I had more pictures, but these assholes threatened me, so I had to erase them.

This time I kept a safe distance.

A more peaceful and positive crowd

This is a tiny crowd compared to what I saw in Caracas. Fuck the 3 million Chavistas that didn't vote. Cowards

I've been witness to a lot of events covered by the news. I've been to student opposition "protests," which were nothing but small gangs of morons that wanted to throw rocks and bottles. The cops were the ones to be harassed. I saw it. I've been to Chavista marches and saw Chavez speak, twice, not to mention the dozens of hours I've heard on TV. Everything I read online or saw on TV was lies. I listened to Chavez in person, so I know that his words were twisted. You can see all the great things that are happening because of Chavez. They never mention that. The economy is stronger, there is less crime, free medicine, real freedom, unlike back in the U.S. I know. I'm fucking here.
As for you dumbasses who are here and still don't believe it. I've talked to so many anti-chavistas. They talk so much crap. I check up on what they say. I go see things they tell me about. They are full of crap. They are so full of fear from news organizations that make Fox News look fair and balanced. I could tell you things that I've heard that would make you roll on the floor laughing. The simple truth is that they are afraid of losing their amassed wealth, most of it made by stealing land and opressing the poor. That Pipo guy I said was so nice is sitting on tons of stolen land if not from indigenous people, then his own family. The government protects private property, that is legitimate. No one can take your home no matter how much money you owe banks or the government. However, if you are sitting on tons of fucking land with no deed or without putting it to any use, than it shouldn't be yours.
A lot of my frustration comes from the sheer quantity of information I want to share with everyone. I could write a book about it. In the end no one really cares about Venezuela or will argue with dumb shit they hear on TV. Being human sucks. Bunch of dumb assholes. You're all fucking doomed to be slaves.
My plan. Take all you dumb, superficial, consumerist, selfish, uncaring assholes and put you on one side of the planet. Then take everyone else and put them on the other side and keep them seperated. I suggest We keep the Americas and either Africa or Asia. They can have the rest. Wait, the poor are 90% of the world. The asshole only get Europe, not including Eastern Europe.

Messege to Venezuelans

It came so close. It was a tense wait. Finally after one in the morning the news came. No won by 1.4%. 3 million Chavistas abstained and the opposition gained a few hundred thousand votes.
Now, the only thing I have to say to the people of this country is that you could have had something great, but you're too dumb to realize it.

bleh

should have taken the picture before I ate the food.

Parque nacional el resinga. mangrove lagoon

i can sit here, write and post photos or i can drink a beer and enjoy the weather, hmmm... tough one. i don't think anyone reads this anyway. sorry, blogs are stupid anyway. if i'm bored i'll update. send me emails people and i'll have motivation to write.

Uprising of Sausages and Hotdogs

The farm

So here's the rest. I can't wait to go back to the farm. Hopefully I can go back. Pipo promised me some quick motorcycle lessons and then I can ride around town to my heart's content. We'll see. That, and I want to eat guama so bad. It's a South American fruit that I've had a craving for the last 14 years. I will not leave until I have a guama.

I have so many thoughts pent up inside me right now. I would love to write more, but I get so lazy about it. It turns out being a short spurt of inane ramblings.
I'm still not done painting this apartment. In a week or to I'll be in Colombia, though. I'm nervous about taking my camera, so there might not be any pictures. Not that anyone really cares, but I like to pretend I have a loyal audience. That just made me laugh. I wonder why I even put this blog up. I hate blogs that aren't very interesting and I doubt I keep anyone enthralled with these pictures. I'm basically masturbating here. Maybe I'm just waiting for the moment a lot of crazy shit happens and so I can tell eveyone about it. I'm going about this all wrong. I think my intentions were to just have a travel diary that people could see and comment on if they felt like it.

Nuff said.

This is Pipo in his banana plantation. His farm is humongous. It shouldn't be hard to figure out his political opinions. He's still a very nice and generous person.

My aunt and I forget her name. She lives with Pipo's mom. She's 22 and a highschool teacher.

I took one of these home with me. We still have most of the bananas. Here they call them cambures. I also brought home a big nasty tick. That flower is huge.

Only a tiny fraction of his banana trees.

Another dog doing his thing. No one telling him what to do.

Making a new water trough for the cows.

One of the farmworkers houses on the property. The little kid lives on a hill with cows and horses and plants all around. not bad

This is the house with the little kid

Pipo's farm

I went to my mom's friend's farm in Chigüara. I got a lot f mostly crappy photos. It's too bright here and it was really hot that day. I was so hot I couldn't resist an invitation to a few beers on a roadside bar/produce stand. I was still taking Metronidasol for amoeabas, but I didn't care. Later, after four beers, Pipo called his doctor friend to ask about the contraindications of the mixture. To my luck, those pills are also given to alcoholics, so that they won't drink. The mixture gives you hives and a rash all over your body. Nothing happened though and I enjoyed a nice buzz during the drive home.  Pipo then stopped by a hamburger stand and invited me to one of the better burgers I've had. It was a good day.

