This time next year
I really like to know what's coming up around the corner in life. The one way I've found I can control this is to plan future trips to far away places. When one vacation has ended, on the trip home I'm usually planning the next. I'm relieved that we now have a trip set up, though its a year from now. Sharon and I will be joined by her two sons and their partners at the very spot where this scene took place:



Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii. If we're lucky we'll see a Humuhumunukunukuapuaa. We have one year to learn how to pronounce that.

.............................

And hopefully not unlucky enough to get a case of Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.

  posted by John : 10:42 AM

 
Reindeer games


  posted by John : 1:14 PM

 
Gaitas = Christmas


In December in Venezuela, like here, Christmas decorations go up and seasonal music is played everywhere. A big part of their seasonal music are Gaitas, tropical tunes played on a set of instruments unique to this style of music - like drums that are tapped with the butt-end of a stick. This is music from Maracaibo, the second largest city in Venezuela, the capital of the state of Zulia. Listen to the song Venite Pa' Maracaibo, by Guaco.

  posted by John : 6:08 AM

 
Colonia Tovar
A week ago Sunday, five of us rode in a Ford Explorer a couple of hours west from Caracas. There, nestled in the hills about halfway between the coast and the freeway to Valencia, lies Colonia Tovar. Settled by Bavarians in 1843.

For several years this town followed the mother culture, language and architecture. Inclusive it was prohibited the marriages outside of the colony, until in 1940 the Spanish language was declared as official language and the practice of marriages among colonists it was abandoned. The history of the town changed significantly in 1963 when a sealed road reached to Colonia Tovar from Caracas.

Slideshow Photo Album

Tovar is one of a kind in Venezuela, though similar fairy-tale towns of Europeans exist elsewhere. Last year Sharon and I went to Solvang, California - a town of Danish heritage. Someday we'll make our way to Racine, Wisconsin, which claims to have the largest concentration of Danish decendants in North America. The O&H Bakery there has developed an excellent last minute Christmas gift option - Kringle of the Month.

  posted by John : 4:53 AM

 
Mi Tasca
Tonight was a memory maker. Five of us went to the Caracas Leones (Lions) vs La Guaira Tiburones (Sharks) baseball game. They're both home teams, because the Tiburones original stadium, along with much of the town of La Guaira, which is on the coast on the other side of the mountain from Caracas, was destroyed by a mudslide in 1999. The rivalry between the two teams seemed pretty strong, but very friendly. I noticed a couple where the man wore Leones and his wife wore Tiburones outfits. The Leones had the lead for the first few innings, so we sang their theme song: Leo leo leo (to the tune of Olé olé olé olé). Then the Tiburones scored seven runs in the fifth inning and the Sharks fans and their samba drum crew took over in the stands.

The stadium is near our old stomping grounds of Sabana Grande, which is comparatively the crappy part of town. So we visited a favourite tasca there after the game. Sat at the bar and very quickly raised attention all around ... the guy across from us upon hearing where we were from began to praise George Bush. While the drunk at the far end of the bar began making anti-American statements. The two of them nearly got into a fist fight, but somebody broke it up. Things improved from there and we sang christmas carols in our two languages, then later the guitar player passed me his instrument and I played whatever popular songs in english I could remember the words to on short notice. I tried to stop and pass it back after one song, but people pushed it back to me and asked for more. I forced it back to them and the Venezuelan guy played some great folksongs in all kinds of styles. I responded with some Hank Williams. Peace was brokered, and a good time was had by all.

Back at the hotel, I caught the end of a the special-olympics episode of South Park, in Spanish (63MB avi.

  posted by John : 9:40 PM

 
El Avila


View from the hotel of the city and "El Avila", the mountain that separates Caracas from the sea. Its a national park, with lots of trails and a 4km teleferico (cable car) ride up to the top. There was a 7km teleferico on the other slope, down to the coast built in the late 1950s, but it doesn't operate any more.

  posted by John : 3:05 PM

 
Turkey 1986
The other day it was pretty cold out, for Texas standards anyway, so we went to the movies and saw an odd double bill - Borat and Happy Feet. Later I read about the guy from Izmir, Turkey, who we all remember from his bizarre little web page many years ago and who is now charging that the Borat character's traits were stolen from his own (link). Not a claim to make proudly. This has me wondering, what ever happened to Nihat, the guy I met in Istanbul in 1986, who called me out of the blue the following summer in Toronto asking me to find someone to marry him within 24 hours. Only thing returned from a Google search is someone in Asia seeking "Tomato Paste and White Garlic" for their business. Something tells me that's got to be him, so I've sent an email which hasn't bounced back as undeliverable yet.

Why do I want to get in touch with him now ? I can't help but be curious to hear what's become of this guy in the last 20 years. Back then we exchanged quite a few postcards, he wrote in English and unknowingly coined a handy new conjunction: I'pe (short for I hope, as in "I'pe you and your family are happy"). When I saw him in Toronto - I think we were driving around trying to find a wife somewhere - he told me how earlier in his visit to Canada he'd helped two Bulgarian wrestlers defect at a tournament in Vancouver. All true as I later found news articles about this that mentioned his name. In Istanbul we watched a World Cup game at his house, where he lived with his mother. He showed us samples of the many towels that he was exporting at the time. He brought cans of tomato soup to us at our decrepid hotel to help get over some illness we'd contracted. A nice guy, outgoing, bold, and bound to get into more adventures that I would love to hear about.

  posted by John : 10:09 AM

 
Frostweed 2006


  posted by John : 6:30 AM