The first week back at "work" (I put it in quotes not because I don't think of it as work, by any means, but more so because even when we are not working - we are still working....we're somewhat in a situation of 24 hours a day work....coupled with working a "job" that doesn't always feel like work.....make any sense? I don't know...). So after being back at said work for solely 3 days so far - I'm exhausted!! I don't know what the heck I did during our "break" but apparently I relaxed a lot. Well, that is true in some senses, we did in fact have 3-ish weeks off of "work". However, the time flew by in a whirlwind of activities (to use a cliche, my bad) as we hosted Eben's parents visiting from Portland, spent some time exploring local tourist activities, shopped for Christmas presents for my teammates
(and to send home to family!), baking Christmas cookies, reading books, and working on my cross-stich.....up until Christmas day. (which I already wrote about, check back a few posts). 2 days after Christmas we headed out on our BIG adventure of the break.....to Los Llanos! Los Llanos is the "plains" region of Venezuela....that basically looks like pictures I've seen of the African Savannah....no kidding! It was pretty incredible. We spent our first day in a jeep for 6 hours or so heading to Barinas state. We spent our first evening at a 'rafting camp' owned by the tour company we went with. At the camp we got to go on a zip line through the forest and across a river (yikes!). The actual zipping part was a lot of fun, the landings were not quite as smooth, but I survived (although I got dirty, boo....haha). We also went river rafting (my first time!) THAT was a lot of fun. We certainly weren't in any crazy white water, however, for a first experience rafting I had a lot of fun. It's also always interesting to do things in another language - it adds to the confusion and therefore excitement. Along on our trip with us, because it was booked through a tour - were 2 Swedes and one German man, and of course a Venezuelan guide. We laughed that sitting down to dinner felt like a meeting of the UN. The second day we continued the loooooooong jeep ride into the state of Apure, where it truly began to look like savannah - with almost complete flat land, covered in grass, with the occasional lone tree or cow. There were a few near accidents (there's really no speed limit here, at one point we clocked out driver going about 110 mph, roughly calculated from kph), especially when cows wandered into the road. The camp in Apure was literally a farm - there were all kinds of farm animals, and farm hands and farm BUGS and DIRT. Ok, for those of you who know me - I'm really not a fan of the dirt so much, or of the bugs, or of the HEAT which combined with the humidity added a nice sheen to the dirt covered, bug bitten people that we were. However, knowing that this is and was a once in a lifetime type deal - I went with the flow to the best of my ability. :S We slept in hammocks in some sort of hut (literally) that luckily had mosquito netting. Unfortunately, mosquito netting does not keep out mosquitos, or spiders the size of my fist, or snoring Germans.....!! Needless the say, the sleeping was rough. The adventures however, were pretty cool if I do say so myself. We went horseback riding (my only third time EVER, and second time in VZ). Our guide's horse rooted out an ant eater right in front of us! It scuttled its way across our horses' path....cool!! We went on an evening jeep safari. and got to see a ton of local birds (mostly Ibis, herons, and hawks) and a beautiful sunset. We spent one day almost entirely on the river - first taking a boat ride - in the SKETCHIEST of boats I've ever seen. It was extremely long and narrow and rickety! We saw a ton of wildlife, including a capybara family (with babies included!!!!), many caymans (like smaller crocodiles), various birds, river dolphins (which are pink and gray!) and lots of turtles. Our guide was quite gung ho about catching us a cayman...seriously!! He continued to try and lasso one - I have great footage of it I took with my camera, but I can't seem to get it to upload here...I'm still working on it. They also attempted to catch a prehistoric turtle. How, you may ask? Well, by JUMPING into piranha infested (not kidding) waters and trying to hug it!!! ahhh! The first time he jumped off the boat, we had no idea what was happening, it was pretty freaky.......I lost my train of thought writing this blog 3 days ago, so I'm finally going to post it without a conclusion - oh well, it's still got some cool pictures :)
(and to send home to family!), baking Christmas cookies, reading books, and working on my cross-stich.....up until Christmas day. (which I already wrote about, check back a few posts). 2 days after Christmas we headed out on our BIG adventure of the break.....to Los Llanos! Los Llanos is the "plains" region of Venezuela....that basically looks like pictures I've seen of the African Savannah....no kidding! It was pretty incredible. We spent our first day in a jeep for 6 hours or so heading to Barinas state. We spent our first evening at a 'rafting camp' owned by the tour company we went with. At the camp we got to go on a zip line through the forest and across a river (yikes!). The actual zipping part was a lot of fun, the landings were not quite as smooth, but I survived (although I got dirty, boo....haha). We also went river rafting (my first time!) THAT was a lot of fun. We certainly weren't in any crazy white water, however, for a first experience rafting I had a lot of fun. It's also always interesting to do things in another language - it adds to the confusion and therefore excitement. Along on our trip with us, because it was booked through a tour - were 2 Swedes and one German man, and of course a Venezuelan guide. We laughed that sitting down to dinner felt like a meeting of the UN. The second day we continued the loooooooong jeep ride into the state of Apure, where it truly began to look like savannah - with almost complete flat land, covered in grass, with the occasional lone tree or cow. There were a few near accidents (there's really no speed limit here, at one point we clocked out driver going about 110 mph, roughly calculated from kph), especially when cows wandered into the road. The camp in Apure was literally a farm - there were all kinds of farm animals, and farm hands and farm BUGS and DIRT. Ok, for those of you who know me - I'm really not a fan of the dirt so much, or of the bugs, or of the HEAT which combined with the humidity added a nice sheen to the dirt covered, bug bitten people that we were. However, knowing that this is and was a once in a lifetime type deal - I went with the flow to the best of my ability. :S We slept in hammocks in some sort of hut (literally) that luckily had mosquito netting. Unfortunately, mosquito netting does not keep out mosquitos, or spiders the size of my fist, or snoring Germans.....!! Needless the say, the sleeping was rough. The adventures however, were pretty cool if I do say so myself. We went horseback riding (my only third time EVER, and second time in VZ). Our guide's horse rooted out an ant eater right in front of us! It scuttled its way across our horses' path....cool!! We went on an evening jeep safari. and got to see a ton of local birds (mostly Ibis, herons, and hawks) and a beautiful sunset. We spent one day almost entirely on the river - first taking a boat ride - in the SKETCHIEST of boats I've ever seen. It was extremely long and narrow and rickety! We saw a ton of wildlife, including a capybara family (with babies included!!!!), many caymans (like smaller crocodiles), various birds, river dolphins (which are pink and gray!) and lots of turtles. Our guide was quite gung ho about catching us a cayman...seriously!! He continued to try and lasso one - I have great footage of it I took with my camera, but I can't seem to get it to upload here...I'm still working on it. They also attempted to catch a prehistoric turtle. How, you may ask? Well, by JUMPING into piranha infested (not kidding) waters and trying to hug it!!! ahhh! The first time he jumped off the boat, we had no idea what was happening, it was pretty freaky.......I lost my train of thought writing this blog 3 days ago, so I'm finally going to post it without a conclusion - oh well, it's still got some cool pictures :)
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