Date: Sat, 3 Nov 2001 08:33:15 -0800 (PST) From: "Court Demas" | Block Address | Add to Address Book Reply-to: court@acm.org Subject: Re: Where Are You? To: "Bea Cronin" I'm in Merida, a small college town (250k people) in Western Venezuela. It's so beautiful here. We're perched a mile up in the Andes. There are lush green mountains all around us, covered in puffy white clouds and mist. The people here are great. I'm in a nice $10/day Posada, like a youth hostel. The nice woman Carolina who runs the place is giving me Spanish lessons for $6/hr. She's great. I met a money changer in the Miami airport who is from Venezuela and gave me lots of information. I told him I was thinking about Merida and other places, and he said I would never want to leave Merida! I was scared in the Caracas airport. It was almost dark out, long lines, almost nobody spoke English, my bank card didn't work at the machine. Past customs I saw a swarm of people waiting outside. Fear. I got a taxi, and went straight to the bus station in Caracas (1/2hr away). We drove swiftly through the dark, with steep hills all around us, speckled with bright lights from homes. Within an hour I was on a bus to Merida. It was incredibly cold - the A/C was on full blast. My guide mentioned this, so I had a sweater and coat and hat, despite it being 75+ degrees outside (at night!), but I was still cold! We stopped for food. I met a fellow passenger Felix. He's from Merdia and a hip-hop dj. He invited me to go hiking with his friends on Sunday. We got to the terminal in Merdia almost 13hrs later (freeeeeeezing). His friend showed up in a nice Ford truck and drove me to my hostel. I signed up for more Spanish lessons at the Iowa Institute. A very nice woman there told me all about it, she's American, a linguistics doctor, very warm and intelligent. la la la la la la la. There's a million other small stories to tell!!! I slept much of the day yesterday - sleeping on the bus was difficult. I found an internet cafe when I can use my laptop. It is slow, but there are at least two dozen internet cafes in the city, and I'm sure I'll find a faster one. It's $1/hr in most places. I met a beautiful young Swiss woman in my Posada. She just came back from a 6-day backpacking trip up the largest peak in Venezuela. She's unfortunately moving out of our Posada, because she's lonely with only two of us there (I told her now I'm going to be lonely there all alone!!! hehe, not really). She's going to be taking classes at the Iowa school too. We exchanged emails and will hopefully meet up next week. The weather is beautiful. Clouds in the sky often, it's rainy season, but it's warm and the sun often peeks out for long stretches. It apparently is raining a lot, very hard at times, but I haven't experienced it yet. I can't express how well this is working out. It's like a dream mama. I love it. love, court