Well, things went a little too far south with my job here in Barquisimeto so now I am free of the tyrany of teaching english. My liberation from work came a little sooner than planned so now im trying to figure out what i want to do, which is giving me a real headache. Ive been wanting to visit Colombia, but hate to travel there alone even though everybody i talk to, including my colombian girlfriend Lilly swears up and down that the places in Colombia that i plan on visiting (Cartagena and Santa Marta) are safe and that the bus ride there is safe as well. My excuse is that the time and money involved isnt worth it and neither is the risk...I know that i will regret not going, but i also know that Ill have more of a piece of mind if i just fly to these places instead of bussing, but then the cost issue involved with flying isnt in the budget.
Also debating staying in Caracas and teaching english at an institue that will give me free spanish classes...that would be cool, but they want me to stay like 2 months and since i dont really like living in Venezuela i feel the urge to ramble on and fly to Quito, Equador where I can continue traveling a more developed tourist route southward and get back to playing drums in the good old USA....but i also know that I will regret leaving early as soon as i get home to the USA, because the realities of life in America will hit me like a fuckin brick in the head. Cameron who i started my travels with is going back to the USA tomorrow (thats about 5 months on the road for cameron), so i will be down here for a while no matter what i do. But i really hate not having any direction right now....i enjoy the freedom to do whatever I want, but this type of freedom for a really indecisive person like me is like a fuckin big splinter in my foot that is hard to remove...not too painfull but annoying and uncomfortable as hell.
Went to the Parque National Morocoy with Lilly this last weekend and it was a blast, minus the fuckin heat and bitting sandflies. This national park consists of mangroves and small islands with clear water, white sand, and surrounded by coral. Good stuff. We hired a boat to take us to a little island with a sutable beach where we camped out for the night. As soon as the sun set the bugs were on full human attack mode and drove us both crazy....i was contemplating sleeping in the water, but decided not to because i might drown in high tide.
Lilly had work in Caracas on Monday and i decided to get back to Barquisimeto so i can go ahead and wrap things up with the apt, sell things, get watch repaired, buy necessary tickets (for Quito and Cartagena). My journey back sucked because the bus service to barquisimeto isnt direct from Tucacas. I ended up having to stop in 2 small cities on the way back to transfer busses, and at the last transfer there were no more busses and i only had 7.000 bolivares on my person. The taxi dudes wanted 30.000 bs to drive me to Barquisimeto which was about an hour away. I was very nervious because there where no ATMs around and i didnt have enough money for a taxi home or for a hotel in the city. Luckly I explained to the taxi driver that i would pay him if he could stop by a bank on my way back to barquisimeto, and luckly he agreed to take me. So i made it home, but the price of getting there was an absolute rip off (30.000 bs = about $15 green backs). But given the situation i was in, i consider it a lesson (always make sure you have enough cash on hand!), and lessons are never cheap. So, im in Barquisimeto now trying to get things sorted out before i make my next move, which i am not sure what it is at this point. For some reason though, Im leaning toward just going directly to Quito, because hanging around here is just costing me time and money. I guess yall will find out my next move when i put up my next post. Stay tuned....