Back from the Galapogos Islands and now "what more could happen?"

We had a wonderful time in the GI's.  For sure an adventure.  It took 2 and half days to get there, and 5 flights each way but was all worth it.  We took about 3000 photos so now editing them down and will post a "few" as soon as Victor gets back from Denver as he has a bunch downloaded on his computer.  I want to post them in order. 

We saw "adaptation" at it's best and basically enjoyed one huge outdoor science lab and research center in it's natural setting.  The Galapogos national park, Darwin Research Center and the WWF among other institutions have really gone to great lengths to protect the wildlife and create sustainability between humans and the wildlife.  You cannot go anywhere without a certified naturalist.  I thought of Denise often. 

The girls loved the "Galopogos Island Sea Lions" with their newborn cubs, the penguins, blue and red footed boobys, turtles, tortugas, sharks, snorkling (with sea lions - amazing) Darwin's Finches, marine iguanas and the sail boat which is NOT recommended if you get sea sick.  Thank God, we didn't get sick until the last day which was only 3 more hours until we hit land.   Anyway, once the pictures get posted, I will write blurbs about the trip.  Doesn't really do justice to the trip without seeing the pictures. I promise I will not bore you with tons of pictures.

In the meantime, here is what happened once we got off the plane.  This is quite ironic that we flew on 3 airlines in developing countries, arrived on time everywhere, were able to carry-on huge pieces of artwork we bought in Quito, and never had a hitch until we arrived home.   FYI: Victor is in Denver., I am solo with what some would say is barely passable Spanish.
The day ended with arriving to the apt yesterday and turning on the main water which then proceeded to blow a gasket in the  kitchen...flooding the kitchen. so, we turned off the water, and called  the real estate lady.   So no water until  3:30 Monday.  The lady who helps me around the house, who is patient and speaks clear spanish,  Rosa, still had the telephone number of the original plumber, so she called him and got him to come.  so now we have water.
>> But, he is also the guy who fixed our front door lock a month ago,
> which doesn't work properly,  so i had him take a look at it. He needs a part and
>> left....and now the damn door hardly locks or opens!!!  We were virtually either locked in or locked out of the house.  I called real estate lady again.  The plumber/fixer/handyman/locksmith asked me if I knew a store to get the part we needed.  a) i don't even know what the part looks like b) how on earth would I explain the part c) he doesn't even know how to explain the part.  I just burst out laughing, especially since neither one of us can understand each other 60% of the time. 

 I went to purchase groceries.  The grocery store was a nightmare.  because we are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  close
>> to Christmas people are starting to stock up.  no orange juice, no
>> chicken, no eggs etc.  so, i decided to do the same, and bought a
>> shitload of stuff.  I go to use my venezuelan debit card and it is
>> INVALIDA.  My bill is about 2000bs ($150) I count out only 1200 bolivares in 20's cash, then try to
>> write a check for 800 which is very very tricky because checks must not have one scribble, must be in blue ink, no misspellings and every store has a different way in which they want you to write out the check.  The  people behind me  are now yelling and complaining. the cashier is yelling and complaining.  This part took about 30 minutes but now I have to take my check over to the "office" and have 2 other people read over the check, call the bank and give me a receipt which i must now give to the angry cashier. The people behind me in line were told to go somewhere else.  Am I finished?  Of course not.  The
>> cashier's box doesn't add up, so a supervisor takes her entire cashbox
>> and goes away with it to count it to see if i owe more.  they said i
>> owed 100bs more, i just paid it. meanwhile, my battery is going
>> dead on my cellphone, and i am almost out of minutes ( i have to buy a
>> card to put more minutes) and the driver is calling me every 2 minutes
>> to find out where the hell am i, using up my battery and minutes.
>>
>> the lockguy/plumber called....i can't understand a word he says
> and
>> visa versa.  the only thing i got out of him is that he will be here
>> today at 8am.  meanwhile, the school/government requires permission
>> documents completed at the government office for travel without a
>> parent.
>> isabella has a trip with flights to a city called Valencia for volleyball and
>> then returns and immediately goes away for a week with her class to a
>> outdoor ed camp.  Okay, so this will require me to go to a government
>> building 4 times (2 to drop off papers, fill out, wait in lines then
> to return for when they are finished).  does the school give us the paper
>> work so we can make one trip for both student trips? no.  The school
>> wants the paperwork finished by thursday.  a duh.... so, hope you got a giggle out of that!   i am burned out right no.   i
>> didn't sleep much last night.  okay, it was my first rough day in Ven.
>> in
>> 2 months so i feel i got my just deserve.  but, i don't think i will
> be
>> letting victor leave the country again without us.  I can't validate
> the
>> debit card until he calls the bank because of course everything is in
>> his name.  (your card becomes invalid once you spend over 1000bs at
>> once, and Sunday victor used it for the hotel in Caracas and forgot
>> to call the bank and revalidate it).  We don't use cc's here because
> the
>> official exchange rate would kill us at 50% loss plus it is too risky
>> security wise.

