butter in a can and panda ham.

The Christmas Holidays are here and I have discovered a new tradition that I am quite fond of. I also have a few other food oddities to mention.

But first- Pan de Jamon. (there is no Panda in this dish- sorry). Around Christmas the bakeries start to roll out these delightful loafs full of Ham, raisins, and green olives. It sounds an odd combination but let me tell you- it is so tasty that even Lisa forgets her wheat allergy and has a small slice or two.

Pan de Jamon does not come with cute plush toys.

All told this thing weighs a good 8 pounds.

and the innards! looks a bit suspect- but tastes like a feliz navidad!

Some other foods that have caught my eye. Butter can be hard to find at times until a friend told us about butter in a can- Cannot figure out why the picture is sideways- but let me tell you- butter in a can is delightful and most likely what all my friends back in the states will be getting for christmas this year.

Not much to say on this last one except that I have never enjoyed reading a sugar bag more than when I read an azucarcasa sugar bag.

Caracas teleferico

Being gondola people (I think I was on the Vail gondola before I was 4) we have been looking forward to getting a ride up the Teleferico to the top of the Avila. There was a bonus 3 day weekend (happy thanksgiving) at school so we figured to beat the long lines and head on up. What a great day!

The ride up was so cool- leaving the crazy city behind us and floating over these ridiculously tall thick trees was very cool. Alas, as hard as I was scanning the treetops... no sloths.

Once at the top you can see down the other side to the Caribbean sea-that is it down there, honest. The clouds were floating by and we did sleep in a bit so missed the wide open views, still it was gorgeous.

At the top is the Humbolt hotel, built by the Dictator Marcos Perez who was leader from 1952-1958. In addition to being brutally repressive to any critics of the regime he built many nice additions around Caracas. Parks and plazas to name a few... and the Humbolt Hotel. The original plan was for the Teleferico to continue down to the sea, that part of the trip doesn't work anymore and the hotel has been shut since the late 60's. There is a rumor of a ghost: Marcos' ladyfriend was discovered to be having another friendship and subsequently jumped out of a 7th story balcony. We didn't see her but with the clouds swirling past the place was quite creepy.

This gentleman played a song for Wilder and I. My spanish is still not very strong but I think he said I have nice blue eyes, lovely hair, and an enchanting smile. Very nice of him but I was kind of hoping he was going to sing to Wilder. Next time.

Then it was time for ice skating! Wilder's skates were painfully small so she only skated for a few minutes but Luca had a good time. They both enjoyed the hot chocolate which was dwarfed by the whipped cream that sat on top of it.

A short drive down from the top is the community of Galipan. They grow flowers, strawberries, etc to sell in Caracas. We caught a jeep down there, walked about, had a small lunch, bought some strawberry jam, and walked back. Nice spot.

On the walk back we passed a few groups of people walking the other way. With the security issues here in Caracas I always have my mind spinning at first if we should be concerned (we are walking along an empty road in the middle of nowhere) But then... you just realize that most people are out to walk around and get out of the city and have a good time as well. I offered to take a picture so they could all be in the shot and after that they said "un otro con tu" I guess they don't get many gringos in their photos. Super nice people, we all laughed heartily, they said welcome to venezuela. Good stuff.

 Some groovy ferns and flowers on the way.

Saw a cool looking trail on the way back and decided to explore- we had to, there might be a sloth down there.

 

Here I am looking for the sloths

I see no sloths

 

To see the sloth you must first think like the sloth.

Alas, no sloth but I will keep searching. We did get to exit thru the gift shop (of course) and descend into the clouds as they had settled onto the Avila quite completely by then. It was fun to come out underneath and see our little city waiting for us to return. Chevere means cool and is my favorite way of answering the question Como estas? It was a very chevere day (except the 1 hour taxi ride home- el traffico es no chevere)

A few additions to add...

Have a few additions to posts made in the past as I couldn't see these as new stand alone posts.

1. Flowers. Seriously the flowers here are crazy. Little works of art... or cold blooded killers- check out the carnivorous pitcher plant!

2. Beer tasting. Michael, the fearless leader of the Caracas beer appreciation club found the Tovar motherlode. Tovar was not represented at the previous beer tasting as it can be hard to find. Imagine our excitement then when we found out it would be featured at a "tasting" at the Topotepuy gardens.

We were ready to earn our beers, but had no idea that first we had to take the garden tour.

 Notice how we are clearly the delinquents at the back of the class just waiting for it to be over. As Adam said: "I try to keep my learning happening on the weekdays."

Having a hard time giving this one a caption- fill in your own.

 With the tour over we were surely close to having a beer, we even found the big sign... but alas

Michael and Nadjib 

 There was-I kid you not- a powerpoint presentation on the process of making Tovar beer- presented by the brewmaster himself. As the talk was in spanish I was only catching every 5th or 6th word at best and was starting to seriously wonder if there was beer at this thing at all.

Paul and Mike as riveted as the rest of us.

But in the end our studious listening skills paid off as the Tovar flowed like wine- note the happy faces, these are because we just put in 2 hours of hard waiting for this beer. 

that first beer was tasty, what do tell, shall I have to do for a second?

 Again, with Venezuelan beer it is all perspective. Was it really that good? Or was it because we had to endure so much before drinking it? Or was it because we misunderstood when they told us to have 2-3, we thought they meant each time we went to the bar we were to take 2 to 3 with us. Sometimes it is handy to be an emerging second language learner.

3. Beisbol. We decided to go to another game. This time it was a Sunday afternoon family game. We decked ourselves out in La Guaira finest and cruised over to the stadium. 

We are probably the two biggest Tiburone fans in all of Colorado.

Maybe I got taken for a ride or maybe I didn't understand when the guy told me, but I bought 2 tickets out past 1st base, and 2 behind home plate, oops. This is also the reason why there are no pics of Luca and Lisa, they got the home base seats.

It was another fun game, The Tiburones won but I still didn't get to see a beer shower due to the absence of any home-runs. Guess we will have to go again.

they weren't selling that hat in the giftshop.

Yes it does Jay-Z, yes it does.

 4. Beer tasting. One last note on perspective. Polar Ice didn't score that high at the first beer tasting but I will tell you straight up: At the ball field this stuff is pure gold. You give the beer vendor in your area a little head nod and he pours you a beer. Each time you do this you put the new beer into the empty old one. At the end of the game you count how many cups you have all stacked together and pay. 20 Bolivares a cup- not too shabby.