for the foredeck box, he never made it and as Sid finally paid him the guy said oh your deck box cover will be finished in a couple of days. Well, that’s been a month ago already and he hasn’t showed up with it yet. We laugh every time we hear boats call Orient Canvas on VHF as they call at least 10 times daily for weeks and no responds. On the other hand we had the wicker in our cabinets replaced and it took only three days, including carving a groove into back to fasten the wicker, so you never know.

The day before we splashed Paradise was not a very good day for me. I just got back from shopping when Terry our roommate excitedly told me that she finished sewing her cockpit cushions, motioning towards the balcony and walking towards it. I was so excited for her and of course wanted to see the cushions and followed , she mostly sewed on the balcony. She opened the sliding door and I attempted to walk out to the balcony when I bounced right of the window. What happened??? You have to know we have two huge glass sliding doors and one was all the way opened and doubled up with the other. What I thought I saw was her opening the door but was actually closing the open door. Even Sid and Gerry thought she was opening the door. I didn’t just break my nose I shattered it. So the next day instead of helping Sid splashing the boat I was at the emergency room and X-rays showed three broken parts and when the plastic surgeon saw how crooked the nose was she told me she had to break it some more to get it back into shape, two options under anesthetic in hospital or right there in the office. So I told her to go for it right there. She gave me two pills to swallow, (I want to know what they are and get some) and sent me back to the waiting room ordering me not to walk around just to sit there until they come and get me in twenty minutes. Jim who drove me to the hospital and plastic surgeon was waiting out there for me. Not even three minutes later I told him that I was feeling funny and that I saw everything double, he grabbed me and leaned me on his shoulder and I was out cold. I woke up getting lifted onto my feet and with wobbly legs half walking half being dragged back into the doctor’s office. With several injections, very painful by the way, she numbed the area around my nose and told me to trust her. That didn’t sound good but I had no choice, she then wedged my head between her arm and body and started to break my nose over and over again. I think a total of five times while my legs kicked wildly into the air. The pain was excruciating but I heard her say that my nose wasn’t just broken on three parts it was shattered. After reshaping it she put a cast on, didn’t think you could have one on the nose. It looked rather cute and Sid painted it later so that it matched my cap. My brother Marco was teasing me because as a kid I never liked my nose and told me that this definitely was the wrong method to change the shape. I totally agree. Do to this I missed taking some photos of Paradise all done and getting splashed.

We were not just working our butts off in the yard, when they prepped the boat for the paint job we thought it was a good time to do a trip and went with Dale and Sandy “Snow White”, Jim “Three Keys” and Chris and Luima to Colonia Tovare, which is a German settlement about two hours west from Caracas. It is settled high up in the mountain and when you see it first you think you’ve landed in the Alps in Switzerland somewhere until you hear them speak Spanish, although there are still quite a few people who practice speaking German. The village is absolutely cute and I felt right at home. We stayed at the Bergland Hotel with the coziest rooms and huge balconies with the most breathtaking view over the whole village and valley. The hotel kitchen was so wonderful we never ate anywhere else for dinner. You should have seen the pork shanks we devoured, it was a feast. The second night all of us ordered New York steaks, the best we’ve ever had. Shopping was fun too especially the butcher stores and we all loaded up on all kinds of yummy German sausages.

The drive to get there was quite challenging at times as we decided to bypass Caracas and took back roads. At certain places it was completely washed out, but luckily our two cars were four wheel drive and no big deal to plow through the muddy muck.

We still had a lot more work to be done on Paradise and so we rented the house a few extra months as she was sitting in front of the house. In the mean time all the cruisers left for the winter and it got pretty quite around here. There was at first only Three Keys, Bird of Paradise, Brazil Nut and White Tiger left and in the mean time it’s only Three Keys and us, pretty lonely, but good for us as we get more work done this way.

We still hadn’t gotten used to having a maid, but it sure is nice not having to clean. We realized that we really didn’t need her twice a week, but for 15 bucks a day it made us fell good to give her a job. She’s not all too well educated and still after two months I couldn’t understand her Spanish. She was so funny though, whenever she cleaned the kitchen and found a ¼ full bottle of coke, she shook it madly asking me: “Seniora Manuela is this coke still OK?” to which I had to answer: “Not anymore”.

For us it was work, work work. Sid was busy on the boat varnishing the inside and fixing all kind of odds and ends, while I was busy sewing new this and that. Everything that is of canvas on the boat is now new. Well most everything.

