All good things must come to a close, so on July 5, after finally being able to get our plane tickets from Miami to Venezuela, we took the train from Charleston to Miami. We had another great journey with Amtrak. Our mound of luggage in the Miami train station does not even include a box of books that we collected in Miami, but it's still pretty impressive. We got on a city bus with all this luggage to get to Miami Beach, where we stayed at a hostel/hotel (Lombardy Inn) on the North Beach.
We took buses around the city, down to South Beach, and in to downtown. We also went swimming every day, being only a block from the white sand and turquoise water of the beach.

From Raleigh, we took the Amtrak train to Charleston. We had a great trip on the train and much preferred it to flying. Charleston was all about seeing many friends and exploring old favorite haunts, including the Ashley Marina where we had our boat for almost five years. Since we didn't expect to stop, Charleston was a wonderful visit. The beach at Folly, the new bridge, downtown, Circular Church, and many other places beckoned.
The pastor at Circular joked with us that most folks would not visit Minnesota in March and then go to Charleston in June. It was warm and steamy, to get us ready for the tropics.

From Chicago, we flew to Raleigh, NC to visit our friends Bob and Judy Reuss. Here's Bob in his workshop, where he crafts works of art out of wood.
We saw some of the tourist sights in the Raleigh area too, including the Doris Duke Gardens on the university campus.

In Chicago, we had a great time. We went up to Lake Geneva with my cousin Merrilee and her family - Larry with Merrilee and her grand- daughter at Yerkes Ob- servatory in Lake Geneva. I got to the Lincoln Zoo, the Chicago History Museum, and the Chicago Art Institute, and Larry spent more time with his friend Bruce.
The last picture is of my cousins, Alice Haase and June Andersen on one of our visits.

We have been traveling for quite a while and I've been way behind on my posts. We wrapped up a great visit to Minnesota with two trips to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, walks along the river with friends, Mother's Day and Easter with my mom, and a wedding reception for my cousine Lance Molby. The first picture is Lance and his new wife, Anita, with my cousines Marjory and Bob Shields.
We took the MegaBus to Chicago on May 20, and had a great experience on their double-decker bus.

We flew back to Minnesota to visit family and friends. As Debby's mom was declining in health we came back before the weather was springlike - and saw some significant snowfalls, and also below zero (Fahrenheit) temperatures. We've done a lot of visiting, almost every day with Debby's mom, and have seen lots of other family and friends, as well as lots of other errands. It has been a hectic trip but a good one.

A last glimpse of Porlamar, Isla Margarita, where we spent over five months.

We sailed over to Puerto La Cruz, stopping overnight at a small island called Isla Chimana Segunda. So now we are on the mainland of South America.


There is a big election happening in Venezuela, to determine whether Chavez can be re-elected indefinitely, which is very polarizing. Everyone is either very for ("Si") or against ("No").

We enjoyed a very quiet holiday season here in Porlamar. On Christmas Day, several other cruisers and local folks gathered for an open-air barbecue and pot luck dinner at Marina Juan's.

After several weeks of contacting Dell about a problem with our laptop, under warranty, we finally got a visit from a Dell technician. He came to the dock where we go ashore and worked on the computer at a table outside - with several curious onlookers. He was quick, efficient, and now we have a new LCD screen in our laptop! He also noticed that the LCD casing was cracked and ordered a new part for us. Language was a bit of a problem, as he had no English, but our rudimentary Spanish held up for the operation.

Last Friday, Nov. 28th, we took a trip up to the University here (la Universidad de Oriente), which is a short bus trip away from the city. It's a beautiful campus, set in the hills. We ended up coming back on the University bus after dark, so it was a rare time off the boat in the evening. We chanced upon the cathedral downtown during Friday evening communion mass. Families, dogs, children - it was a big celebration, including a parade through downtown with robed church officials, censers, chanting, singing, and a statue of a bishop or a saint, into the streets surrounding the main downtown square. They went right past fruit vendors and the general hubbub of Friday evening revelry downtown.

