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Diane's DiaryDecember 6 Friday Day 5 of the strike. I thought this would be over a lot sooner but the opposition to Chavez seems particularly strong so I fear we may be here for a few days. It doesn't look like this will be resolved soon but frankly, I don't know how long this can last. Today 3 people were killed in Caracas so that certainly brings things up to a higher level. We are staying relatively near the boat. I did take a taxi to CM supermarket and it was very crowded. Today I went directly into the meat counter to get a number so I wouldn't have to wait to long. Even so, my number was 30 from the present one they were working on. I gave some of my laundry to Vemasca- one of the local boat chandleries- to wash. They have a deal with one of the local Laundromats. They charge 1200B per kilo for a wash, dry and fold - that's about $1US per pound. I had a very small load - maybe 1 wash and it cost about $5USD. I would rather do it myself but do it yourself laundry is difficult to find. There is one here but it has been closed since the strike started. It's a little bit of a hike to it but it's closed now anyway. I have tons of other laundry but I am waiting till the strike is over so I can do it myself. They do an OK job washing everything but don't get any stains out. Also, they over dry everything so you must be careful what you give them. December 7 Saturday Pearl Harbor Day! 61 years ago today the Japanese bombed Hawaii. Anyway, the strike continues- this is day 6. I went for a walk into town via the beach with Anna from Koncerto and John from Ocelot. I found where the do it yourself laundry is but it's closed. A lot of other stores looked closed with their gates down but we found there side entrances were opened. A marina store was a good example of this. I know the businesses must really be hurting. Anyway, Rattan supermarket opened for the first time today- but only the supermarket section. All the other areas of the store were cordoned off. There was another march scheduled for 2pm today so I wanted to be out of downtown before it started. I happened to meet some Americans staying at the Hilton- they had a scared rabbit look on their faces as one of the locals was helping them. We filled them in on some local stuff and they drove us back to the dock. We introduced them to Jak's restaurant and they had lunch while we headed back to the boat. They invited us to come use the pool at the Hilton so we arranged to go tomorrow. I think they appreciated all the help we gave them. They don't speak any Spanish so it was been difficult for them. We really feel sorry for them as who would want to be on vacation during a national strike? They can't get a flight out to go home, a sad situation. Tourism in Venezuela will surely be impacted for a long time from this strike. Anyway, I got the local English newspaper that recaps the events from the week so it was good to read about what is going on in Venezuela. We have topped off with water and fuel and are ready to leave quickly if need be. We will not even check out as we are leery we will not get our papers back immediately so it's best to just leave. Of course, another country except for the US, can deny us entry if we don't have clearance from our last port. But the French islands don't ask for clearance papers so if we can't go to Trinidad we will just go up to Martinique. We took such a long walk that I was tired and took a nap when we got back to the boat. I was able to get only about $20 USD worth of local currency from a bank ATM. I have a feeling they programmed it so it would only dispense this amount. We are low on Bolivar's but don't want to have too much on hand in case we leave. Who knows how much the currency will be worth in 3 months? My personal feeling is because of this strike, the Bolivar will be devalued again. So, even though we want to come back here it would not be wise to have too much leftover. December 8 Sunday Day 7 of the strike. Larry put a big Tupperware bowl of olives on its side and it leaked all over the aft berth. What a mess! He was furious. I defrosted the refrigerator. In the afternoon, I went swimming at the Hilton along with Ocelot and Koncerto. The pool was beautiful and had several toboggan slides which were quite fun. We even got to take showers in the Hiltons bathrooms and it felt great to have unlimited running water again. What a luxury! I hate always having to worry about how much water I am using back on the boat. John and Marcie Wakeman were very nice people and we all enjoyed the day. We got back late around 7 and I still had to make dinner. It's a good thing I had meat already marinating. December 9 Monday Day 8 of the strike. Anna on Koncerto cut our hair this morning. She lent us the October and November Caribbean Compass, as we had not seen them. This is a monthly local newspaper for all boaters in the Caribbean and we both enjoy reading it. The local domestic airplane pilots have joined the strike. Banks are only opened in the mornings only. The situation is starting to get more serious and we are thinking of leaving for Trinidad. We want to wait a few more days and see what develops. After lunch, I wrote an article for the Caribbean Compass. I made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. We haven't had that in a while. December 10 Tuesday Day 9 of the strike. I had just woken up and was sitting on the settee when someone on the VHF radio (we try to leave it on 24 hours day in case of any problems) called us. "Someone is trying to get you on the SSB radio"- I couldn't imagine who it was as all our friends know we don't start listening to it till around 8am. But it was a boat we knew slightly called "The Road". They were hit by a fishing boat between here and Los Testigos and wanted assistance from someone in Porlamar. We think our friends on S/V Kiana told them we were still here and to call us. We alerted the local net and the security net and asked everyone to stay off