The Waterstraut Waterspout: Venezuela

Another Monday, another week catching up on blogs and waiting for Calib while he goes to class. We've been keeping up a good pace for November (or at least we were-- Calib, Peyton and I were in San Diego Tuesday thru Sunday morning-- and I'll get to that blog soon), but I'm not keeping up a great pace on getting the blogs up.

For our next country were headed to South America for Venezuela. Venezuela has recently been in the news for the unrest in the country.

To give you an idea of where the hostility comes from, I'm lifting a brief overview from the link above:

"Venezuela is split into Chavistas, the name given to the followers of the socialist policies of the late President Hugo Chavez, and those who cannot wait to see an end to the 18 years in power of his United Socialist Party (PSUV).After the socialist leader died in 2013, Nicolas Maduro, also of the PSUV, was elected president on a promise to continue Mr Chavez's policies.

Chavistas praise the two men for using Venezuela's oil riches to markedly reduce inequality and for lifting many Venezuelans out of poverty.But the opposition says that since the PSUV came to power in 1999, the socialist party has eroded Venezuela's democratic institutions and mismanaged its economy."

The article gives a good overview, but that article is from May. In October, elections were held. But, to nobody's surprise, when Nicolas Maduro still won, many Venezuelans accused the government of election fraud.

Add to that, a looming debt crisis as the country defaults on it's loans, and you sort of have a mess. It's really a strange story. The kids travel book that we use was published in September of 2015. It says 'Venezuela is one of the richest countries on the continent'. It's true, two years ago it was the richest economy in South America, and today they are on the brink of financial collapse.

It's no surprise that there's an official U.S. Department of State Travel Warning. But, this one is a little different than the one's we usually see. It sites violent crime, food and medicine shortages and civil unrest. Caracas, the capital, is considered the 'most dangerous city in the world.' There are 120 murders per 100,000 people.

It's a shame it isn't very safe to visit, Venezuela has a lot to offer in terms of things to see and experience. For our landmark we picked the highest waterfall in the world, Angel Falls. To give you an idea, this one is 19 times the height of Niagara Falls.

The waterfall is named after Jimmie Angel, the first person to fly over the falls. The falls are so remote, they weren't known to the outside world until 1933 when the aviator found them. Unless you're prepared to trek through miles and miles of jungle, you have to pre-book a flight to see the falls. But, you will be rewarded with multiple rainbows. The spray and moisture from the falls is so intense, you can count dozens of rainbows at once.

Oh, and fun fact: Angel Falls is the inspiration for 'Paradise Falls' in the movie Up (and suddenly that whole aviator thing makes sense!) Adventure is Out There!

Angel Falls isn't the only Venezuelan landmark to inspire something in popular culture. Mount Roraima is the world's most recognizable tepui (a mountain that looks like a table-top) It's believed to be in the inspiration for the novel 'The Lost World'.

In other natural events in Venezuela, I present to you Lake Maracaibo. About 150 nights a year, for up to ten hours a night, the lake is pummeled with thunderstorms. There are over 1.2 million lightning strikes there a year.

Other fun Venezuelan facts:

If you're someone who can never see to be on time, Venezuela is the place for you. Locals are usually at least 15 minutes late. If you show up somewhere on time, they think you're greedy.

In the town of Merida, you'll find an ice cream shop that sells the largest number of different ice cream flavors in the world. There are 900 different flavors, and they are most unusual. There's trout, chili, mac and cheese, avocado and black bean among others.

Oh, and one more thing. Venezuela is also home to one of my favorite animals- the Capybara!These guys are the largest rodent in the world (they grow up to 4 feet long and weigh about 100 pounds). They're super tame and awesome. But, you can only legally have them as a pet in Pennsylvania (ahem, Joanne!) and Texas. You MAYBE could have them other places, but you'd have to consult your legislature, and you'd need multiples. Because they like to be together. They also need water to swim in (they're semi-aquatic), and you're going to have to watch your stuff- because they do like to chew.

I actually had never seen one in person until we were at the San Diego zoo. (It's not the best of pictures- but my camera stopped working and I had to rely on the boys cell phones -since my front camera is cracked). But, I did see one!

Venezuela was a lunch meal. We've been having to do those a lot lately in order to keep up our average. It helps me try and find some different things anyway. I still had a Colombian drink (that I had forgotten about for Columbia day) in the 'secret pantry', and since they're neighbors, I figured it would work. We also found some plantain chips at Publix, and had some South American cookies with Dulce de Leche from Trader Joes.

But our main dish was Venezuelan hot dogs. You can click on the link, but basically the sauce is a ketchup/mayo combo. You top it with white onions, shredded green cabbage, white crumbly cheese, and potato sticks (if you can't find the sticks-- they do have them at Publix-you could just use potato chips).

This one earned four spoons up.

Peyton obviously had his hot dog minus the ketchup/mayo, since he does not, under any circumstances (ok, well one circumstance- on a cuban if it's mixed in well enough with the mustard he can't tell it's there)- eat mayo. But, even without that he didn't care for it.

None of us were a big fan of the plantain chips, and I think on country number 142, I've finally decided to stop trying to get my family to like plantains in any form. But the rest of the meal was good, and something a little different, but not too different to turn everyone off to it.

We did the lesson later in the day, and then the boys made their postcards.