One of the most unpleasant aspects to Venezuela so far has been the piles of trash. It is everywhere - in the parks, on the streets, in the curbs, all over. Lots of signs saying not to throw the trash and to keep everything clean, put litter in trash bins, but to no avail. The mentality seems to be to throw things wherever you happen to be. A cleanup operation would be a massive undertaking.
Here also is the zapateria (shoe repair shop) downtown that fixed my Keen sandals, which are punished by long hikes everywhere we go.

We have been keeping ourselves busy here in Isla Margarita, mostly going to different doctors, trying to figure out the bus system here to get around, and just doing general boat main- tenance. We took another trip up to La Asuncion, this time on the bus, with Wayne and Debbie on Sunshine. We saw the government buildings in the state capitol, and found the governor's residence, which has a very pleasant inner garden.
There is a fort up the hill from La Asuncion, well worth the walk up for the views afforded there.

We also have tried to see the Art Museum in Porlamar - which is closed every time we go. Outside the museum are several sculptures - one is pictured here. Maybe it really will be open next week and we can look inside.

We did take a couple of trips around the island, one by bus, and one with local friends on the island. We saw La Ascension, the capital city of Isla Margarita. It is inland from the coast, and a sleepy town with not many tourists this time of year. It has a lovely cathedral which must be hundreds of years old, with many statues and tableaux of the Passion of Christ.






The local buses are fun to ride; it has taken us quite a while to figure out routes and where to pick them up. The fleet is ancient, along with many of the cars and other vehicles on the island. Here is one bus. The buses are cheap, only one bolivar for fare around Porlamar (about 25 cents U.S.), so we can take a bus just to see where it goes and have an adventure.

Getting Out the Vote, from Venezuela
Normally I’m not a politically active animal. Aside from voting in national elections or joining an occasional local cause, I keep a distance from the political process. Maybe this is my response to the sad spectacle of progressively atavistic and loutish administrations from Nixon through Reagan to the Bush coterie. Democrats have not been wonderful either, but at least they haven’t tried to tear down the house. Or it’s possible that my slow turning from 1960s enthusiast to imminent retiree has made me more worldly skeptical than wise.

But this election year is palpably different. The McCain-Palin ticket exceeds by half the Atwater-inspired gusto for fabricating dirt, bullying and trading truth for power. These two desperate figures have made for me an unbeatable case for giving participatory democracy an extra push. And what better place to become politically active than in a land where a strangely popular leader has remade government in his own ideological image. That’s right, I’m busy here in Venezuela.

Having literally sailed across the Caribbean into this Latin petro-state for a two month visit, I decided to do more than watch the American elections from afar. It was time to unlimber the laptop-Skype package and contact the Obama campaign to help persuade swing state voters to make a sane presidential choice. This means dialing to help my state of residence, Florida.

My first surprise was how easy the Obama organization had made joining online. Political campaigns, like retail stores, are naturally geared to accept monetary offerings, but are not always well disposed towards maverick volunteers. Yet in short order I registered and was provided a call list with names and numbers from Boca Raton to Ft. Lauderdale.
Now I was ready to help redeem the sunshine state’s seamy reputation for shady election results. But as anyone who has worked for a candidate knows, noble expectations seldom match the real results.

Back in Venezuela a national election is also scheduled later in November. It will be another referendum on the policies of Hugo Chavez and his efforts to radically reshape the country’s political landscape. Since Chavez came to power ten years ago through an old-fashioned Latin American coup, he has been eager to present his regime as being popular with citizens and more legitimately established through elections.

In fact, El Presidente does seem to enjoy the support of about 40% of Venezuelans—most, though not all of them low income. He achieves this in no small part by spending about half of the country’s oil-derived budget on social programs and subsidies for the poor. Gasoline here costs $0.10/gallon at the pump. His largesse for the masses, together with self-proclaimed leadership for other Latin countries and a vigorous anti-U.S. stance, are the lynchpins of his”Bolivarian revolution”. But Señor Chavez has not yet succeeded in being better at uniting than at dividing.

Meanwhile Florida residents are not exactly leaping on the Obama bandwagon as a result of my long distance canvassing. The majority of voters I call are either not home or have incorrect numbers. How many cellphones vs. landlines I call is unknown. Of the rest, some already support the candidate and politely tolerate a reminder to vote. A few remain undecided while some are so strongly opposed to the Democratic ticket that conversation is barely possible. Hangups happen. One woman who oozed hostility warned me that if Obama is elected president we are all “done for.”