We finally had some visitors, couldn’t have been at a better opportunity while we lived in this huge house. Our cruising buddies from the Seas Cortez Steve and Marsha on Spirit flew in from San Francisco with lots of goodies for us and stayed for a week. I think one suite case was full with just our stuff. We had a great time but the week went by all too fast. The day they left Shanna and Roman arrived for another week, so we took them to the same places as Spirit. Jim drove us to Los Altos which is about 1 ½ hours east from Puerto La Cruz, high up in the mountain, yes you need a jacket up there and finished the trip off with a wonderful fish lunch on the beach with our toes playing in the warm sand. The other trip was by boat to the islands of the Mochima National Forest. First stop is in El Farro at Isla Chimana Secunda for some awesome snorkeling as the water is super clear and a short hike to the fossil grave yard. The next island features a cave which the boat actually drives into, it’s pretty neat, the wall is very steep and flat and swallows nest in it. It was high tide and the driver was able to get way back into the cave and I happen to see light shining through the top of the cave in two small holes. When I told our guide about it, he got goose bumps when he saw it and he told me he had been going here for 15 years and never saw that. He named them Las Velas de Manuela (The candles of Manuela) as they look like two burning candles. Our guests also had to learn to play Mississippi Marbles and are hooked on that game now. It’s really a fun dice game we play every Thursday evening under the Tree of Knowledge. Sunday nights of course they enjoyed our fun BBQ potluck.

One afternoon relaxing on the balcony Marsha and Steve watched a cloud fly towards the house. Marsha though it was a swarm of moths and didn’t think anything about it. About five minutes later Gerry came running upstairs saying: “Manuela you have a serious problem with Paradise”, since we just replaced the shaft I was sure the boat was sinking and ran downstairs when I noticed a swarm of bees circling the companion way. There was no way to get on the boat so I observed the intruders from “Gymnopedies”. I couldn’t believe what I saw the whole companion way was covered with bees. They were not settled yet so there was nothing we could do at the moment other than get the camera to get a prime shot. By the time I returned with the camera most of the bees were inside already and some of the companion way was uncovered. Poor Sid was sick in bed and of course got up when I told him the bad news. We both put our black fly suits on and Sid got the fogger ready to kill the intruders. Of course when you really need it, it doesn’t work. Terry gave us some good stuff and Sid braved his way onto the boat to terminate the bees, while I watched from the balcony ready to jump into action if needed, from the second floor of course. He started spraying them and they now were flying wildly around him, glad I was watching from a distance. He finally found a huge bee he thought was the queen and tossed it in the water, that should get read of them right. Nope, the next day the whole inside was still covered. Sid fixed the fogger and went inside. He couldn’t believe what he saw when he stepped below; the whole middle hatch was covered with bees with yet the real queen. In all it took him four days to get rid of the bees. You should have seen the inside, bees everywhere there was not one inch not covered with a dead bee. Now imagine being in an anchorage by yourself just coming back from a fun snorkeling or fishing and you find your boat taken over by bees, what do you do??? We were pretty lucky too; they were just honey bees and not the ferocious killer bees.

Three days in to Steve and Marsha vacation our roommates finally went cruising and we had the house to ourselves. The day our last guests left we went right back to work, Sid painted the deck and I was inside the house sewing up a storm. It’s nice to have the house to ourselves, it was fun having roommates but nothing beats being by ourselves.

We came to the conclusion that we should rename Paradise to Honey Comb, Bee Hive, Bee Keeper, Bee Farm or even Winnie the Poo! One week after we had Paradise overtaken by bees, we were admiring Sid’s finished paint job when we noticed a whole bunch of bees buzzing the deck around the open hatches. Not good!!! Sid then went down below but nothing so he took the insect spray and sprayed the bees outside. About an hour later as he was working inside the boat, he kept hearing this buzzing sound, but couldn’t see any bees. After a while hearing this he finally placed his ear onto the mast and did not like what he heard. We had another swarm of bees this time in the mast. Out came the fogger and through a screw hole in the mast he blasted the deadly poison into it. Since the fog didn’t want to rise up the mast he mounted a fan down below the floor boards which then blew the smoke out the top. It was a bizarre scene to see smoke coming out of a mast, it looked like a chimney. Ok bees gone, right?!! Oh while he was fumigating the inside a rat jumped ship, an empty ship with not even a crumb of food on the floor.