channel 8188 while we were in radio contact with them every hour. I had been planning on going shopping but Larry wanted to do some boat repairs so someone had to stand by the SSB to assist them every hour. In the meantime, I continued an article I was writing for the Compass on the strike in VZ. We got The Road safely into the harbor along with the assistance of 4 other dinghies. We helped them get their foresail off the furler and mainsail down as someone needed to go up the mast to do this. They did NOT feel this was a deliberate attempt to hit them but rather the fishing vessel did not see them as they had huge lights on to fish. Unfortunately, they came in around 3pm - the same time the Americans we met in the Hilton were coming over. Well, S/V Koncerto picked them up and brought them to their boat until we all arrived around 4:30pm. I gave The Road some leftover spaghetti and meatballs I had, as they had not eaten in 24 hours. We had a nice time over at Koncerto and got back to the boat around 6pm. December 11 Wednesday Day 10 of the strike. I was not feeling too well this morning so I took it easy- just some female problems. I made chicken with mushrooms and wine sauce with mozzarella cheese for dinner. The chicken in VZ is definitely not very good- it's very fatty. Ironically, chicken cutlet is the same price as lomito- now figure that one out! Lomito is definitely far superior. Anyway, I took a nap in the afternoon, as I wasn't feeling too well. December 12 Thursday Day 11 of the strike This morning we heard the strike may last until Christmas and we were very sad to hear this. We know a lot of people are seriously hurting financially over this and hope they will be able to win out over Chavez- he really must go. He really is attempting to turn the country into another Cuba. We have heard he has troops and advisors from Cuba here but don't know if that's true. Anyway, we are thinking very seriously of leaving VZ now as much as we hate too. We really were looking forward to spending Christmas with Guilio's family- we were very honored they asked us and are sad it doesn't look like it will be safe for us to go. We have truly loved VZ of all the countries we have been to so far and hate to see this all happening. The VZ people are truly the nicest we have meet in all the Caribbean. We hope everything works out for them but feel it is becoming unsafe for us to stay. We have a good weather window to leave this weekend but Larry wants to wait until Mima comes within the next several days. I don't mind waiting for them but we seem to have a good weather window now and don't know how long this window will last. The trip east is against the wind and currents so it's not an easy passage. We'll wait a few days and then see. I had a migraine headache all day. I did manage to update my logs some. December 13 Friday Day 12 of the strike. Things are starting to look very bad now and we are very seriously thinking of leaving within the next few days when Mima comes. I took a taxi to CM this morning and the store is out of a lot of food. There is no more fresh milk or juices. There is local cheese but I was told when these run out there would be no more as the factories are all closed. There seems to be lots of milk though. The store was jammed and you could hardly get down the aisle. Larry went with me and went to the Internet cafe although the computers were extremely slow and he couldn't get much done. I still had a migraine headache so after we got back and I put all the groceries away, I took a nap. The disco was on again tonight so I didn't get much sleep as it goes till the early hours of the morning. December 14 Saturday Day 13 of the strike There does not appear to be an end in sight for the strike and I am starting to get worried. No more propane gas is being delivered to the island but even though we are down one tank, we have enough to get us back to Trinidad. We cruisers are sitting ducks out here if things start to get really rough - they know we have lots of things on our boats so it may get dangerous. So far, there is plenty of gas here but not in other areas of VZ but we think this is because Margarita, being an island, probably has good reserves and since there aren't a lot of tourists, the supply is exceeding the demand for now. The USD is down to 1292 B from a high of 1500B. I spoke to someone who owns a hotel here and she said with the situation, no one is buying USD products since nothing can de delivered, so the USD has dropped. I guess it makes sense. She said after the strike is over, the USD will probably be very strong since the whole country will need products ASAP - don't think I want to stick around for that! Anyway, we will definitely be out of here in several days even if Mima doesn't show up. I went to the bank today and was lucky to get money out of the ATM. The only ones that seem to work for us from the US is Banco Mercantile on Avenida 4 de Julio- about 1-2 miles from Rattan. It's an outside ATM so it's better the go with at least one other person and have the taxi just wait. People must be getting desperate with having no paychecks for several weeks so I think we need to be very cautious now. After, we went to Rattan. I wanted to get some more meat as I think their meat and Unicasa is the best. However, when I got a number I had to wait for 30 numbers! So, I just continued shopping. The store definitely is out of a lot of things. The fruits and vegetables didn't look too good but then again I do not like to buy that here as they never seem to look good. The supermarket portion of the store was the only part that is opened. All that Christmas merchandise just sitting there- I feel bad for the retailers also. Plus, the kids won't have a Christmas so that will be very sad. Larry stayed at the boat and got fuel for the jerry cans. Who knows when or if we will ever be coming back to the VZ we know and love? We hope so! He also got water and cleaned the waterline. We are getting ready to sail within the next few days. |