Adventures with Isoms

Monday, June 30, 2014

Venezuela road trip 2014-Henri Pittier and el Limon

Venezuela road trip 2014, Henri Pittier and El Limon

So being Colorado hiking type people we were really looking forward to this part of the trip. National forest = hiker paradise right? Well not exactly. There are no hiking trails in the Pittier forest! There is one that leaves a research center but when we stopped by the guide said no hiking that day as he wasn't available (didn't feel like it). Our indignation lessened when we learned later that guides were necessary not due to the rough nature of the trail but because people were getting robbed when allowed to hike alone. So we did a lot of driving- it is an incredibly beautiful cloud forest but we were bummed to not be exploring.

Our mood was vastly improved when we stopped by the "gran ola" roadside restaurant. We just wanted a quick empanada but got much more. It was father's day, the world cup was on, and a small stream was flowing by out back. We wandered down and slowly things just got cool. Lisa and Luca started catching bugs and shrimp with some kids, we shared some pears with a family bbqing and they shared some tasty meat off the grill. I sat there just feeling complete- all I needed was with me: Lisa, Wilder, Luca, and bbq.

An empanada is a fried bread concoction filled with carne, pollo, or queso.

The river out back

Camilla was teaching Lisa spanish and Lisa was teaching Camilla english- very cute.

Catching crawdads in a cup

this is luca "fishing" drop some bread in the water then hit them with a rock.

We didn't stop here- but I liked the sign "queen of the empanada"

The posada in el Limon was groovy, Kids kept the trip journal going and Luca found a dead snake.

In the end I didn't get this car for father's day- but I did get some strangely familiar PAN shorts- SCORE!!

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Venezuela road trip 2014, Choroni and Chuao.

After a great first year in Venezuela we decided to tour around a bit before heading home. The first part of the trip was inspired by the Griswold family vacation- We left Caracas with surfboards (instead of grandma) strapped to the roof of the car. We stopped at Colonia Tovar, Choroni, Chuao, the Henri Pittier National forest and El Limon, Morrocoy, Bejuma, and back to Caracas. The second part was Inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle's book "the Lost World". To see if there really were dinosaurs living on the Tepui's we flew to Ciudad Bolivar and then Kavak. We explored canyons, journeyed by indigenous canoe, and slept in hammocks at the base of Angel Falls- didn't find Conan Doyle's creatures but had an amazing time. Will try to do justice to each of the legs of the journey- enjoy!

Choroni and Chuao

There are many cool things about Choroni: The devil dancers, the chocolate of chuao, playa grande, etc. But first you have to get there! The road is this amazing snake of a thing that casually goes from two lanes to one around the blindest of corners. We were told that busses do not slow down on these corners- they just honk to let you know they are coming- it was awesome (but I'm thankful we were driving in on a wednesday and were missing the weekend heavy traffic.)

This is a two lane highway!

We stopped for a pee break and I kid you not this was perched on the side of the road by a stream- and I always thought it was in Paris!

Choroni was groovy but a bit rough: most of their business is weekend beach goers so not a lot was open. We tried surfing at Playa Grande but the waves were a bit too big for our first try and Wilder and I got pounded.
The in town taxis were cool though- do it yourself additions to old cars that now fit more people- Wilder wants one for her first car.

It was in Choroni that we first saw the PAN shorts- more on these later.

Probably the highlight of this section of the trip was our walk to Chuao. You hire a boat in Choroni to take you over to the port of Chuao- (the actual town was 5k back because pirates would rob it otherwise- chocolate was once more valuable than gold). You can jump in a truck and get there in 10 minutes or walk- and we Isoms always can do with a good walk.

Big bugs along the way,

and fresh mangos falling out of the trees- they were delicious!

This is the church where they have been drying the cacao beans for... well a really long time. Word is the big chocolatiers in Europe try to get Chuao cacao for their bars.

Dare I say- this is one artistic photo I snapped of the fishing boats in Chuao.

Venezuela road trip 2014- Colonia Tovar

So way back in the 1850's a boatload of Germans came over and were given a little patch of land. They went about making it as German as possible- architecture and pork sausages all around!

Try saying this with a Venezuelan accent

Deadly Weapons on a wall

It was a great start to the trip, this was our little cabin, we felt like we were in the mountains, we could walk all over the place, and the food was incredible.

Church of the sleeping dog

See previous posts about the quality of VZ beer- then my happy face will make more sense as I found a nice little heffeweizen.

The gift shop sold slingshots,

as well as strawberries.

So a great start to the trip, we left Colonia Tovar full bellied and happy with a little more oompah in our lederhosen- ya das is gut.

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Venezuela road trip 2014- start at the end

We just returned from a 2 week road trip. It was simply put- AMAZING. There are quite a few stories and many many pictures of the places we visited- but I will start with the last place we visited: Bug Paradise. What a great place to end our trip... and well yeah, there was this sloth... that I'm... excited to tell you about. A few things led to us planning a Venezuelan road trip- no flights to other countries being the major one, but it was one incredible trip- the people were so kind, friendly, and fun loving- if not a little curious as to why we would a) live and work here and b) drive around. The towns we visited were: Colonia Tovar, Choroni, Chuao, El Limon (Pittier National Park), Morrocoy, and Bug Paradise. So lets start at the end shall we?

The first thing I liked was no TV, cel phone service, or internet. Kids (and parents) just had to explore. Within 10 minutes Luca had said "this is the best place ever!"

Here is a picture of Wilder watching TV.

The Posada (actually called Casa Maria) was built and made amazing by Norbert and Gaby. They built a series of trails out the back of what used to be a monoculture field of orange trees. It still has the trees but has been returned to an incredible state of biodiversity. It was pretty cool to be able to pluck oranges and eat them as we walked.

The View

This is a Powhee bird. We were given the bucket of squishy bananas to carry around in case we ran into him.

Some plants just know how to say "don't touch"

and then... there he was, just ...well hanging out (its what they do). Seeing a sloth has been a high priority for me since moving here and the one I saw way in the top of some tall tree in May just wasn't cutting it. This guy though was right there! So fun to watch him eat and move around. The next day... well what do you know he was right there! Same tree, and the next day as well- hey he doesn't have to move much- he's a sloth!
Enjoy

this is me on the observation deck watching my sloth

There were cool little treasures around each corner it seemed, from a blue door/ stone archway to the tile work on the sidewalks. Great craftsmanship.