Four days later while waiting for Ernesto to pick us up by boat to go to Isla Borracho we noticed bees again buzzing around the top of the mast. This can’t be. As Sid went down below some two dozen bees flew around his ears, he placed his ear on the mast and heard the same buzzing sound. He fumigated them again several times. Ernesto showed up and we had to leave, but when we got back, bees were still buzzing the mast. Sid fumigated some more and even got up at 2 AM to blast them one more time at night as they all are sleeping, that should do the trick. But as he checked at 6 AM there were already bees buzzing the top of the mast again. Now he took the air-compressor out, hooked it up so that it would blast a steady blow up the mast and as of now we’re not sure yet if it worked. What makes them so attracted to Paradise.

Ernesto my English student took us on a boat trip to the near by Isla Borracho. What a beautiful place, we swam, snorkeled, cooled off and had lunch on the beach. We had the cove to ourselves for about 30 minutes then one boat after another came in, all around 25 to 30 feet, all anchored close to shore or right by the beach and next to each other, some rafted. Ernesto said that this was the least boats he’s ever seen usually it’s packed. It was really funny to watch how they anchor. Some brought the bow right to the surf line while the wife jumps off with the anchor in her hand, she walks a few steps up the beach and drops it in the sand, while he just drops it off the back. We laughed so hard watching all this, just amazing.

Sid did an incredible job on painting the foredeck a better job than the professional painter in the yard did, amazing hey? He also replaced the port holes, after 30 years they were pretty cracked and needed to be replaced. He was not sure how well it would go to get them out without breaking the teak O-ring around the glass but fortunately he figured out a way to get them out in one piece. We just had the varnish and new interior cushions to do and we were done. I was sewing up a storm. I made new covers for the dinghy jerry jugs with pocket for oil, new bag under boom vang and foredeck for lines and also with pockets for winch handles. All the bags in cockpit are replaced with upgraded bags. The one behind the steering wheel used to hold 6 bottles of water, now it’s just 4 and in the middle a pocket to hold the binoculars with a little flashlight pocket on top. Since all the marinas here are med tie we have to climb on the boat on the bow and doing so we hold on to the jib and staysail for balance, result a very dirty sail, so I made dirt covers for that. Sid mounted the new sun awning I built which is now one foot wider on both sides, so naturally I had to make the storage bag bigger as well. I still have to make the shade covers for the sides but we decided that will be a summer job. Also made new covers for dinghy wheels, covers for the cockpit cushions, until now I always made just slip covers, this is the first time we have full covers and they look great. Seat and backrest on steering box are new too. New shade cover for the hull where the refrigerator is, it keeps the fridge cool for an extra 4 hours before it has to pump down again. New seat cover on top of life raft case. Unfortunately I ran out of Sunbrella and haven’t been able to find our color yet as I like to re-place all the lee cloths in the cockpit as well. For the cockpit cushions and all the covers I’ve made so far I used a Texaline/Phyrex. Get this I bought a roll of 34 meters and paid a whole $ 27.29, just amazing, so no sweat if I cut out a piece to small. So everything on the boat is covered, just good the cat is not sitting still for any length of time or she’d be covered too.

Ever since we arrive in Puerto La Cruz we had to say “NO” over and over to adopt a feral cat that needed a home. There are a lot of feral cats, of course not spayed and cruisers find the abandoned or injured kittens all the time. We declined so many times. Once Tika is gone we don’t’ want any more pets, especially since we’re planning to travel to countries where they have quarantine laws. So by now everybody knows how serious we are about that. Well, I think everybody including us was in shock as we ended up with a new kitten. She was 4 maybe 5 weeks old and was crying in the bushes. Sid managed to get her out. She was so hungry, poor little thing. Everybody that was playing Mississippi Marbles that night had a turn holding her; we gave her milk and spoiled her with our love, she didn’t even know how to lick milk out of the bowl yet, so we fed her with a syringe. Nobody of course wanted to take her home. Out of the two of us Sid’s the one with the strongest “NO we don’t need another cat”. Don’t’ know what happened to him, my guess is the rum. We tried to justify why we took her home for many days. How can you abandon a cute 4 week old kitten?! Plan was to pep her up, get her spayed and then look for a good home for her. But seriously I didn’t think that was going to happen, I thought she found herself a loving home, by the time we can spay her we’ll be too attached to her. Tika was not so sure about the little intruder, although she let the kitten attack her tail and play with it, but she eventually hissed at her. Amazing the minute we took her into the house she domesticated instantly, used the litter box immediately and second morning ate up a lot of Tika’s food. She slept snuggling up with me but played for most of the time so I didn’t get much sleep. She followed me all around and since she was so tiny and I was afraid to step on her I made her a pouch out of my sheep skin house shoes, never wear those again anyway in tropical weather. I hung that around my neck and carried her along. She loved it. I made another bag out of the texaline which we could take her along; she was able to see out of the bag but nobody could see inside. Does that sound like we’ll be looking for a home for her in a few months.