A recent article, The Irrational Electorate, by Larry Bartels,
(The Irrational Electorate) about voter behavior confirms what a lot of research by political scientists has shown: that most people think we are being objective and thoughtful when we choose who to vote for. Instead we tend to make voting decisions based not on facts and careful comparisons but on wishful expectations and ignorance. (Not you and I of course.)

If U.S. politics is colorful and lively now, the polarized Venezuelan situation may be reaching combustion point. Public dialogue is punctuated with reports of assassination plots. Recently the offices of a leading newspaper were attacked after the paper’s editor made a very provocative statement about Chavez on a national TV interview program. Nothing too inflammatory, just that the President should be careful not to become too great a tyrant or he may end up hanging dead upside down like Mussolini at the hands of a mob. Chavez in turn has threatened to jail his main presidential election opponent and calls him a crime boss and a swine.

Opinions here often divide between those, on one hand, who see Chavez dismantling democratic institutions and leading the country down a socialist road to ruin. Supporters, unsurprisingly, believe that a new day has dawned for Latin America, with a foundation in social justice and overdue pride in the non-U.S./European heritage of the hemisphere. Mass rallies of Chavez’s red-shirted supporters proclaim vague slogans: We are the future of the people.

To wrap up my brief volunteer stint, I click and save, thereby reporting the results of my hopeful calls to Florida Obama HQ. For some reason, this part of their otherwise efficient online system does not quite work as advertised. I receive repeated automated reminder messages from my field coordinator to report all call results. I did that, many times. Or else I am a most un-savvy internet activist, which is likely.

It’s time now to dinghy ashore for good café with Venezuelan friends from across the political spectrum who are gracious and amable. The people here have a talent for open conversation about the world, life or just juicy gossip that leaves politics aside. Sometimes that’s where it belongs.
-Larry

Here in Porlamar, Isla Margarita, we have been exploring the city and taking advantage of the opportunities available here. We found a great watch place amongst the jumble of shops downtown and took all our watches in for new batteries and bands where needed. There are also very inexpensive clothing and shoe shops here.
The diesel man visited us at the boat one morning and filled our jerry jugs with diesel, delivered to us at anchor. He has a manual pump and comes right on board to get everything flowing right. We have full jugs and tank now, and it only cost 50 cents U.S. per gallon. We also took our jerry jug for gasoline in to a service station ourselves, and filled it for about 9 cents a gallon for gasoline. That's right, 9 cents! If you're back in the States you probably can't believe that.
We also started our medical and dental treatments here. Both of us have fillings that have fallen out; Larry's filling, done in St. Martin, fell out a month after it was put in, so he's been waiting for some time. Debby also got three fillings. The dentist was professional, using the latest 3M dental fillings. Total cost, for three small fillings, two large fillings, and two cleanings, was $200 U.S., or about one-fourth the price we'd pay in the U.S.

On Tuesday evening, September 16, after almost three months in Grenada, we finally set sail for Venezuela. After a lovely overnight sail, we came to Los Testigos, and spent three days there. It is a lovely, isolated spot, with great swimming and snorkeling. We took the opportunity with the dinghy on deck to finally clean all the barnacles off the bottom and wax it. The poor dinghy never gets any attention, and we use it as our "vehicle" every day while at anchor.
Then, we sailed into Isla Margarita, the port of Porlamar, on Sunday, September 20. We knew it would be quite a different experience from our first view of the harbor - it is a big city, with skyscrapers and over a hundred boats at anchor. We've been spending our time getting adjusted to the island and the country - brushing up on our Spanish, figuring out how to change money and get groceries. We'll be writing more on Venezuela and our experiences here in future blogs.

On Saturday, September 13, Aubrey on s/v Veleda organized an outing for the children at the reading program we've been working with in Grenada. It was a great day, with lovely weather, and the kids and adults all had a good time. Four boats, including the Debonair, took kids out for a short sail. Then we re-anchored and had a picnic on shore at the local beach park. The kids especially were excited and loved it. For us, it was a good time to get the boat out, raise the sails, and check everything out.