I am here and alive!!

I made it to Venezuela as well as to IVIC with no problems. The first night off the airplane I met up with Linda and Becky, who are also in my class, and we all went to Macuto which is a costal town near Caracas to a hotel. It was nice there but quite urban. The following day we went to Puerto Colombia, which is another costal town, near Maracay, west of Caracas. THis was a very nice fishing and tourist village with a gorgeous beach, and friendly people. It is also quite safe. It was very interesting because there was a lot of Jaimaica clothes and colors there, it felt like a jaimaica wanna be town, with a lot of hippies walking around and the beach full of tent in the evening.

We spent two days there, enjoying the sun and working on our spanish. Luckily one of the girls I was which is a quite proficient spanish speaker, and was able to help us out a lot.

On Satureday we left Puerto Colombia (sad because on Sat. there is a big drumming festival all day long, basically think blissfest on the beach) and headed, by way of a bus to Maracay and then a bus to Los Teques and then another bus through Los Teques and then another bus to IVIC, to the Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificos. It is a beautiful huge patch of land on top of a mountain, which a gorgeous view of mountians and Caracas from a distance. ITs also very safe, bdcause there are constant guards at all entrences.

Classes don’t start until tomorrow, so I have spent most of today gettting to know my new class-mates and looking at cool plants, which I don’t know anything about!

Unfortunately I’m not yet sure I will be able to download pictures at all but I will try!