Oh, the places I've seen...

In four and a half months aboard the ms Veendam, I visited 19 ports in 17 countries, most of which I'd never been to before. Here's the final tally:



Farewell, Veendam!
Don't make friends with salad!

Thur, March 8th – Flight details

I got my flight details today, so the official countdown begins! I will arrive in Shreveport at 4 pm on Sunday, so that means I’ve got just…

Wed, March 7th – One hour forward, one hour back….

Last night we sailed over the time line from the Eastern to the Central Time Zone, and thus we set our clocks back to gain an hour. (We’ll lose this hour again on Saturday when we come back to EST.) At about the same time, I looked at my calendar this morning and noticed that this weekend is going to be Daylight Savings Time – on the very day when I fly home, from EST to CST…

So this means…
- on Saturday morning I’ll lose an hour of sleep to sail from CST to EST.
- on Sunday morning I’ll lose ANOTHER hour of sleep for Daylight Savings Time.
- on Sunday afternoon, I’ll gain an hour when I fly from EST to CST.

Thank God I’m flying west! Many of my European and African friends will be nursing some serious jet lag when they get home…

Mon, March 5th – Reunion with Gordon

I had a whole list of stuff to get accomplished in the mere 5 hours we’re due to be in port today. Veendam is due to be in port from Noon until 5:30 (crew must be back onboard by 5), and the RCCL Jewel of the Seas has been here since 7 am, and is due to leave at 3 pm. My friend Gordon and I are going to have lunch, and he’s on the Jewel, so our window is limited.

Luckily, I’m not doing any shopping today, since I’m leaving the ship this weekend. But I do have THREE packages to get to the post office, in the hopes of lightening up my luggage for the flight. I’ll have to sneak the packages off in my backpack because US customs doesn’t like you off-loading stuff from the ship. Last week this meant making two separate trips, since the boxes wouldn’t both fit in my backpack at the same time.

I would like to get some Starbucks sometime before we ship off to Central America again, but that’s low on the priority list. Also, there is this one ‘starving musician’ who sits on the sidewalks of Duval Street with his dog and a hat for tips, and when he plays random high notes on the flute, the dog howls. I’ve often passed this guy and his singing dog while on the phone with Mom, which she can hear, so I’m going to try to get a video of him today to be able to show her when I get home.

So, right at 11 am, I’m sitting in my cabin and I feel the thrusters kick in to slow us down – perfectly on time, as they always kick in exactly one hour before we open the gangway. (One of the perks of having a cabin near the hull, as most of the cabins don’t hear and feel the vibrations of the thrusters.)

At noon, I’m standing on the gangway, one box in a shopping bag, and the two smaller boxes bulging out of my backpack. I couldn’t look more obvious. But luckily, as the crew begins to rally around the gangway, waiting for crew to be allowed to disembark, I see my advantage – stay in the group. At about 12:08, they open up the gangway for crew, and off we go.

Just as I see a security officer eyeing me a little suspiciously, I see the highlight of my day – Gordon standing on the pier, WAITING for me! (How thoughtfully sweet!!! How gallant!) The smile on my face spread from ear to ear and I practically RAN down the gangway to give him a humongous hug!!!

Together we walked quickly to the post office, catching up on all the “how are you” stuff, feeling like the month since we last saw each other was years or days all at the same time. It was so wonderful to see him again!!!

I successfully mailed all three packages at once, then we made a quick dash over to Duval Street and up to Fleming Street, while he called Yuliana on the cell phone to tell her where to meet us for lunch. On the way to the restaurant, we came across the flautist and his dog, and I got my video. I was getting my list all knocked out! We three had a quick lunch, then Yuliana had to dash back to Veendam to get to work, and I walked Gordon back to the Jewel just in time for him to sail.

And then I glanced down at my watch and realized it was not quite 3 PM and I had nothing left to do but go home and kill the rest of the day. No sailaway set today, no show tonight, and I’m probably not going to get off the ship again til Costa Maya on Friday, so to go home now means just to find ways to kill time.

As I come back towards the Veendam, I am welcomed by one of my favorite greetings – several of the Filipino sailors are out on deck, changing out the liferafts, and they all see me and call to me and wave. This is such an endearing welcome, and warms my heart every time I come ‘home.’

But just as I get to the gangway, Vasile is disembarking, and invites me to join him as he’s going to meet the boys for lunch. In a sentimental sort of “let’s do it while we still have time” mood, I join him.