We finally got rid of the bees. Sid climbed up the mast one night and taped all the holes shut, three weeks later he took the tape off and so far so good no more bees. We heard that three other boats in other marinas had the same problem, must be a yearly occurrence. Our neighbor downstairs told us to call the fire department they would get rid of the bees. We don’t think so, because when Denny had the problem last year, they took care of the bees by pouring gasoline down the mast, no thank you.

A couple days after our trip with Ernesto to Isla Boracho our dearest friend Kathy King, now living in Costa Rica, came for a fun visit and brought her friend Alley, four days later her son Adam joined us also, he flew in from Los Angeles with lots of butter. We had so much fun, Jim took us again on the Los Altos trip, we did the snorkel trip again with Emir and Carlos. Remember Saint Marie’s Cave where I saw light coming through the cave ceiling now called Las Velas de Manuela, on the first trip to the cave Carlos explained that once a year there is a pilgrimage to the Saint Marie’s cave with a ceremony for good weather for crops and fishermen, so on the trip with Kathy he told me that they had a ceremony happening that day and that we could not miss it. I was so excited that we could be part of that yearly ceremony, Carlos had me going. As we approached the cave we saw lots of fishing boats in that vicinity which we’ve never seen before so our excitement crew. As we finally arrived at the cave he explained that we unfortunately had missed the ceremony and that we just have to have our own. I was bummed. He then took a beautiful shell out and presented it to me. The shell has almost the shape of a flame and written on it is Las Velas de Manuela. So sweet, he fabricated the whole story about that days’ ceremony that specific day and had us all fooled.

We all had a great time snorkeling and explored a few new places where we found huge hermit crabs housing in conch shells. We also found the dolphins again and have never seen so many dolphins at once it was awesome. The food at the island restaurant was as wonderful as always and this time I got to pet several iguanas. I guess they are starting to recognize me.

The little kitten adjusted way too fast to the house unfortunately Tika didn’t take to the kitten. We still were not sure whether it was a girl or a boy and Alley fell in love with the kitten and decided to take it to Costa Rica but later that week we all realized it was too involved to fly the kitten to Costa Rica. The little rascal slept in her room while she was here giving us some peace at night. He just adored Alley and even shared her meals with her. The ten days they were here went by way too fast and since they flew out of Caracas we took a bus with them and spent two days in Caracas. It was wonderful having Kathy here and of course Alley and Adam, it gave Sid and me a well deserved break from all the boat work we’ve been doing.

Ever since they left it’s been nothing but working on the boat and after three long weeks we finally moved back onto the boat. Just as we started we received sad news that Norman, the owner of the house was not continuing his two year circumnavigation but was coming back the end of May, so we are not able to rent the house until the end of the year, bummer, we were really looking forward to it. But at least we were done just on time to be out of the house. As a matter of fact the timing was so right that the very next day after we had left Norman arrived. Moving everything back onto the boat was hard work sure was easier taking everything off. We tossed a lot crap out and were sure we would have a higher waterline; well we have maybe a little bit more.

While still at the house I completed the V-Berth cushion which looks great. I gave up on the salon cushions as they were a bit of a challenge. Sid had cut out and shaped the foam and a local upholstery guy sewed them up for us and I’m sure did a much better job then I could have done. The fabric store here is incredible and is four stories tall with nothing but fabric, one can get lost in there. I found the coolest bed spread material which just needed to have hims sewn in. Sid mounted all the storage bags I made. He also did an incredible job on the inside varnish, Paradise looks almost like a brand new boat. Sid used the clear coat of Awlgrp paint for the finish coat on the varnish which makes it look as smooth as a mirror and is almost bullet proof.

