Journeys With Kerry

Bahia de Patanemo

Flamingos on the way to the beach

Venezuela July 16-27, 2012

One of the wonderful benefits of my job as a corporate trainer is that I get to travel. In July of this year I went to Valencia, Venezuela for two weeks. At first I was not looking forward to the trip for numerous reasons: I had heard it was not safe, I would be there on my birthday and two weeks prior to my trip I had just moved into my new home that I had purchased.

Putting aside my trepidations primarily due to lack of choice, I arrived in Valencia on Saturday, July 14th. What should have been a two- hour trip from Caracas to Valencia turned into a four-hour trip, which was about the same amount of time it took me to fly from Atlanta to Caracas. At one point my driver turned off his Kia and got out of the vehicle and starting chatting with some of the other drivers on the road. My first thought was “what fresh hell is this?” but it seemed like a normal activity for them so I just sat in car hoping that at some point we could get moving again. I arrived at the hotel at 3:30 a.m., bleary eyed and exhausted. I had been traveling a total of 14 hours at this point.

The hotel was the Lidotel Boutique Hotel and was directly across the

How I spent my evenings

street from the Sambil Mall. Typically, the last place I want to go to in the States is any mall, but as I soon discovered, I would spend at least an hour or so everyday at this mall. Not to shop, but to have dinner. The food at the hotel was very expensive. Well, to be honest, everything in Venezuela was expensive. As an example a combo meal from McDonalds was $17.00 USD. The mall was like any other in the U.S. - a sensory overload and a temple to consumerism.

The traffic is insane…at least during the week. It typically takes 25 to 30 minutes to arrive at the Ford Plant in Valencia, but anywhere from 45 minutes to 90 minutes to return to the hotel. My first driver, Manual, was great and spoke a little English. On Monday, he took me to the super Mercado (super market) after work. He recommended a beer – Polar light. Apparently it is the number one selling beer in Venezuela. I tried it Friday evening after work. It was ok - I would say comparable to a Miller Light. And for those than know me, know that I am a beer snob. It was okay, but I would not buy this in the states.

An intersection and not a parking lot!

Ellie aka Danika Patrick
crossed with my grandma

Tuesday on the way home from the plant, traffic was very crazy, so we were taking several side streets to get to my hotel. The rest of this week and most of next, my driver has been Ellie. She is wonderful but speaks very little English. But between her very limited English, my small knowledge of Spanish (as well as the app iTranslate) we were just fine - that and a series of gestures from Ellie. She was able to tell me that it is not very safe here if I do walk around to keep my money deep in my front pockets. I am guessing Ellie is in her 50’s or so. I felt like my grandma was driving me to and from work, and that is not a reflection of her driving but of her kindness and willingness to share snacks with me while in the car. The first day with Ellie, I had a wafer type cookie that was good and sugar free. Yesterday, she offered me a candy. I thanked her and took the candy and then realized it was a gummy candy, which I do not like. So, I thought I would try it and then secretly put it back in the wrapper and dispose of it at the hotel. However, she took the wrapper from me. I ate it as to not seem rude. It was fine but like the Polar Light, I would not purchase this for myself.

Saturday, I went to breakfast with Dickson from the Ford plant.

We went to Q’Arepa and had arepa…a traditional dish of Venezuela. It was delicious. An arepa is a dish made of ground corn dough or cooked flour. We had the corn arepa

and it was delicious. They are like pockets of bread that you fill with meats, cheese, and other assorted fillings. I also had some watermelon juice, which was awesome. It reminded me of the watermelon juice that Shelly makes.

The large green things behind the watermelons
are the avacados.

Dickson was very gracious in being my guide this morning and as I was his guest would not allow me to pay for anything. After our breakfast, there was a fruit stand he took me too. Some of the fruits I had never heard of, and will not try to misspell them here. However, the avocados were the size of a small football. I was shocked when he told what they were, as the avocados in the states are the size of small apples.

My second week in Venezuela started out a bit rough. Monday, I tripped and fell at work and cut my nose- a complete face plant into the cement while wearing glasses will do that I guess. Security at the plant took me to medical. Thankfully this happened in a country where I do speak some of the language and a few of the people in the medical department spoke English. But to the rescue were Karla my main contact here in Venezuela and Victoria Pastrán who speaks English very well. After three hours there I went to finish teaching my class.

Tuesday, July 24^th was a holiday to commemorate the birthday of Simon Bolivar. Karla and her husband invited me to go the beach with them. On the way to the beach, we stopped for breakfast and had empanadas. They were delicious! The woman in the photos appeared as if she could make the empanadas in her sleep, as she chatted with a co-worker and kept kicking out the tasty treats.

The beach was Bahia de

patanemo and it was beautiful. I met some great people and watched some locals playing the drums and dancing on the beach. It almost appeared as if it were a competition with different people entering and leaving the circle. It was an awesome experience.

On the return trip from the beach to my hotel, Karla bought some mamón's. They have a great flavor but are a bit slimy and you had to eat the fleshy part of this fruit off of the huge pit in the middle.

My last week, Dickson took me out to have cachapa’s for lunch. Cachapas are a traditional Venezuelan and Colombian dish made from corn. They look like a large pancake – "bigger than your head" large and are filled with yummy white cheese. Typically, it is with Queso de Mano (hand made cheese), a soft mozzarella-like cheese. However, they did not have the queso de mano, but whatever cheese they used, it was creamy and delicious. We had ours with a side of beef, a guacamole salsa and a traditional spicy salsa. I cannot decide which was better, the arepas or the cachapas. They prepare the cachapas on a large flattop grill and the meat is grilled on massive skewers and then sliced to order. It was fabulous to sample some of the local customs and cuisine while visiting this beautiful country.

Although I was not looking forward to this trip, I met some fabulous people, made friends, improved my Spanish, ate some wonderful local dishes, walked in the Western Caribbean and yes even came close to breaking my nose.

Following are some additional photos from my trip.