We had a great time, first at Sloppy Joe’s bar, then down to Cheeseburger, just hanging out, getting in all that last-minute bonding. We headed back to the ship, getting onboard just before the 5 PM deadline.

It was a perfectly relaxed, everything-accomplished, laid-back, beautifully perfect day. And once again, I thank God and count my blessings for how wonderful this life is sometimes. It was great to see Gordon one last time, neither of us knowing when we might see each other again if not on a ship. (Although I am certainly considering a future vacation to South Africa to run around the country and visit him, Abi & Michel, Liza, Andrew, and Ernie.)

Still, in the back of my mind, a thought pops up that makes me grin again… 5 days til I go home!

Sunday, March 4th – Final Voyage!

And still so much to do! Meeting a friend (a former Veendam’er) in Key West for lunch – don’t know when I might ever see him again, as he’s from South Africa. Meeting another friend (a Russian dancer from my last ship, the Fascination) in Costa Maya. Here’s the itinerary for my final voyage aboard the Veendam!:

Monday – Key West, FL
Tuesday – Sea Day
Wednesday – Belize City, Belize
Thursday – Santo Tomas de Castillo, Guatemala
Friday – Costa Maya, Mexico
Saturday – Sea Day
Sunday – Tampa, FL…. To embark on a plane for home!

Thursday, March 1st – UNO!

One of my favorite people on this ship is my Romanian keyboard player, Vasile. We get along very well, we eat dinner together often, and in our spare time, we play Uno. We’ve had a little sort of personal ‘tournament’ going on since about mid-January. One day we just played a friendly game together, and a few days later I challenged him to a re-match, and so on and so forth, and now we’ve played 15 games! For a while there, it was neck-and-neck: he’d win one, then I’d catch up to tie him, then he’d pull ahead again.

But about a week ago, I finally caught up to tie him, then on the next game I took the lead! Three games later, I’m ahead 9 games to six. We’ve only got a week and a half left, so he’s got some hard work ahead of him if he’s going to beat me before this contract is through. Good luck, Vasile – bring it on!!!

Sun, Feb 25th – 2 weeks to go!

Same itinerary as last week and next week. This week I intend to start mailing some stuff home (stuff that won’t fit in my 2 suitcases), making phone call and email arrangements for my 6-weeks stay in Bossier, and ravishing my skin with the Caribbean tan I should have been collecting all along the way. Why do we always insist on leaving things to the last minute?

Here’s the route:
Monday – Key West, FL
Tuesday – Sea Day
Wednesday – Belize City, Belize
Thursday – Santo Tomas de Castillo, Guatemala
Friday – Costa Maya, Mexico
Saturday – Sea Day
Sunday – Tampa, FL

Thurs, Feb 22nd – Guatemalan sunset

It seems like the sunset in Guatemala is more and more beautiful every single time we sail from here. I’ve learned to bring my camera to dinner, just to be able to capture moments like this.

P.S. I got my coffee. ;)

Mon, Feb 19 – Starbucks in Key West

I experienced an extraordinary phenomenon today, I think.

As I was leaving the ship today, I had only one thing on my mind. One mission. One sole task to accomplish before I came back to the ship to endure another 7-day Western Caribbean tour, not to return to the United States until Sunday.

I wanted STARBUCKS.

What is it about this chain that attracts us like moths to the flame? What is it about their particular brand of coffee that makes us willing to shell out exorbitant prices for a simple drink made from beans, dressed with milk, cream, sugar, and spices that is way too high in calories and far too low in actual nutrients? A drink which provides the temporary satisfaction of great flavor and the longer-term (though too quickly worn off) effects of caffeination?

All I knew was that I had $5 in my pocket and I wanted a ‘Venti Pumpkin Spice Latte, non-fat, no whip.’ The name was repeating in my sub-conscious like the one line of a song that you can’t get out of your head.

On my way down the gangway, the US Coast Guard fellows were making polite conversation and asked me where I was going, since I obviously didn’t look like the rest of the wide-eyed tourists laden with cameras and beach bags. “Starbucks,” was the only word I uttered. Their subtle response of silent surprise and amusement entreated me to expound, “I want coffee.”

Eager to help, the first guardsman pointedly offered, “If you want good coffee, there’s a little coffee place right over there that serves great Guatemalan coffee, better than Starbucks.” The latter name he muttered with a bit of growl to show his preference for the former.