The little kitten we thought or hoped was a girl turned into a little boy and is as feisty as can be. We finally named him Taz Nibblebiteski (Tasmanian Devil it fits him to a T). Tika didn’t take too well to the little monster; after all she could be his great, great, great, great grandma. He drove me nuts too. Tazy was much too wild for us and the boat, besides we didn’t want to start a new kitty family. Tika is now 14 years old and we will sail to destination where pets have to go through quarantine. We didn’t know what to do with Tazy, we loved him but he needed to go, he was so wild the boat would have not been big enough for him or fair. Sharon and Dave of Sea Lure saw him and took him. They live in Merida on a big piece of property with monkeys, ocelots and other pets and were in town visiting Jim and Jenny. Taz found a loving family and is just as happy as can be, he’s buddy is a little Yo quiero Taco Bell dog four months old and his size. They play non stop all day long and also share the bed together. We’re so happy and relieved that we have found a wonderful home for Tazy and we do miss him, don’t think Tika does. The funniest about this is Tazy smells now like a dog, pew, maybe he should be renamed to Peppy la Pew.

Living in the house was fun but came with lots of problems, not one week went buy without one or two light bulbs blowing out. We stopped counting how many we exchanged in the five months. A few days ago two sockets blew out, one especially exploded with lots of sparks, scary. When he painted the foredeck we had the anchor off the boat on the bottom of the slip and a few weeks later when he brought the anchor back up a big hole was eaten into it on the bottom side. The last few days there as Sid worked with the engine he noticed a lot of corrosion which we never had before. There is a lot of stray electric current in the water, not good for any boat.

The house was also infested with little tiny sugar ants, actually it’s a problem every household here has. One night we’re watching a movie and we brought a couple of snifters of rum upstairs. Not five minutes later I felt something crawling over me, first didn’t think anything of it took my nightly shower and got ready for the movie as I felt it again. Sid turned the flash light on me and little ants were crawling all over me. Not just that but my snifter of rum was full of ants, not sure if they needed a bath or a shot of rum, obviously they don’t know that I don’t share my good rum.

Ever since we arrived in Venezuela we had an ant problem on the boat as well. Before we moved everything back onto the boat, Sid fumigated every corner inside and out and we still find ants. There is another little critter they call wood mites that are almost invisible and crawl all over the house and boat, but we got rid of them on the boat. Jim on three keys in the mean time found three nests of those little ants on his boat they build tunnels like termites and eat the wood.

We are as happy as popcorn farts in a windstorm being back in and on Paradise, there is no better place than home. Everything is stored away and every morning when we get up or every time we enter the boat it’s an ahhhh look at our beautiful boat.

June second we left the house and headed to Bahia Redonda. On our way there the prop started vibrating like crazy and shook the whole boat as soon as Sid raised the RPMs. We were worried that the electrolyses ate the prop up, that would have been a very expensive problem. Since we painted the prop we did ruled out that it could be overgrown with stuff. I think Sid was reluctant to get under the boat and find out the worst. He finally did and found a giant flower, the prop was so overgrown. The engine purrs like a kitten again and no vibration is felt, sigh.

We still had the outside varnish to do, in we I mean Sid and he did such an incredible job as usual.

Bahia Redonda is a very friendly marina and within two days we were invited to potlucks, dinners and turned into social butterflies. Some of the ladies here collect beach glass and one of them gave us a glass in how to make jewelry, so now I have two new hobbies collecting beach glass and making jewelry, it’s a lot of fun and a little competition to my bead work.

Oh the other day Sid got a “little” drunk at the potluck over at Maremares, so I drove us home. I hopped out of the dinghy and pulled the dinghy tight to the dock to make it more stable for unstable Sid as he was swaggering just sitting. He did get out of the dinghy without ever lifting his little butt, he’s upper body was like a tall tree swaying in the wind backwards except it swayed a little to much and in very slow motion Sid slithered into the wet water, there wasn’t even a splash. It was too funny. We laughed so hard it was tough to get him back into the dinghy. Then he realized that he lost one of his crocks and reassured that it was no loss as they were very old anyway. The next day as he took off with the dinghy, he happened to look back and what popped out of under the dinghy, yes his crock, too funny.

We heard that we could find Teak in Isla Margarita, in Jim’s car we took the Ferry across and went shopping for teak. We couldn’t’ find any teak but found out we can get it right here in PLC. The ferry ride over was really nice as it was a very calm and clear day and we had a great time shopping and learned that Isla Margarita has NO food shortage of anything, which strikes us odd and make us wonder what really goes on. We shopped till we dropped and even Jim had a good time as we took him to stores he didn’t even know existed. We scored big time and found Clamata juice for our Bloddy Maries.