I'll post a few photos at a time because I'm not in the mood to upload them all at once.

This sweet looking dog was all chained up. I was warned not to get close, but I don't think they knew what they were talking about. 

I scared the bulls away. The cows were much more confident. Stereotypes. 

They told me not to get close to this little piggy as well

I ignored them

He or she was very happy to have some company and gave me some great poses

Drying corn. Probably to make flour for arepas. I don't know

Coffee machine. It does something with coffee. I should know this. I'm a bad Colombian. Fucking stereotypes

The kitchen

The dog

The horses

and a calf

stomach pain and aggrevation

Had a tube stuck down my throat and it hurt. I tried to vomit but all I could do is choke. They gave me pills to get rid of some pest. The pills hurt. I hurt. People say things that make me hurt. I try to regurgitate the information that I have been force fed, but I just choke. I just hurt. A million miles from my dearest friends. I pace back and forth in my room, then I walk down the street and back. Nothing. Everyone speaks Spanish here. I only speak Spanish here. I don't know how to say anything anymore. I just want to stroll down the empty San Francisco streets at midnight and spew random misplaced words with my homie. It doesn't matter which ones I use because he understands. The worse things happen when you have no one and nobody loves you when you're all alone. The drugs I used to take tempered my pain and eased my miscommunication. My medication now only kills everything I have inside. My life consists of a path that takes me downtown to where I search for solace and only find parasitic infestation. I walk past beautiful human beings that belong to another way. I can only mimic their actions. I can't find the words to break through to their hearts. I love this land. Psychology sessions take place on street corners and the little telephone stands that are run by dark skinned girls who wait for the next caller. There are no head shrinkers waiting in their carefully decorated offices contemplating their leather chairs. Everything beyond the bus route into town stays far from my imagination. The Andes mountains cradle and detain me. They let the sunrise shine through their peaks only for the clouds to see and translate into colors for everyone below. The steep slopes gather the rain and deliver it brown and muddy to the streets below. It's a range that holds this continent up from all the blood that weighs it down. A man once traversed it to bring people of the same ancestors together. They rejoiced and shouted, "Viva Símon," then shot at him and chased him towards their old captors. Now there is a statue of him in every square. Another man follows his footsteps, over every peak and through every vally of this tremendous beast. His followers chear and rejoice, but for how long? Now I don't wait anymore. I just exist. I look towards another sunset to relieve this pain, but it's not pain anymore. It's just a hollowness that comes from too many miles that wisped away under my feet. It also comes from the hundreds of little changes I had to adapt to every time I came to a new land. There comes a point where you meet too many people. They all blend together and disappear, a single impenetrable jungle. It was wise for Bolívar to take to the mountains, where the sharp rock cuts through all that vegetation. He could think alone and dream for himself. Simón Bolívar died with severe stomach pains that came from deserting his well bread body. He no longer wanted to be an oligarch standing on the backs of his black and native ancestors. My pain comes from another place. My body left me for not keeping it nourished. My mind was selfish and wandered in dreams. There is no finish to what I'm saying. It just ends when I take my poison and kill my pests. I'm looking up toward the morning star to bring new beginnings.

Amoeba

So My aunt thinks I have Amoebas and the doctor thinks I might have gastritis. I think amoebic dysentery sounds way more exciting. Either way I get to have a camera "eased" down my throat to check out my stomach. I better at least get a picture or a t-shirt or something.

I went to the free Cuban clinic. That's not what it's called, but it was staffed by Cuban doctors. They get their own, much nicer, wing because the Venezuelan doctors don't treat them very nicely. One way the Venezuelans protest the Chavez government is to not show up to work. They go one vacation. People like my mom, who has a very serious, potentially life threatening heart condition, can´t see specialists because they're angry and their patients aren't a priority. Who knows.

It was interesting. There were people waiting in no particular line. I asked who was last to come and made sure I went in after them. It went pretty quick even though there was only one doctor in general medicine. I still had to hang out there for the whole day because my mom and my aunt had to wait forever to see the ophthalmologist because they had to see a few emergency cases before them. People waiting were so friendly and talkative, but that's just Venezuelans in general.

That was my day. No more beer. Not allowed. It's nice that people get free medical treatment. Less stress. I fucked up my credit because I didn't have medical insurance, like millions upon millions of United Statesians. It sucks. It really does. It lowers your quality of life. So much for those basic human rights.