Already a few steps off the gangway and into the square, I stopped to turn back over my shoulder and smile at him, thanking him for his recommendation, but quipping, “If I want Guatemalan coffee, I’ll get it fresh IN Guatemala on Thursday. Today I’m in the United States… and so I want American Starbucks.”

And that was the end of that.

Sun, Feb 18th – Three weeks to go!

That’s right folks! Just 21 days to go until I’m home again!
I’ve done 65 cruises in 10 months, and I’ve got three left to go, starting with this one…

Monday – Key West, FL
Tuesday – Sea Day
Wednesday – Belize City, Belize
Thursday – Santo Tomas de Castillo, Guatemala
Friday – Costa Maya, Mexico
Saturday – Sea Day
Sunday – Tampa, FL

Sat, Feb 17th – Preparing to say good-bye

One of the saddest parts of ship life is saying goodbye to your friends. When you live in an oversized, floating tin can that contains your bedroom, your kitchen, your recreation, the only local nightlife, your library, all the shops you need, your coffee hangout, and of course your WORK, it’s easy to make very close friends with other people very fast. You see these people hanging out while you work, working where you hang out, dining where you dine, going to watch the same entertainment you go to see, and walking home to a door that’s literally only ten feet away from yours.

But just as my contract is for a prescribed amount of time, so is theirs. All of us are here to enjoy our time to the fullest extent, but that makes endings seem so jarring and almost unexpected. Time on a ship is one of the most inexplicable things I’ve ever encountered. One day can feel like a week, a week-long cruise goes by too fast, days of the week are named in terms of locations where we’ll be ported, but at the end of six months, it almost feels like you just pick up right where you left off the last time you were on land.

For whatever reason, this weekend is a popular contract-end date. So is my sign-off date, March 11, and the week after that, March 18th. I would venture to say about 65% of the crew will turn over between now and then, in the next four weeks. The ship’s itinerary is about to cross the ocean in a few months, so that the turnaround port will be Rome instead of Tampa, so I suppose it’s cheaper for the company to fly people out of the US than Italy, and that’s why so many of us are slotted to leave now.

So, many of us are preparing to say ‘goodbye.’ This is never a fun task for me; in fact, I’m quite terrible at it, and avoid it as much as possible. I’d rather let someone go with “catch ya ‘round” like I normally do, expecting I’ll see them in a few hours at the dining room or in the gym working out. But if I don’t happen to see them again before they leave the ship for good the next morning, I’ve been spared the agony of trying to say, “Goodbye,” as if it might be the last time I’ll ever see them.

Such is the case with more than a few of my good friends this weekend. Now, granted, I call them “good friends” because we’ve spent such intensely close time together in the past few weeks… months… we’ve shared community gossip, work woes, personal trials, and adventures in strange countries. But the truth is that I really might not ever see some of these people again. They are from Europe, Africa, Australia, and Asia. Even if we both return to ships for our next contract, the chances that we’ll end up on the same ship again are slim. And the chances of one of us visiting the other person’s country EXCEPT on a ship are even slimmer.

I don’t like saying ‘goodbye,’ so I don’t. Tonight, I will make a point of avoiding all the popular places like the laundry room, the crew human resources office, and the nightly hotspot, the OB, anywhere there might be a ‘last-chance’ party going on. And in the morning, my mind will prevent me from recalling that I won’t be passing by them anymore until that wretched moment when I pass by their replacement who came onboard the same day they left and realize it. Only then will I allow myself to mourn the disappearance of my friend.

Some of these “close friends” will be good about keeping up with emails and if I’m lucky, a phone call here or there. Most of them will simply close the door and move on. But the heartstrings remain intact, regardless of how thinly they are pulled.

The great thing about ship life is meeting and getting to know so well, so many world-class people from every corner of the globe. The hardest thing about ship life is letting them go.

Thurs, Feb 15th – Black and White Ball II

Another two-week cruise means another Black and White Officers’ Ball. And once again, my voice somehow MIRACULOUSLY came back just enough for me to make it through this set. We even added some new songs just sent by the home base in L.A.: Begin the Beguine, Beyond The Sea, and I’ve Got the World On A String. The whole night was a huge success, and everyone had a lot of fun.