Our friends on Snow White finally arrived in Cartagena and called us on Skype. Of course I had to give her instructions were everything was and her husband yelled in the background for us to fly here and show them. Not a bad idea! Four days later we took of on our flight to Cartagena for five days. We had a blast and ate the best of the best food, but then we’ve never had a bad meal in Cartagena. The nightly smell of BBQs lingering in every street brought many memories back and it seemed like nothing had changed in the last five years. The old town is still as it was but Boca Grande’s high rise buildings are now towered by even taller buildings. Being there made us realize how much we liked this place and we are looking forward to early next year when we sail into this beautiful harbor again. The heat although was unbearable as the humidity must have been over 90%. The humidity was so thick it felt like a ton on our shoulders.

We’re back in Bahia Redonda again and Sid is done with all the varnish and is finishing up with little odds and ends. Plan is to head out of here next week to find some nice anchorages to relax from our six months working ordeal on Paradise. We’re not sure yet where the wind will blow us, at this point we don’t care as long as we can sit in a nice anchorage with clear water to snorkel and relax.

More Politics:

Chavez placed a cap on staple foods as chicken, beef, eggs, butter and milk that no one wants to sell it under cost. The meat counters at the grocery stores are empty, no matter which store or butcher you go to, although pork is available but how long can you eat just pork chops. Our grocery store hasn’t sold eggs in over 9 weeks. Every three or so weeks, a load of chicken will be sold, you should see the mad dash to the counter when the store opens, the line leading through the whole store. They usually run out within the hour, same with meat and eggs. Milk products are running low too. Every time there is more stuff missing on the shelf. Butter is almost none existing. Adam thanks again for bringing all the butter from the States. Even mayonnaise disappeared for a month. Every time something else is off the shelf it is replaced with what’s left on the shelf. It’s not uncommon to find a whole row of shelves filled with just mustard and ketchup and Cheez Whiz, out of all things.

Chavez didn’t renew the oldest TV station in Venezuela because they are not supporters, he claims they had a coup for his assassination in 2002, if you ask me it’s pretty cowardly to get them 5 years later. He still threatens daily on TV to eliminate anybody who opposes him. 83% of Venezuelan’s are upset, because it was their favorite channel with all the soap operas and best news coverage. Demonstrations were country wide but did we see anything on TV? No way and IF Chavez only allowed to show the Chavistas with the red shirts which he again bussed in like at the elections, paying them off with BS 50 000, giving them food and a bus ride back all just to show on TV that he has followers. The red shirts that were not bussed in are government employees that are forced to demonstrate on his behalf or loose their jobs. His motto is “socialism or die”. That can’t be a good feeling if you have to buy your popularity.

The demonstrations would have been all peaceful if Chavez wouldn’t have called the barrio people in to fight for him or brought the red shirts in he forced to demonstrate. At least this time FOX news was in the middle of it covering the story from Caracas with all the facts about how corrupt El Presidente is. You had better coverage of the whole deal than we had here as Chavez controls now all the TV stations, RCTV was the last one in his way. I think this was his biggest mistake he,s made yet, because now even his followers are starting to realize that he is not who he portrays to be. I just found out that the Governor of this State Anzoategui changed his side and is no longer supporting him and so did another one. The students vow not to stop demonstrating they want their freedom and right of freedom of speech back, they are realizing that he is taking everything away from them, they have no bright future with him as a leader. They actually have a criminal law suite against Chavez because he broke the constitution. From what I’ve gathered a lot of countries have asked him to re-open RCTV. When you listen to his speeches you realize that he does not talk like a politician, he talks to his people like they are stupid little kids. All he talks abut is Fidel, then the Devil (Bush) and the materialism imperialism that ruined America and that we’re trying to poison them. I see one good thing in Chavez, since he talks to his folks like they are little kids I’m profiting, he’s giving me free Spanish lessons.

He is such a thug, he keeps convincing his people daily that the US is going to invade the country. The islands outside of Puerto La Cruz are the home of many fisherman; they live without electricity in shacks on dried out islands, and have done so for many generations. Chavez is moving them to the mainland; he bulldozed areas down where they can rebuild the shacks. Chavez plans on using the island for military installations when the Americans invade. If you ask me this guy is nuts.

We still like Venezuela and feel we are safe here but it eventually will take a toll on the people when they start realizing more and more that Chavez is not out to help them instead is ruining their freedom and future, all because he wants total control. Our hearts ache for the people here.

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