the road to El Pauji

First off, sorry for the lack of photos; i tried to upload some last week and after 1/2 hour of waiting I gave up. So you might have to wait until I´m out of Santa Elena and in a city with better internet for some pics... but there will be some I promise!!

This past weekend I went to a small village called El Pauji. It was quite the gong show!! So, 7 of us loaded up into a small 2-seater jeep with all of our hammocks and crap and food and beer and rum, etc. I had the good fortune to be sitting in the back, with 3 others on a pile of bags... with every bump in the road I was afraid I was going to fall out!!

I guess first I should say some things about driving in Venezuela... I have yet to see a single seat belt, stop sign (except at military checkpoints), or a working spedometer! intersections are basically a free for all, and pedestrians definately do not have any right of way!! there are no lines on the road, and people drive wherever they want; the right, the left, the middle!

So we drove in the back of this jeep for 3 hours each way, drinking much cerveza (starting at 10am!!) and had amazing views of tepuis, jungle, and small huts that people live in. the road was extremley dusty, with the typical red dirt found in this area. So by the time we got there everyone had a thick coating of red dirt!! my hair pretty much turned into dreadlocks in the space of 3 hours!! In El Pauji we went to a few different waterfalls to go swimming, which was amazing, the cold water felt so good! One of the waterfalls was great for jumping off of, too!!

We visited some friends who have an artist workshop (the whole town is full of hippy artists), and it turned out they were leaving so we all stayed in their house! Yesterday we hiked up a small tepui and had an amazing view (national geographic style) of a massive green carpeted mountainy jungle stretching into brazil... amazing!! apparently people paraglide off of it... hmm something to consider!

Other than that I´m still working away volunteering during the week. I work in the hospital laboratory, teach English in the public school, and I started a vegetable garden up at the volunteer house. (Yes, hopefully I won´t murder those plants like I do with the ones at my house in Van!!)

Well, chao... and I´d love to hear from you!

Kate

ps- i tried to send mail the other day, but let me just describe the post office, a shelled out building with a guy standing inside holding a duffle bag. so probably those postcards are currently being used as rulers in a school in guana or something. but if you want postcards later on, send me your address!