But the one thing I DON’T like about singing for these events is that I never get to dance! This is my favorite kind of dancing - ballroom - but there was never more than a one-song break for me, so I had to content myself to work and watch everyone else have fun…

That is until the party moved out of the Rubens’ Lounge and up into the Crow’s Nest, where DJ Geno was spinning some killer tunes! He did an awesome job of catering to the crowd’s clamoring, and that meant a lot more partner dances! I got to dance with Tim, Andrew, Emile, and lots with Ben. There was swing dancing, cha-chas, rumbas, salsas, foxtrots, one waltz, and even a bit of tango! At about 1 AM most of the crowds had cleared out, but Ben and I decided that, since we were the last couple standing at the previous B&W Ball, we would do it again!

We worked up quite a sweat, but DJ Geno kept pace the whole time. By about 2 AM, we were the last couple dancing, but a few guests and one officer still remained at the bar. We decided to outlast them all – and by 2:15 we’d accomplished our mission!

Here are some great memories!


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Wed, Feb 14th – Oranjestad, Aruba

It didn’t take long for me to figure that while Aruba is one of the more recognizable island names of the Caribbean, it is not much more than that. There isn’t much history to this island, and when I got off the ship this morning to see if I couldn’t nose my way into some sort of natural bliss, I only discovered that I should have stayed home.

Aruba is clearly a commercialized version of what probably used to be a beautiful vacation destination. The beaches are the last remnant of soil that doesn’t have a building or a road on it, and even they are owned to the last acre by resorts who all want to charge exorbitant prices for you to set your towel out and just watch the waves.

From all that I read, there are a few notable exceptions. You can hire a taxi to take you to see: 1 - one little church (the first established church on the island from YEAR) which isn’t much more than a barely-upkept one-room rectangle with a roof; 2 – a large working windmill which was first used in Holland and then disassembled and shipped here (after Aruba officially became a part of the Dutch West Indies); 3 - a lighthouse, which is said to be the saving grace of the coral reefs, which are “protected” from the hundreds of cruise boats that visit this island every year.

However, clearly the cruise boats (and the DOLLARS they bring) are VERY welcome. Peddlers in fancified shops for miles and miles sell the same tourist-trap trinkets and wares that every other island sells, all for a “bargain” price that, for some reason, tourists can never seem to pass up.

Towels, swimsuits, sunglasses, t-shirts, jewelry made from shells, jewelry made from rocks, real jewelry made from gemstones at “tax and duty free” prices. With the blazing sun penetrating my t-shirt to aggravate my snorkel sunburn from yesterday, all I wanted was a few postcards and to say, “Yes, I’ve been here.”

So here it is! Proof that the Veendam was indeed in Aruba, and that I was off the ship, and put my feet on the island. “I’ve been here!”

Tue, Feb 13th - Kralendijk, Bonaire

Bonaire, the “B” in the Dutch Antilles group known as the ABC islands, is about 50 miles north of Venezuela. The diving here is among the absolute BEST in the Caribbean, with pristine reefs and wonderful visibility, as there are no rivers to muddy the waters and it is out of the hurricane belt. To keep it that way, the entire island’s ocean boundary is a protected marine park. In fact, the city in which we port today, Kralendijk (KRAW-len-dyke), actually means “coral reef.”

The salt pans reveal Bonaire’s geological history. At one time, much of the land was submerged. As the sea level dropped, saltwater pools were trapped in the low-lying valleys. When the waters dried up, the salt remained, and the earliest settlers harvested this essential commodity in the days before refrigeration, Today it’s Bonaire’s #1 export. White cone shapes are often seen along the distant horizon – these are the stockpiles created from the mining of the salt.



And the animal population far outnumbers the human population here – lizards, goats, mules, and several populations of indigenous bats. But the island is most famous for its native flamingo population. (See the salt mountains in the background?) Flamingoes thrive in the coastal wetlands – as many as 10,000 of the brilliant pink creatures are easiest to spot in the salt flats on the southern part of the island, early in the morning. The graceful (nervous) animals are fond of brine shrimp and fly larvae that thrive in the brackish ecosystem, mostly in the first half of the year.

Today I got together with a bunch of friends to go snorkeling see some of this incredible coral reef. That’s Ben, Heather, and Kelsey, sitting on the pier waiting for Mark, Darren, and Christine to join us.

From the western coast of the island, at the port of Kralendijk, we all piled into a minibus that took us to Lac Bay on the eastern coast, to a little beach called Sorobon. What we didn’t know until we got there was that the Wind & Surf Resort we were headed to was right next door to a naturalist resort! I had to be careful using my camera on the beach to avoid the naked kayakers and nude windsurfers.