More Merida

old school bedroom

A little bit of downtown and some words

This is downtown Merida, at least little bits of it. It takes so god-damn long to get all these pictures ready and then come down here to upload them. I'm very selective. I'll try t put more on Flickr. It's also a trek to go downtown. I have to really want to go. I can't remember what this is. It's a statue
One of the many modes of transportation. This is not for tall people. These are busetas or camioneticas. They range from vans like this one to bigger buses like the ones that they use for free shuttles back home, like the Presidio, UCSF, etc. They´re about 30 US cents. The cool thing is you get on and a lot of the times everyone says hi. You don´t pay until you get off. You have to yell out "PARADA." The drivers are so chill. They"ll wait for someone who's across the street, unlike Muni, as most of you probably know. They"ll also stop and talk to people they know, while people honk like crazy behind them. Lot's of motorcycles in Venezuela
One of those guys that stay completely still. These guys beet them all, not because they stay really still, but because it´s fucking hot and they have all that make-up.

I love busy streets. Most of them are like this.

Cops. Here they don't have as much power. I've never seen them mess with anyone or heard of it happening. There are like 5 different types of cops, what they all do I don´t know. It's the same deal with the military. You see soldiers a lot, but Chavez has made them a community entity, meaning they work with and are here for the community. The restructuring of the country is amazing. It's going to be very similar to Cuba, I think. All the political power is in the community. There are groups in every Pedregal, which is something between a city and a neighborhood whithin a city. These groups have meetings and decide on things that need to be done and then they're done. Eventually they will replace mayors. I'm not sure of all the detils, but as I learn, I'll try to explain it better.

I'm amazed at the difference in information between here and back home. I knew we didn´t hear much, but it's insane how much we don't know. The opposition here for example. There are quite a few of them. They are made up of the upper and some of the middle class. They are puny compared to the Chavistas. Not only that, they are dirty. Every couple of days I see the stuff they do. They spew the most negative, fear-inducing garbage on their TV channels (who says there's no freedome of expression here). They got caught bringing in two busloads of paramilitary troops from Colombia to try to kill Chavez. A US lawyer came here with a bunch of legal documents that show the U.S. government sent money and helped subversive operations that were sooooooooo illegal. More than a thousand people in a bank, a big company, and in the government who are in the opposition just got caught in a huge subversive conspiracy. All the stuff that goes wrong is usually sabotage.

From what I've seen and heard, this is the truth. Whether or not Chavez is going to help the country is another story, although I've never seen so much money, work, effort go into a country solely for the public good. I could list all the things, but it would take me days. Chavez has proved himself about 19 times in different elections and referendums. He is the most democratic leader in the world, he is hardly a dictator. On top of that, I've heard that this constitution is the only one in the world to specifically and with priority ensure everyones human rights. We have the bill of rights, but not only is it vague, it is incomplete and easily manipulated.

I don't know all the facts and I can't say I'm 100% sure about everything I've said, but it's hard to hide all the good you see around you here. The only bad things I´ve seen are from greedy people who truely don't care and actually despise the poor.

As Edgar Torres always says, I jugde a society by the way it treats it's poor, it's elderly, children and infirm. I'm sure I missquoted him, but you get the gist.

Melva's Birthday

On my aunt's birthday we took a short trip to Tabay. A small town about 7 km from Merida. This place was so tiny. It was a town square surrounded by three or four blocks then green mountains spotted with farmhouses. We found this really good Colombian restaurant run by a guy from Tolima, where they make the best tamales in the world. He just moved here a couple months ago. Sadly I got sick. I think it was the tamales or the hot sauce. I've been sick for the past two days. Oh well.

Some chicks that were in the pet shop

Some hardcore looking guy. I think he works on leather. I'm not sure, but this town is full of tough looking guys.

There'll be more photos to come. I used a lot of the Tabay photos to make my own postcards. If you're lucky I'll send you one. Send me your address in case I like you. Send it to my Myspace, email, or leave a messege here.

Lazy Ass

Poor dogs, it's so warm that all you see is dogs just lying around. Another strange thing is that in the small towns the dogs do what they want. People play with them and pet them, but they roam around on their own. Merida is bigger, so nobody aproaches dogs on the street, but they don' t mess with anyone. They sleep outside the shops and find scraps to eat.

A sign in Tabay for free puppies.

After an espresso shot. It's really nasty that they serve coffee to go in plastic cups

I've come across so many dogs that apear dead. It freaks me out.

He's spying on the situation. Maybe he just wants to pounce.

He's alway at the city square, La Plaza Bolívar. There's a square like this in every city and town with a statue of Simon Bolívar in the center. In bigger cities there are more than one.