Oh, but I am not finished yet.  Today, the door got fixed and the water is on, but then the electricity went out.  I arranged to have a bilingual driver come to help me with the government travel docs for isabella, but he didn't show up, a guy who speaks Spanish with marbles in his mouth picks me up.  We finally find the correct building, correct office, i have all my documents and they tell me, oh new rule, we need Isabella's birth certificate also.  We drove home, I took out the extension cords to get elecricity from the elevator, to hook up to the copier, made a copy and got the BC copy.  We ended up getting the travel documents right there and then A MIRACLE. 

All seemed fine until the front panal of the washer fell off.

So, life in Venezuela finally really caught up with me. 

First quarter of school already over and off for fall break

Okay, we are all packed with cameras, snorkling gear, binnoculars and tons of receipts for traveling to the Galapogos Islands.  We have quite a distance and complications in getting there.   Probably easier to get there from Bozeman.  We leave after school today to take a Venezuelan airline to Caracas, spend the night (we did not trust taking a morning flight as they are infamous for delayed flights, no flights or whatever.) We then take a Colombian airline, Avianca, to Bogota to Quito where we will spend the night.  Quito is a fun city so we hope to go out for a really nice dinner.  Then up at 4am for a 6:40am flight to the Islands which are 3 hour flight out in the Pacific.  whew!

we meet the sailboat right at the airport and off we go!

We had parent teacher conferences this week. All is well with the kids and doing just fine. They are doing well academically and socially and the teachers seem to really like their energy.  That was nice to hear.

Me, the social animal....it is hard to believe but have not been to a party or a dinner since we arrived here!  We had our neighbor/friends over for dinner one night and we had xela's party.  that's it!  can you all believe it?  I can't really go into it on my blog, but suffice to say, the different groups of expats here are very insular.  We don't really fit into a group. Victor's work friends are all 20 years younger than us, the teachers hang together, and the "company" people only host/socialize with "company" people.  Being independent, means being independent!  but, don't worry about me.  It is fine. I do have a couple of friends but not like my groups that I found at DU, or TX, or Caracas or BS.  The most important thing, is I really enjoy the experiences that my kids are having, that we are all together etc.  Actually, i am starting to get a few invitations to some "day" social events.  But, that is kinda weird. (think canasta! although the last game day was with margaritas!) and we are invited to a holloween party.  yeah. I wasted an entire suitcase on holloween stuff so it better be good.

There has been something that has been sent my way professionally, but i cannot write about it on the blog.  Wow, this blog thing really cramps my style.  I am not really qualified for the position, and everything is hush hush for one more week.  Hopefully everything will work out as I want it to, as I countered offered what I thought I could do, otherwise, I think, no job.  there was so much to consider concerning my professional qualifications, work load, blah blah blah. 

Okay, better get this sweat off from tennis and check the passports one more time.  I have NEVER prepaid for a trip before  (pretty much mandatory for GI, if you are working within a specific time frame as the GI book up like crazy) and we could not get trip insurance due to our departure is outside the US. so I will relax once we are on the boat.  You think the airlines in the US get bad press for customer service......try living with the nightmare of 3 different latin american airlines to get you to a vacation of a lifetime- prepaid for!  Our itineraries have changed 6 times just in this week.    crazy!!! 

more in a week or so.

Xela's birthday at our "party area" at El Faro with the Manaffe family

silly string fight

Victor, Ari and Danny

Renee and Kevin Manaffe

Xela and Elena's birthday party with the CIPLC 5th grade girls

Pictures

The following pictures are of:
driving away from the pennisula we live on
snorkling and kayaking out at Mochima National Park
A self portrait of me since i am never in pictures
Pictures of victor's office and tankers
The picture of the pennisula with the far right TALL building is where we live in EL Morro