This is the view from the beach! I’ve been in the Caribbean long enough now (10 months!) to be bored of blue water. But the water here is beyond blue --- it’s CLEAR! The sand is completely white, and settled. There are hardly any winds or riverways to stir up the sediment, so even when the water is waist-high, you can see straight through to your toes! Even the sky looks bluer next to this water! The dark spots you see out there are bushes of seagrass, and that winding gap through the middle is the beginning of the path that we take to get out to the coral reef.

It’s about a half-mile walk straight out to this raft on the edge of the coral reef. You can see how far we are from the beach. The water is shallow enough to walk the entire way, then you sit on the raft and put on your fins and your snorkel mask, lay down in the water and start paddling and exploring!

I am AMAZED at how many fish there are out here! They don’t seem to be bothered by us at all. Right here under the raft, right away, there are hundreds of thousands of these little silver fish, apparently feasting on the plankton that grows on the bottom of the raft. Unfortunately for them, there are also a couple of larger fish feasting on them!

There were so many things to take pictures of, my friend Ben completely missed this school of black and blue fish that swam right past his legs at just a slow, leisurely pace.

The coral reefs harbor the plankton that the fish eat, so this place is really like a huge restaurant where all the world’s celebrity fish drop in for a bite! There’s so many different kinds, it’s a bit of sensory overload!

This coral was so cool swishing in the waves, but even cooler was what was hiding under it, in that dark crevice…

… this puffer fish! Look on his top-side, you can see all of his little spines laying down. We kept trying to scare him to get him to puff up, but he was content to just sit under the coral and stare back at us.

I love the way this coral looks like it’s reaching out its arms to the heavens.

Ben called this a “trunkfish.” I saw three or four of them, always swimming by themselves. At first they sort of look like puffer fish, so I kept chasing them, but I never could get a good picture of one from the front…

This black angelfish looked huge from the side, but from the front it was thin as a pancake!

The edges and spots on these two fish are electric blue – it seems almost fictional! God is so creative!

A beautiful combination of pink with yellow edges.

All shades of blue with yellow triangles on the tails.

These fish are seriously RAINBOW colored! Check out the one coming out of the coral with blue lips and eyelids, red and orange face, and green body trimmed with yellow – God spilled the paint on this one!

A school of “Dorys” go looking for Nemo!

Mon, Feb 12th - Isla de Margarita, Venezuela

Ok, so once again I woke up with a coughing fit – not good for a singer. And once again, I decided I had to at least go into town (which requires the extra effort of tendering today) to get some postcards and pictures and say, “I was here.” After all, this island technically is part of Venezuela, and so this is my chance to see South America…

And once again, my day went a little farther than planned…..

No sooner had I stepped up the tender pier and spotted a nearby store that might have postcards, than I was surprised to see last night’s guest entertainer, Tian Jiang (an AMAZING concert pianist) running up to me, asking me to come along on a tour. For only $25, a 4x4 Jeep and a tour guide would take us all over the island, in four hours, showing us all the highlights it had to offer. His group of three needed a fourth person in order to take off. What can I say… it was too good to pass up.

Actually, having done a bit of homework the night before, I was actually interested in the possibility of seeing the religious center of the island, called El Valle del Espiritu Santo. There is a fascinating legend behind their patron saint, and so I asked if the other people on the tour would like to go there also. Well, as it turns out, the pianist and I were joined by none other than the ship’s chaplain and his wife, Sue. So it wasn’t hard to agree – and off we went!

Margarita is the largest of Venezuela’s 72 islands in the Caribbean. Just 25 miles northeast of the South American continent that spawned it, Isla Margarita is divided into two sections that are linked by a 7-mile long isthmus. The mountains of the eastern part catch most of the clouds and receive all the rainfall, making the land lush, green and fertile.

The western part, Peninsula de Macanao (mack-a-NOW), gets what little rain is leftover, and has slowly turned to dusty sweeping deserts, leaving it sparsely populated. This is where the cruise ships port, and that’s why you need a 4x4 jeep to get to the good parts.

After we all decided that none of us were interested in shopping or visiting the beaches, and that we all wanted to see mountain views and historical stuff, our first stop was El Valle del Espiritu Santo, the Valley of the Holy Spirit. Established by Isabel Manrique de Villalobos in 1529, El Valle was Isla de Margarita’s first capital.

The Virgin Margarita, patron saint of the island is reverently displayed at the church. According to legend, in the 16th century the statue of the virgin Margarita had been bound for Peru, but was inadvertently offloaded at nearby Cubagua Island. A prophecy foretold of an earthquake and subsequent tsunami destined to strike the island, and the frightened residents evacuated, statue in hand, to Margarita island.

She was given credit for the blessed miracle of helping them to escape the storm, and since then, thousands of pilgrims have arrived to pray and ask her for favors. The stained-glass windows of the church depict the facets of her tale.

(Again, I’m hopelessly enamored with the exquisite detail and color in stained glass.) Here, a more detailed look at the handicapped, wheelchair-bound, even the little children who have journeyed from far away places to kneel at her altar and ask for healing.

Even Pope John Paul II visited the site and consecrated the virgin as patron saint of the Venezuelan Navy in 1995.

Another legend tells of a fisherman who had been attacked by a stingray, severely injuring his leg. He came to pray to the Virgin, promising to bring her the first pearl he found if she would only heal his leg. When he recovered, he set out to fulfill his promise. To his great surprise, the first pearl he found (“la milagro de la pierna de perla”) resembled a human leg. The pearl itself is now on display at the nearby Diocesan Museo.

See the three sailing ships on the right near the bottom? The Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria. Here, Saint Margarita blesses Columbus’ expeditions.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit endow the blessed Margarita with sainthood.

Bear with me – I cannot get over how gorgeous this is!

The patron saint watches over the island blessed with her name. Unfortunately, the vandals were able to desecrate a bit of the window near the bottom.

Just outside the church, vendors display tables upon tables of the country’s #1 export: pearls. Loose or stringed, bracelets or necklaces, on charms, set into rings, or posted as earrings, every shape and size and color can be purchased here.

After leaving La Valle, we continued up the mountainside to the national park El Cerro Copei. At an altitude of 1200 feet above sea level, you get a great view of the island’s current capital, Porlamar, which means “next to the sea.” Of Isla Margarita’s half-million population, half of those live in the capital of Porlamar.

I’ve tried to make the picture as clear for you as possible. Look close! 25 miles to the south, across the Atlantic Ocean, you can see the outline of mountains on the mainland of South America!!!
Yes, folks, I made it to my third continent!!!

Later in the ride: a mountaintop view of Playa El Humo. On the farthest outlet of the coastline, there on the right, you can see a red and white lighthouse at the top of a hill.

These round fruits that look like un-ripened oranges are called ‘breadfruit.’ The land here is too hard to grow potatoes, and too hot to grow pineapples. But the breadfruit that grows naturally here serves as a citrus-flavored starch substitute. Many Italian immigrants were welcomed in Venezuela in the 1940s, and have had a great influence on the food and language today. When I asked if I could try one, I was told, “If you can reach one.” (I didn’t try.)

Venezuelans are very passionate about their politics. The elections for president happened last December, but everywhere you go, icons of the election still remain. This sign in particular was prevalent, hailing the re-elected Chavez as “Victoria de Venezuela.” (winner for Venezuela) The chant in the white bubble with the red outline is like a stamp that a child got ahold of and plastered on every blank space on a wall, building, door, or billboard. It says, “Uh! Ah! Chavez no se va!” which is the people’s way of reiterating that he’s not going anywhere, not going to be unseated by another opponent, in this case Rosales.

Another breathtaking view: this is Playa El Agua.

The Castillo de Santa Rosa, rising above the land-locked city of La Asuncion harbors another tale of female heroism. Luisa Caceres de Arismendi, visibly pregnant, was imprisoned in the castle’s jail for sixteen years, refusing to divulge her husband’s hiding place to colonial authorities. There is a tunnel leading from the center of the castle to the church below in the city.

The view of La Asuncion shows you just how far this “fort” is from the sea. Political leaders of the age built it here on the highest hill in the city to assert their authority to the townspeople. The castle was never used to protect the distant harbor.

Fishing is the number one occupation on this island. When children are young, teachers have a very hard time keeping them in school, because it is a well-known fact that fishermen here earn daily what most educated men earn in a week.

Four hours later, we felt thoroughly educated ourselves. It was time to head home, but not before I got my postcards. I was also able to talk to some locals about their money, their exchange rate and the price of gas, and this is when I got my biggest shock of the day. I had seen signs at three BP stations that asked 60 Bolivares for a liter of unleaded gas. The exchange rate is 2150 Bolivares to $1 US.


Folks! That’s 2.7 cents per liter or TEN cents per gallon!!!! (Maybe WE need to think of electing Chavez!)